Low Cortisol Levels, Stress, and Waking Up

The journal Psychoneuroendocrinology----I broke that word down into three parts to better make sense of it, psycho-neuro-endocrinology---has a new study about lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in children with Asperger syndrome (the abstract is here). As reported by WWLP.com yesterday:

U.K. researchers found that children with Asperger syndrome (AS) do not experience the normal twofold increase of cortisol upon waking up. Levels of the hormone in their bodies do continue to decrease throughout the day, though, just as they do in those without the syndrome.

The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other duties, to signal the body's need to adapt to changes occurring around it. It's thought that the increase shortly after waking helps jump-start the brain for the day ahead, the researchers said.

Researchers are now planning to study cortisol level in children with other autism spectrum diagnoses.

The mention of stress and of not waking up with sufficient amounts of a hormone related to stress caught my attention. My son struggles to wake up and get moving on school mornings (whatever his bedtime); mornings are just not an easy time for him (and our household). He's hungry (I've been packing even more food into his lunch box; he's not rail-thin but lanky and it's looking like another growth spurt is occurring), though not ready yet to eat. And there just seems to be so much, too much, for Charlie to process in the morning, in the time he has to get out of bed, get dressed, and stomp down to get on the bus.

Knowing that there may be other, physiological reasons about why it's so hard for Charlie to get started in the morning doesn't provide answers, but helps with our understanding. And that does make things a bit easier.