Chronic Insomnia: The One Thought You Need to Sleep Better
Key Takeaways
Outside of rare sleep disorders and the short sleeper gene, which each affect less than 1% of the population, every person is meant to sleep seven to nine hours a night — so if you can't, something in your body is in the way.
Chronic insomnia is a symptom of imbalances in the body: in Martha's case, a parasite pushed her cortisol higher in the middle of the night than in the morning, threw off her sex hormones, and damaged her gut, where up to 90% of neurotransmitters are made.
Standard blood work checks cortisol once in the morning, but functional lab testing that maps your cortisol pattern throughout the day, along with gut health, neurotransmitters, sex hormones, liver detox, and toxins, finds what's actually keeping you awake.
You've tried magnesium, melatonin, CBD, and ashwagandha. You've dimmed the lights, built the bedtime routine, maybe tried acupuncture. Your doctor ran blood work, you did a sleep study, and maybe you finished a round of CBT-I.
You've probably tried magnesium, melatonin, CBD, THC, and a shelf full of sleep formulas. You've done an online sleep program or CBT-I, maybe a sleep study, maybe acupuncture, maybe a functional medicine doctor or naturopath. Your blood work came back normal, or a couple of things were off but nothing explained why you can't sleep.
So you ride the roller coaster. You hear about the next thing, hope and pray it's the one, and when it doesn't work, you give up for a while. Then you hear about the next thing.
The longer this goes on, the harder it gets to believe you'll ever sleep well again. And without that belief, you won't take the steps you need to actually get better. You'll either give up or half-heartedly try another $30 or $50 supplement without ever going all in to figure this out.
Why the conventional approach stops short
The medical system will tell you to follow sleep hygiene. Those things matter, but if you have chronic insomnia, it's not because you're watching TV before bed. I work with many people who have a two-hour relaxing bedtime routine and still can't sleep.
The next step is usually CBT-I, because it must be in your head. Your thoughts and habits around sleep are important, but they're usually not enough for people with chronic insomnia. Or you get a sleeping pill.
A sleep study is really just looking for sleep apnea. It might show that you aren't sleeping, but it won't tell you why. And the blood work your doctor runs is what's covered by insurance and what your doctor knows about, so it rarely explains a sleep problem.
Here's the distinction I make: not sleeping is not usually a medical problem. It's a health problem. The medical system diagnoses and treats disease and saves lives, and I'm grateful for it. My 10-year-old was born via C-section, and without modern medicine, we wouldn't both be alive today. But it doesn't help you optimize your health, and finding what's in the way of your sleep isn't its job.
You are meant to sleep
Humans are meant to sleep an average of eight hours a night, anywhere from seven to nine. There are rare sleep disorders, and there's a short sleeper gene, but each affects less than 1% of the population. You probably don't have one, even if you think you do.
Think about it this way. Sleep is a vulnerable state, and yet humans and animals have evolved for tens of thousands of years without losing the need for it. We still spend about a third of our lives asleep because that's when the brain and body repair.
So if you can't sleep, there are things in the way. Picture walking down an alleyway full of trash bags. We just need to find those trash bags and remove them.
What was in the way for me
I've been a nutritionist since my 20s. I'm known as the healthy one in my family and community. And at 39, I developed insomnia. I'd wake up around 3 or 3:30am and lie awake for a couple of hours, nowhere near the eight and a half hours my body needs.
I was already a baby sleep consultant. I got an adult sleep certification, which helped a little with my habits. But it wasn't until functional lab testing found imbalances I had no idea were there that I finally slept again.
I had a parasite I'd probably picked up 13 years earlier traveling in Nepal and India. I had no digestive symptoms at all, but it had slowly damaged my gut. My hormones were out of balance, likely from having a baby at 39. I had heavy metals, especially uranium, from years of drinking Jackson Hole tap water. I had too much copper, probably from 10 years on birth control that ended 15 years earlier. And I had neurotransmitter deficiencies.
Everything was connected. The parasite was causing high cortisol at night, which was waking me up. My stressed body prioritized making cortisol over sex hormones. My damaged gut affected neurotransmitter production, since up to 90% of neurotransmitters are made in the gut. And it affected my ability to detox those heavy metals.
My morning cortisol was normal. It was higher in the middle of the night than in the morning, and that's why I wasn't sleeping. Blood work doesn't show that. A urine or saliva test taken multiple times throughout the day does.
Once I corrected those imbalances, I started sleeping. Now I sleep eight and a half hours most nights.
The thought you need first
So here's the one thought: it is possible for you to sleep better. You have to believe you're meant to sleep well before you'll take the next step and commit to it 100%.
You won't believe it every day. When my clients hit a rough patch, sleeping better and then worse again before it improves, they get to borrow my belief. I remind them of the progress they've made.
I've worked with clients who've struggled since college. One client started having sleep issues at 14. He worked with me in his early 30s and was back to sleeping seven and a half hours a night.
It doesn't matter how long you've struggled, how old you are, or how many things you've tried. You are meant to sleep well.
FAQ
Q: Why isn't magnesium or melatonin helping my sleep?
A: Because a supplement is a guess when you don't know what your body actually needs. Magnesium, melatonin, CBD, and other sleep supplements don't address the underlying imbalances — like hormone issues, gut infections, toxins, or depleted neurotransmitters — that are keeping you awake. Functional lab testing shows what's actually off, so you're not guessing.
Q: Will a sleep study tell me why I can't sleep?
A: No. A sleep study is looking for sleep apnea. If you don't have apnea, it won't tell you why you aren't sleeping well or why you aren't sleeping at all — that takes testing for imbalances in your hormones, gut, and toxin levels.
Q: Does CBT-I work for chronic insomnia?
A: CBT-I can help with your habits and your thoughts about sleep, and it's a reasonable place to start. For some people, the sleep tracking and sleep restriction make their anxiety about sleep even worse. Either way, it doesn't address the root causes happening in your body.
Q: Why does my doctor say I'm healthy when I can't sleep?
A: Because standard blood work isn't looking for the imbalances that commonly cause insomnia. My doctor told me I was perfectly healthy while I had a parasite, a hormone imbalance, heavy metals, copper toxicity, and depleted neurotransmitters. If you haven't looked for imbalances beyond blood work, something has been missed.
If hidden imbalances in your hormones, gut, or toxin levels might be affecting your sleep, this is exactly what the Complete Sleep Solution program investigates. The program includes the Hormone Zoomer, Gut Zoomer, and Toxin Zoomer — functional lab panels that look at cortisol and sex hormones, gut health and neurotransmitters, and heavy metals, environmental chemicals, and mold toxins — so you know exactly what's keeping you awake.
→ Learn how the Complete Sleep Solution program works
About Martha Lewis
Martha Lewis is a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner and founder of The Sleep Detective™. Since 2019, she has helped 300+ clients identify the root causes of their insomnia using functional lab testing — including gut analysis, hormone panels, neurotransmitter testing, and toxin screening. She discovered her own root causes (hormone imbalances, heavy metals, and a parasite) after years of trying conventional sleep solutions, and now uses the same investigative approach with her clients.
Learn more about Martha →
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