In this Sleep Breakthrough session I chatted with Joseph about his sleep struggles, what he’s tried so far, and the top 3 things that are getting in the way of good sleep for him.

My top 3 things for Joseph to work on are:

1. Stop complaining to others about sleep.

I used to do this when I wasn't sleeping well, too. I would complain to my husband every morning, then complain to my co-workers when I got to work, then complain to my friends about how tired I was.

When you complain (and think) about your sleep all the time, you start to identify as someone who doesn’t sleep well. And your friends and family think of you that way so they always ask you about your sleep.

The more you talk and think about it, the more you’re going to continue to make poor sleep happen. So the first step to sleeping better is to stop talking about it!

2. Address gut health.

He has symptoms of gut issues, such as loose bowels, hypermotility and GERD so we know for sure that his gut isn’t healthy.

This isn’t surprising because none of my sleep clients have an unhealthy gut. But what may be surprising is that not everyone with an unhealthy gut has symptoms. Other signs of poor gut health are skin issues, mood issues, fatigue, autoimmunity, and, of course, sleep issues!

3. Address mold toxicity.

I use an assessment looking at 13 symptom clusters to identify possible mold issues. He had 9 out of these 13 and studies show that having at least 8 symptoms means there's a 95% chance that someone has CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) which is commonly caused by mold.

25% of people have a gene which makes it hard to detoxify mold toxins and so they get sick when they’re exposed. I see mold toxicity in about 1/3 of my clients so it’s definitely more common than you might think!

See the CIRS symptom clusters below.

For more info about mold toxicity and sleep, listen to Episode 37.

Dealing with mold can be tough, especially if your home has it. But it’s necessary to address it so that your body can recover so that you can sleep normally.

He also has signs of liver detox issues, cortisol dysregulation, hormone imbalance and brain inflammation. Most of my clients are like this-there are multiple imbalances in the body that need to be addressed.

He’s been doing all the “right” things to get better: going to functional medicine doctors; working on gut health, detox and hormones; and eating an anti-inflammatory diet. But his sleep hasn’t improved.

One reason why he hasn’t gotten better is that the doctors he’s worked with are looking at one part of his health at a time. They focus on gut health, then liver function, then hormones. It takes a couple of months to work on each thing and meanwhile the other things start out of balance.

Focusing on one thing at a time doesn't usually work because everything in the body is connected. If you just focus on gut health but don’t support detox, then the liver gets even more congested when trying to kill pathogens and you don’t get better.

The fastest and more effective way to sleep normally is to support your body’s health as a whole which involves looking at multiple systems of the body at the same time instead of one at a time.

The second reason why he hasn’t gotten any better is because he’s likely dealing with mold toxicity and it hasn’t been fully addressed.

If you can’t sleep, there are hidden imbalances in your body that are keeping you awake. My team and I will find out what they are and give you a plan to fix it so you start sleeping better permanently.