Key Takeaways

Wes had high cortisol in the middle of the night, depleted serotonin and dopamine, a four-lows mineral pattern, and H. pylori — all showing up simultaneously, which is why no single supplement or lifestyle change was touching his sleep.
H. pylori raises the pH of your stomach, which breaks down your ability to digest protein and, as a result, depletes the amino acids your body needs to produce serotonin and melatonin — the neurotransmitters that keep you asleep.
After five months of addressing these root causes in sequence — first rebuilding depleted nutrients, then eliminating pathogens, then identifying a blood sugar spike from a morning smoothie — Wes had 10 consecutive nights of decent sleep for the first time in years.

Wes had been a good sleeper his entire life. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he started waking up at 3AM and lying there for one to two hours every single night. This went on for a year and a half.

By the time he found me, he had already done a lot of the right things. He quit alcohol completely — he'd been having a couple of drinks every night. He went to a sleep doctor. He saw a therapist for stress. He got extensive blood work done through a functional medicine doctor, tried an at-home gut test, and experimented with supplements for stress and hormones. None of it worked well enough.

That's what made his case interesting to me. He wasn't someone who hadn't tried anything. His investigation just hadn't gone deep enough yet.

What the Hormone Zoomer Revealed

The first piece of the puzzle was his hormone panel. At the time I was using the DUTCH test — now I use the Hormone Zoomer, which is very similar and gives a bit more information. Both are urine tests where you collect multiple samples throughout the day to see your cortisol pattern.

His waking cortisol was way above range. And what the waking sample captures is actually what the body accumulated during the night — so this was telling me his cortisol was sky-high in the middle of the night. No wonder he couldn't fall back asleep.

What made it more complicated was that his cortisol pattern was imbalanced in a specific way I see fairly often. The test measures two forms of cortisol: metabolized cortisol (how much the body is making) and free cortisol (how much is available to be used). His body wasn't making much cortisol anymore — it had been under chronic stress for so long it couldn't keep up with demand. But what was there was sticking around. This happens when there's ongoing inflammation, particularly from gut infections and liver detox issues.

His sex hormones told the same story. Estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA were all depleted. When the body has been under long-term stress, it stops having the resources to make those hormones. The test also revealed how his hormones were being broken down, and that showed issues with methylation and sulfation — two key liver detox pathways. His glutathione, the master liver antioxidant, was also at the low end of range. Even though he had stopped drinking, his liver was still struggling.

What the Gut Test Showed

At the time I was using the GI Map — now I use the Gut Zoomer, which is more comprehensive. Even with the GI Map, there was plenty to address.

He had high levels of H. pylori. This is a bacteria that, to survive, raises the pH of the stomach close to neutral. The stomach is supposed to be very acidic — that's how it breaks down protein. When H. pylori disrupts that acidity, you lose the ability to properly extract amino acids, minerals, and other nutrients from the food you eat.

He also had overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria. These species are a normal part of gut flora, but at high levels they drive significant inflammation. He also had low elastase, which is an enzyme produced by the pancreas to digest protein. Low elastase alongside H. pylori is a sign that protein digestion has been compromised for a while, and the pancreas has started to struggle as well.

One thing I want to note here: because of this bacterial overgrowth pattern, a probiotic would have been the wrong call. I used to think everyone should take a probiotic. That's not true. If you already have too much bacteria, adding more is not going to help.

What the Neurotransmitter Test Found

His neurotransmitter results showed serotonin severely depleted and dopamine low. His stress hormones — norepinephrine and epinephrine — were also low. And his GABA was actually running a little high, which in this context means the body is excreting it too quickly, so there's not enough left to keep you calm.

All of these — serotonin, dopamine, GABA — are necessary for feeling relaxed and being able to stay asleep. When they're depleted, your nervous system doesn't have what it needs to settle down, even when you're physically exhausted.

I now use a neurotransmitter test that looks at 30+ markers, including glutamate, histamine, and acetylcholine — three stimulating neurotransmitters. When those are elevated, your ability to relax at night is directly compromised.

What the HTMA Showed

I also ran a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) for Wes. This test looks at mineral status in a way that shows imbalances well before they'd ever appear on standard bloodwork. The reason is that the body is constantly working to keep blood levels in homeostasis — if calcium drops in the blood, it pulls it from bone. The HTMA captures what's actually available in the soft tissues.

Wes had what's called a four-lows pattern: calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium were all below the ideal range. This happens after long-term chronic stress. The body burns through magnesium five times faster when stressed. The adrenals consume sodium and potassium trying to keep up with cortisol production. The four-lows pattern is essentially a picture of the body running out of resources.

The Protocol

My approach is always to build the body up before we work on clearing things out. You don't start attacking pathogens when someone is depleted — you support the deficiencies first.

For Wes, that started with some simple changes to what he was already doing. He was taking 5-HTP, a serotonin precursor, at night — which is the standard recommendation. But I've found it actually works better taken in the morning. It builds up serotonin throughout the day and still supports sleep without potentially interfering with it at night. He was also taking nettles close to bedtime, which can be stimulating — another easy timing fix.

He was also exercising at 4:30AM because he wanted to sleep until 4AM. The mental load of that — waking at 3AM and immediately worrying whether he'd be able to work out — was adding to his stress. He decided on his own to shift his workouts to after lunch or after work, which removed that pressure entirely.

For supplements, we started with neurotransmitter support: 5-HTP with L-theanine in the morning, plus a formula with DLPA (DL-phenylalanine, the precursor to dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine) and other balancing compounds. For cortisol, I recommended a formula called Nighttime HPA — it contains adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha plus calming herbs like magnolia bark and lemon balm. Because his body was already not making enough cortisol, I didn't use anything that directly suppresses it — we needed to address why it was accumulating at night, not push it down further. I also added a low-dose DHEA supplement to support his depleted hormone levels. For minerals, he used a custom Vicon formula designed for the four-lows pattern, combined with liver support: NAC, alpha lipoic acid, milk thistle, and B vitamins.

For his gut, I started with digestive enzymes to support protein digestion, then moved to a binder — specifically GI Detox, which is a broad-spectrum binder that addresses toxins from pathogens, mold, and heavy metals simultaneously. This is important because as pathogens die off, they release toxins, and the binder pulls those safely out of the body before the liver has to deal with them. Then we added Biocidin, which works on multiple levels: it breaks down the biofilm that pathogens create around themselves (which is why antibiotics often don't reach them fully), and the herbs in it also have antibacterial, antiparasitic, and antifungal properties. For the H. pylori specifically, I added Pylori Plex. I recommended a 60-day protocol rather than the typical 10–14 day antibiotic course, because these pathogens have life cycles of around 30 days — you need to cover multiple cycles to get all life stages.

Month Five: The Final Piece

The timeline looked like this. At three months, he was able to fall back asleep after waking, which he hadn't been able to do before. By four months, he was waking between 1AM and 3:30AM instead of at 3AM, and able to get back to sleep. Progress, but not there yet.

At five months, I had a hunch his morning smoothie was spiking his blood sugar — a pattern I see frequently that disrupts sleep. He wasn't interested in testing with a continuous glucose monitor, so we had been working on increasing protein in the meantime. At month five, he agreed to swap the smoothie for a savory breakfast. That was when everything clicked.

Here's what he wrote at that point: "Another good news update — 10 nights in a row getting back to sleep, in bed after waking between 12:30 and 2:30 AM. I'm 100% certain I haven't had 10 nights of decent rest in a couple years."

He'd been a good sleeper his whole life, and then he wasn't — for a year and a half. What changed wasn't more willpower or a better sleep hygiene routine. It was finding what was actually broken.

FAQ

Q: Can H. pylori cause insomnia?

A: Yes. H. pylori disrupts the stomach's ability to digest protein by raising the stomach's pH close to neutral. That protein digestion breakdown means your body can't produce adequate levels of serotonin and melatonin — both of which are necessary for staying asleep through the night.

Q: Why do I wake up at 3AM every night even though I fall asleep fine?

A: Waking at a consistent time in the early morning hours is often a cortisol problem. Cortisol is supposed to be low at night, but if there's chronic stress, gut inflammation, or liver detox issues, it can spike — and that spike wakes you up. This is exactly what was happening with Wes.

Q: I've tried supplements for sleep and nothing works. Why?

A: Supplements for sleep are often a guess about what's depleted or out of balance in your body. Wes was taking 5-HTP — which was the right idea — but at the wrong time. He also had four different root causes showing up simultaneously: high nocturnal cortisol, depleted neurotransmitters, H. pylori, and mineral depletion. No single supplement addresses all of those. Testing shows you what's actually going on so you're not guessing.

Q: Can blood sugar affect sleep?

A: Yes, and it's more common than most people realize. A blood sugar spike in the morning — even from something that seems healthy like a smoothie — can create an instability that shows up as waking in the early morning hours. For Wes, switching from a smoothie to a savory breakfast was the change that finally produced 10 consecutive nights of solid sleep after five months of work.

Ready to Find Out What's Actually Keeping You Awake?

If the pattern Wes experienced sounds familiar — waking at 3AM, depleted despite how much you sleep, tried everything and nothing's worked — this is exactly what the Complete Sleep Solution program investigates. The program includes the Hormone Zoomer, Gut Zoomer, neurotransmitter test, and hair tissue mineral analysis — the same four functional lab panels I ran for Wes — so we know specifically what's driving your insomnia, not what's statistically common.

→ 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 →