No matter how long you’ve had insomnia, or how many things you’ve tried to sleep better, you can still sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted. 


In this episode you’ll learn:

  • The 4 simple steps to consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted in 6 months or less
  • The essentials to focus on first that can immediately improve your sleep
  • How to find the root causes of your sleep issues even when your blood work is normal
  • How to keep your mind and anxiety from sabotaging your sleep
  • The final crucial step that ensures you’ll be able to sleep well long-term without drugs


Ready to get started on your sleep journey? Join the Smart Sleeper Sunday email series. When you sign up, you'll immediately receive your first email where you'll learn about what really causes insomnia, and you’ll know exactly how to find and fix the root causes of your sleep issues so you can sleep well without drugs. 


Want to sleep better in just 30 days? When you sign up for the Complete Sleep Solution program, you'll find out why you can’t sleep and have a plan to fix it so you can get more sleep, improve your health, feel better, and not have to rely on a ton of pills to sleep every night! Schedule a free consultation to get started.


Resources



Episode Transcript


Have you tried everything from natural to pharmaceutical just to get a good night's rest? Join me, Martha Lewis, certified sleep expert and functional health coach. As I unpack what's really keeping you up at night and how to change it, this is the Sleep Detective podcast and I'm going to show you how to sleep well so you can enjoy your life.


Welcome everyone to another episode of the Sleep Detective podcast where good health, sleep and longevity are inevitable. Today I'm going to talk about the four simple steps to overcome insomnia. So no matter how long you've had insomnia, no matter what caused it, there are really just four simple steps. And if you've tried a lot of things that and haven't gotten better, it's likely because one of these steps has been overlooked. And so a little bit about my story. Sleeping used to be easy for me.


I mean, I was a great sleeper until I got insomnia in late pregnancy at age 39. So, but my insomnia didn't go away even after my son was born, even after he was sleeping through the night, even after I become a pediatric sleep consultant to help families with their baby sleep because I ended up hiring a consultant for my son's sleep. So no matter what caused it for you, whether it was trauma or mental stress, or whether it was you got sick or had surgery or got pregnant like it was for me, or if you have no idea what caused it and what triggered it and whether it happened suddenly or it's gotten worse over the years, it was kind of more of a gradual progression. No matter what is going on, there are just four simple steps. So that's what I want to tell you about in this episode.


So step one is to start with what I call the sleep essentials. So this is making sure that your habits are supporting your sleep, your diet is supporting your sleep and your blood sugar. So if you're eating inflammatory foods or foods that you're sensitive to and you don't know it, if you're go all day long and just super busy and never take a moment to relax, and if your blood sugar is on an extreme roller coaster, you're not going to be able to sleep well. So the first thing I do in my programs is send assessment and start looking at what my client's habits, diet and blood sugar look at or look like, and I give them a jumpstart plan within a week of signing up with the three things to start doing right away to simple changes to make right away. That can make a huge difference in sleep.


And I know you might practically be an expert in sleep hygiene as many of my clients are as far as habits go, but there's a lot of confusing information out there. There's a lot of noise, different recommendations. So I've really consolidated it down into what actually works for the majority of people. And we also help you find what's going to work for you because the recommendation to get out of bed when you can't sleep in the middle of the night, that helped me. That has helped a ton of my clients, but it doesn't work for everyone. And so we really work with you to find out what's going to work for you. Same with your diet. Even if you're already eating healthy, you eat organic, all the things, a lot of times we're still pinpointing what could be getting in the way of good sleep related to diet for our clients.


And no matter where you're coming from, we're going to help you have a diet for you that stabilizes your blood sugar and that we're going to help you find the right balance of the macronutrients of fat, protein and carbohydrates for your body because everyone's different. There's not one diet out there that is good for every single person in the world. So I'm going to talk a little bit about my client, Emily. So she was not sleeping for five to seven nights in a row. Sometimes when she came to me, she was losing weight, she was dealing with poor memory even though she was in her late thirties. She had serious brain fog and very low energy and motivation. And so the first thing I did was look at her schedule, her habits, all of those things. And so I did have her change her sleep schedule and what time she was going to bed and waking up.


I had her create a sleep sanctuary. So she was kind of trying to sleep in all kinds of different places in the house. And so I had her create one place where she was going to sleep. I had her get out of bed and not watch screens when she wasn't sleeping. I also recommended that she eat more protein to balance blood sugar, and I could see she was having major detox issues. So I did have her eliminate alcohol. Now, not everyone needs to do this, and not everyone needs to do it completely, but I knew that it would make a big difference for her. She could do that for a period of time. So she started sleeping better right away from making these really simple changes within a week even. She didn't have any more nights where she was going without sleep. So her sleep wasn't perfect yet, and we still needed to figure out what was going on in her body.


But just making those really simple changes made a huge difference right away. The second step is to test your body and with functional labs. So the labs I use identify exactly what's going on in your body that's keeping you awake. So they're going to find all of the imbalances that are affecting your sleep. And this is even if your blood work is always normal. I know my blood work was always perfect. Many of my clients told me the same thing. So unfortunately blood work isn't going to show why you weren't sleeping. We need to dig a little deeper with functional labs. So I have chosen four lab tests that give me the most information for the least amount of money that give me the big picture of what's going on in your body. So I'm looking at hormones, I'm looking at cortisol, I'm looking at liver function, I'm looking at gut health, I'm looking at neurotransmitters.


I'm looking at mineral balance and heavy metals. And then I'm also using assessments to screen for your habits, your lifestyle, your diet, but also for blood sugar imbalances, for possible mold toxicity, for how your genes are acting up, for how you're thinking about sleep and your mindset about sleep. And so putting all those pieces of the puzzle together is really crucial to you getting better. And for the clients I've worked with who've already seen multiple practitioners, what has happened is that not everything has been looked at the same time, and so something has been missed. So my goal is to look for all the pieces of your unique puzzle of what is causing your sleep issues. So there are quite a few different possible causes of insomnia like I just mentioned, and I'm looking for all of those. Now, going back to Emily again, she would go five to seven days without sleep.


So her test results showed that she had extremely high cortisol at night, so no wonder she wasn't able to fall asleep. She also had what's called estrogen dominance. So this is when estrogen is higher than progesterone in women, and that usually happens when the liver isn't detoxing properly. So she also, I could tell from the assessments that she wasn't detoxing well, and then the tests confirm that she also had a parasite, which I did too, and that's a main reason why I wasn't sleeping. But that parasite is most active in the night. And so that's why she had that super high cortisol at night. And it turned out she had some food sensitivities and she was reacting to different foods, especially gluten and dairy. So that is what her steps or her test results showed. Now the third step is to address the mental part of not sleeping.


So I know that when I couldn't sleep, I complained all the time to my husband, to my friends, to my coworkers. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I would tell my husband about how horribly I slept. Then I get to work and tell my coworkers about how tired I was and what a bad night's sleep I had. And then if I hung out with my friends later, I would tell them as well. And so I realized that this was an issue when I first took an adult sleep certification course and learned about working on the mindset part of things. The more you talk about, complain, about research, about think about sleep, the more you identify as someone who can't sleep. And so if you worry about sleep at all, if you feel anxious about sleep, if you think about sleep all day, if you're frustrated in the middle of the night when you can't sleep, there's also a mental component that needs to be addressed.


Even if you've gone to a therapist or done cognitive behavioral therapy, if you're still worried and anxious, then that hasn't fully been addressed. So what we need to do is rewire your brain to change your relationship with sleep. We also need to eliminate any sleep anxiety you might have. We need to calm your nervous system so that you can get into relax mode instead of that fight or flight mode. You want to use tools to help manage everyday stressors, right? We're not going to get rid of all the stress in our lives, but we can manage it better and perceive it differently so it doesn't feel as stressful. We also want to celebrate your progress, so you keep improving and we're going to help you with all of those things in the Complete Sleep Solution program. So for Emily, she had a ton of sleep anxiety.


I mean, it's totally understandable. She was going nights without sleep. Of course, anyone is going to become anxious about sleep. So we really worked on that, working on her thoughts about sleep and being more relaxed about it. We also worked on, she had a young daughter and she had really felt a loss of freedom since having her daughter. And so we also worked on creating more time for herself so that she wasn't so busy and stressed and didn't have time to relax and decompress. So that's just an example of what we're helping our clients with in the program is also other stressors that are out there besides just the imbalances in the body. Because while I talk a lot about the functional lab tests, and that is a crucial overlooked piece is looking at the underlying health issues that are affecting, we also need to work on the mental part as well.


So I very much believe in a body and mind approach at the same time, because even if we fix a parasite and we work on liver detox and all of the things, if you're still anxious about sleep, if you're still super stressed in your life, your body's going to continue to be able to balance. It's like fighting an uphill battle. And this is why we also need to address the physical part. If you just do cognitive behavioral therapy, but you also have a parasite, then you aren't going to get better. Unfortunately, the mental part by itself isn't enough. If there are also imbalances in your body that are literally keeping you awake at night, like making your body release cortisol, which is going to make you wired and give you energy and not be able to sleep, now the four step is to implement and then refine your sleep plan.


So once we do all the lab testing and assessments, you will get a customized plan to correct all the imbalances to work on your mindset. Some possible habit changes. We're looking at everything in a very holistic way. So yes, we do recommend supplements, and I see them as for the short term, to get your body back in balance so that you aren't having to take supplements forever and a ton of pills forever. And because it's based on what the lab tests are showing, we know that it's what your body needs. So it's testing instead of guessing at different supplements. A lot of my clients are already taking a ton of supplements. They don't even necessarily know what they're all doing anymore. Maybe they've tried different things themselves or been recommended different things, and so they're taking all these pills and they don't know why and they're over it, right?


So we're just going to take very targeted supplements for what your body needs for a short period of time. But we're also looking at your diet, your lifestyle, your habits, everything, your stress, your mindset, again, in a very holistic way so that nothing is missed. For Emily, I mentioned like we recommended that she take a break from drinking alcohol, that she eliminates certain foods and really work on the mental aspect of it. So that's what we do in the six months working together, and that's why the support is included in the program because if I just give you a list of supplements to take and tell you to change a few habits, you're probably going to feel overwhelmed. You're not going to know or have any guidance about how to do that, and you're probably not going to do it, and then you're not going to get better.


So the support is what makes the program so effective. And without it, I've just found it even experimented for a little bit with just giving people, looking at the test, giving them a plan, sending them on their way, and a lot of people didn't get better and they had questions and they wanted support after the fact. So now all of my programs offer that support because it is so crucial. And honestly, sometimes we need to refine the plan as well. Like your body might not do well with a certain supplement, and so then I can recommend a substitute. Or maybe when we're trying to deal with a parasite at first, your body doesn't tolerate the supplements to do that. And so we need to focus on detoxing your liver more on really supporting the body first, and then try again and introduce those supplements even slower to make sure that you can handle it.


And if you didn't have that support, you just not take them ever again and you wouldn't deal with the parasite, and then you'd continue not to sleep well. So that's how we help you implement the plan as well. So Emily, now she falls asleep easily. She sleeps all night, and I worked with her a couple years ago. She lives in the same town as I do, so I still see her. And so I know that she's still sleeping well, which is so awesome. And so she wrote as a testimonial right from the start, your program helped me to sleep. When I contacted you, I had been going five to seven days without sleeping, and my entire body was failing because of it. There seemed to be no hope, no prescription, no cure. I'm constantly referring to others to the immediate success I had working with you and how the lab tests legitimately found the imbalances in my body, which were causing my sleep issues.


So I was able to keep improving. I'm just so grateful to have started your program and will be able to use what I learned as a stepping stone to continue to keep up my health. So I love working with people and seeing them get so much better, and it makes such a big difference in their lives. So in the Complete Sleep Solution Program, again, it includes analysis of the four lab tests. It includes a customized protocol. You also get six months of support. You have 12 sessions with your coach, so you're meeting twice a month. And then you also have daily chat support Monday through Friday. So you never have to wait for more than 24 hours, usually not more than a few hours to get your questions answered. So that is unheard of in healthcare where I'm sure if you've worked with a doctor, a naturopath, you have to wait a couple months until your next session to get anything answered or they charge by the question or whatever it is.


So all of that support is already included in this program. We cover all four of these steps in the program where we're working on the essentials. We're testing your body with the labs and assessments. We're helping with the mental part of not sleeping, and then we're helping you, giving you the plan and helping you implement and refine it so that by six months you are consistently sleeping seven to nine hours without waking up. Or if you are waking up, it's very briefly and you're going right back to sleep. That's what I do every night. And more importantly, so that you're waking up feeling rested with energy. So the first step to get started is to book a consultation with me. So we will talk about what's going on with your sleep, what's going on with your health, what symptoms you're dealing with, how long you've been dealing with them, what you've tried so far, and I'll explain why those things haven't worked yet.


And then we'll talk about what your goals are and how the program will help you achieve those goals in six months or less. So you'll find the link to schedule a consultation and information about the program in the show notes. No matter what you take from this, I hope you know that you are meant to sleep well and that if you can't and you've tried a lot of things, it doesn't mean that you can't get better. It just means that what's causing it hasn't been pinpointed yet. But I can help you do that in these four simple steps. Alright, thanks so much for listening and I will talk to you next week.

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