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After 11 years of chronic insomnia, taking sleeping pills every night, and being told by doctors "some people just can't sleep," Mark was ready to give up hope. He'd tried everything - CBT, sleep studies, specialists, perfect sleep hygiene - yet he still couldn't sleep through the night. 

Sound familiar? 


Well, Mark's story is about to shatter everything you think you know about "untreatable" insomnia.


Today, you're going to hear directly from Mark himself about his remarkable transformation - not just sleeping better, but feeling completely like himself again. 


He's reduced his sleep medications by 80%, hasn't experienced anxiety in months, can handle any mental load during the day, and describes feeling "back to himself" in a way he hadn't experienced in over a decade. 


By the end of this episode, you'll understand why traditional sleep medicine failed him for 11 years, discover the hidden health imbalances that were stealing both his sleep AND his daytime energy, and learn exactly how functional lab testing revealed root causes that no doctor had ever looked for.


If you've been struggling with that "wired but tired" feeling, carrying anxiety about sleep, or feeling like a shadow of your former self during the day, Mark's story will show you there's real hope. His transformation proves that when you address what's really happening in your body, you don't just sleep better - you get your life back.


00:00 Mark's 11-Year Battle with Insomnia

00:30 Introduction to Mark's Transformation

02:19 Meet Mark: A Journey Begins

02:58 Mark's Struggles and Initial Attempts

06:04 Discovering a New Approach

08:46 The Impact of Functional Lab Testing

11:56 Mark's Remarkable Progress

14:55 The Role of Genetics and Health Imbalances

16:28 Key Test Results and Surprising Findings

20:32 Mark's Endorsement and Final Thoughts

22:34 Conclusion: Hope for Insomnia Sufferers


Episode Transcript


Martha Lewis:

After 11 years of chronic insomnia, taking sleeping pills every night and being told by doctors, some people just can't sleep. My client, mark was ready to give up Hopee. He tried everything. CBTI, sleep studies, sleep specialists, perfect sleep hygiene. Yet he still couldn't sleep through the night. Sound familiar? Well, Mark's story is about to shatter everything you think you know about untreatable insomnia. Today. You're going to hear directly from Mark himself about his remarkable transformation, not just sleeping better, but feeling completely like himself again. He's reduced his sleep medications by 80%. Hasn't experienced anxiety in months, can handle any mental load during the day, and describes feeling back to himself in a way he hadn't experienced in over a decade. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why traditional sleep medicine failed him for 11 years, you'll discover the hidden health imbalances that were stealing both his sleep and his daytime energy, and you'll learn exactly how functional lab testing revealed root causes then no doctor had ever looked for.


If you've been struggling with that wired but tired, feeling anxiety about sleep or feeling like a shadow of your formal self during the day, Mark's story will show you there's real hope. His transformation proves that when you address what's really happening in your body, you don't just sleep better, you get your life back. This is the Sleep Detective podcast where you will learn why you can't sleep and how to fix it naturally. I'm Martha Lewis. I've been a functional health and life coach for the past five years, and I've helped over 200 clients find and fix the root causes of their health issues so they can consistently sleep seven to nine hours without drugs even if they've tried lots of other things. Now let's dive into Mark's incredible journey from 11 years of desperation to complete freedom from sleep anxiety and discovered how he reclaimed not just his nights, but his entire sense of wellbeing. Hello, everyone. Today I have Mark here on the show and he is a former client, and so we are going to talk about his experience in the program and how he's doing now. So thanks so much for being here, mark.


Mark:

It's my pleasure, Martha.


Martha Lewis:

Awesome. Well, to get started, I'd love to hear what you were experiencing when you started the program and came to me and I know you found out about the program through your son who was having similar issues. So yeah, what were you experiencing?


Mark:

Really just not being able to sleep and taking sleeping pills, feeling terrible. I'd been dealing with this about 11 years. Prior to that, I had short little one or two nights where I wouldn't sleep, but for the most part I did. I was acceptable to any kind of stimuli that would keep my mind going. But I did fine until 11 years ago, and since then I've been through a couple of these recoveries, but three horrible, horrible bouts and I was in the middle of, I would say in the middle or early stages of my coming back out of the horrible bout. And I actually ran across you first on YouTube. And because I've studied this, I've done everything that you could do, CBT and all those things. So you came up as one of my suggestions on YouTube and I listened to you once or twice and thought, man, he has a different approach than what a lot of what I have ever seen before.


So just not being able to sleep, feeling terrible anxiety, anxiety about sleeping or anxiety about feeling bad or anxiety about nothing. It seemed to the all for me. It snowballs once I can miss a whole night at fleet and be fine, but once things start to compound, I get less and less rational and it seems like I have less and less control over what my mind does or where my mind goes or what all those things are, and it comes to a point where I can't do anything about it anymore. I can't suppress it, I can't help. It's just I'm in a bad place and I wasn't at the worst. I was on my way of rebounding out of that at the time, but when my son started dealing with exactly the same thing that I deal with starting about the same age, when I started dealing with it, I would do anything to help him. So I suggested that he take a look at your program, and of course he was desperate, and so the fact that he was willing to do it, I would just wait and see how that went. If he wasn't interested in doing it, then I would've probably done the program first. But he started the program and after I saw how things were starting to go and him starting to improve, then I signed up for the program as well.


Martha Lewis:

Yes, which I'm so glad you mentioned you've tried a lot of things Right, and everyone coming to me has also tried a lot of things. I mean, I tried a lot of things too, so I get it. So yeah. So what did you think was different about this approach?


Mark:

Well, I had went to the doctors and talked to 'em about it, and they'll give you sleeping pills, but they don't really have much to say about it. It's like something's not right here. So then you go to, I went to a sleep specialist who did a sleep study. I'm all for it. We've got to figure out what's going on here. So I went and did a sleep study. Really all the sleep study was about was determining that I didn't have sleep apnea.

I knew I didn't have a sleep apnea, but I was desperate. I didn't care. I just wanted help. And so did the sleep study and well, whatever. I thought I might have sleep apnea, so I got a machine. I couldn't sleep with that machine. I couldn't sleep anyway, but that math on it ain't never going to happen. So I just did it because I was dead. And eventually I managed to come through that two years. I finally get enough better to get down on the sleeping pills to where I didn't take 'em every night. And then I went through, everything went perfect for a while and then all of a sudden here it comes roaring back again. And so this last time, about a year ago, I guess it was, I'm desperate again. So I look up the sleep specialists where I'm at now in northwest Arkansas where they have great doctors and great medical facilities here.


And I thought, man, this is going to be great. Well, as I figure out is the pulmonary doctor, Zach, they're only looking for sleep apnea. I'm like, I'm not doing another sleep study. That's not what I have. I don't have sleep apnea. Well, some people just can't sleep, obviously. And I did all the research. That's why you were a suggestion in my, because I've done all the YouTubes on CBT and I could teach a course on sleep hygiene. So your approach was just totally a different approach where it includes all those things, but it also includes your health as well. And I was like, well, I'm a little bit skeptical that we can fix my sleep. There's just something wrong with me. And my mother has basically the same kind of issues with sleep as well and has since I can remember. But certainly the things that you look for in your program and your testing are something that no one else that I have found doing and certainly would be health beneficial if not helping my sleep. It was definitely worth looking at just from that aspect of it. And by the way, it did help my son's sleep and has helped him immensely. And so I followed being behind him probably three months or so behind him and into the program.


Martha Lewis:

Yeah, and it's so interesting you brought up your mother having sleep troubles too. I was just talking to Matt before we just got on and we were talking about how there is a genetic component to it, but it doesn't mean that you're destined to live with it. Some of us, when we get out of balance, it's our sleep that gets affected and we might have genetic kind of mutations that specifically affect sleep, but it doesn't mean that you are never going to be able to sleep because when the body's in balance, it can sleep.


Mark:

Exactly. And that's part of a different approach. You look deeper and look harder for the health imbalances, the imbalances, and it's obvious. My wife is probably almost always asleep within five minutes of her head touching the pillow. I've seen it happen in 90 seconds. I'm not ever going to sleep that good. I don't care how much I get. It's not going to be that great. But just being on the program and going through your protocols and everything has greatly helped me. It's helped me with my sleep. I have greatly diminished the sleep aids that I work was taking down to probably 80% decreased. And on my way to completely, I just because I'm feeling better and I feel so much better, and I'm so grateful for feeling good. I'm not in as big a hurry as I was when I started because I'm 80% there and I feel good and I just don't want to feel bad anymore.


So I'm taking it super gradual, but my sleep has improved, but the way I feel during the day has been easily probably more noticeable than even my sleep improvement. I haven't had any kind of anxiety in months and months at any time. I can handle all kinds of load mid load now, and I'm pretty much back to myself during the day. And I know the other two times, as I gradually came out of the roughest parts in the last 11 years, I know when I'm starting to really get there because I'm always exhausted in the afternoon. I'm pretty early riser and in the afternoon I'm always exhausted. And six months ago I was exhausted and I'd lay down on the sofa and I'd just give anything to doze off to sweet. This is totally not going to happen. 100% impossible. And now if I've got anything going on, I never feel tired in the afternoon, but if I don't have anything going on, nothing occupied, then maybe I get a little tired. I can lay down on the sofa and probably seven times out 10, if I stay there long enough, I'll start to doze all. And so that's a positive sign that means in my body and do it


Before it was impossible. Was it possible during the day and I had to not myself out at night or I would at the worst times, I could lay there all night and it never happened. Matter of fact, I could go to bed and be so tired and I couldn't move, and an hour to an hour and a half later I could get up and it's over. I could get up and say, forget it. Let me just go to this job and go work on something. Because it's almost like I was so fatigued that my body had to rest. And after my rested for a little bit, it was like, man, I'm wired the phrase wired tired. That was me. And so that's all behind me now. The theme that my goal going forward is to never think back into that deep hole again.


Martha Lewis:

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's so crazy too. I mean, a lot of people tell me this that they lose their ability to nap, and it's like, I'm not sleeping at night and then I can't even nap during the day. So you're right. It's totally a good sign when you are able to, when you're in that relaxed state to be able to take a little nap and sleep well at night, it's like your body's got to balance.


Mark:

It just tells you that're in a lot better place. I'm not an napper and I don't, but sometimes when I'm watching something on television or something like that, it happens and it's a great feeling. It's such an awful feeling to be so fried and not have slept very much and so long and lay down and not be able to sink off into a light sleep or anything. People that haven't dealt with this don't realize and they don't get it. They absolutely can't comprehend that it is actually a form that's used as a form of torture, and honestly, it can really be brutal.


Martha Lewis:

Yep, I agree. So yeah. What did you think was most significant that the test results showed? Do you remember that?


Mark:

Yes, I do. The mineral being out of balance was surprising because obviously I thought I took gobs of magnesium and being deficient. Magnesium was a huge surprise because I was all over that and taking more than a lot of people would regularly take, and I was still deficient in that, but a lot of those TED results did make sense. The low serotonin, the gut problems really make sense if you study all of this that really makes sense. Some of the gut problems that having no good gut bacteria are kind of surprising. The way I have eaten for the last 20 years certainly would have to be in the top 10% or 15% for eating healthy and eating good foods and having healthy lifestyle, and you work out five days a week and all those kinds of things. So that was very surprising as well.


Mold toxicity was just still don't really know where that came from, but I think that it's been present for a long time and I wonder if it sounds crazy, but my mind goes through, I wore a helmet every weekend for years and years and years, did a lot of sweating, and I had some helmets that I wore for the better part of the whole season, a whole race season, and they didn't smell good obviously, and had white salty sweat and I don't know, it could have been from those nasty helmet that I wore. It's hard to say. I even had two different mold tests on our current hole to eliminate that, and there was no mold in the home. But anyway, we did the protocol for that. We did the protocol for PX H Power, and yeah, it's quite a commitment that you make, but I saw it work for math, and so I stuck with, it took a little longer for me to see results because I've probably been in the deep hold for a lot longer than he had been. So I didn't really start seeing results for probably two months, and then it started to kind of steamroll and continue through the next three months really. And I've kind of stabilized at a good place, and I feel like if I just keep going that I'll continue to even improve from here.


Martha Lewis:

Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, is there anything else you'd like to add?


Mark:

I really think that your program would help people. Like I said, you have such a comprehensive approach with the CBT and the sleep hygiene and the education part of your program is really strong and would be extremely beneficial to anyone in itself, along with of course, what the area that I really needed, which was the testing and that side of it. So for me to benefit from it, I think is a testament to your program because I was already there on one big piece of it and the other piece I was missing because there was no one else that was even interested in looking at the kinds of things that you looked at. And since I've started the program and looked at more YouTube stuff and listen to you as well, I've come to realize that yeah, if you can't sleep, there's something going on.


Everybody should be able to sleep. Not everybody should be able to sleep great or as good as the next person, but your body wants to sleep. It has to sleep. That's part of it. And you've said that, and so many other people have said that now, but I never got that from a traditional medical doctor. They know what they're trained in, and if you don't have what they're trained in, they just kind of look at you and shake your head and you leave there feeling empty. There's no hope. So I highly recommend anyone who watches this that is on the fence about joining your program. I highly recommend it.


Martha Lewis:

Yeah, thank you for that. And I agree. I mean, most people I'm working with, the medical system has not been able to help them unfortunately. And so we've got to dig deeper to the root cause and find out what's out of balance, what isn't healthy in the body. And that was the answer for me as well. It's like the sleep hygiene stuff is great. It's not going to cure chronic insomnia. It can help you get better sleep. But yeah, we've got to dig deeper to really get to the root of what's causing that. So yes, thank you so much for sharing all of this. I really appreciate it.


Mark:

Well, thank you. I appreciate what you're doing.


Martha Lewis:

Mark's story is living proof that chronic insomnia isn't something you have to accept as your normal forever. After 11 years of sleepless nights anxiety and feeling like a shell of himself, mark discovered what so many of my clients learn. There's always a reason why your body can't sleep. And when we find those root causes through functional lab testing, everything changes. Think about Mark's transformation. He went from being completely dependent on sleep medications to reducing them by 80% and on his way to being off them completely, he was having constant anxiety, and now it's been months without a single anxious moment. He went from being wired and tired to actually being able to nap when his body needs rest, and from feeling like something was fundamentally wrong with him to feeling completely back to himself again. And this is what I want you to know. Mark isn't special or lucky.


What happened for him can happen for you too. The difference is that we stopped guessing and started testing. So we looked at his gut health hormone balance, mineral levels and neurotransmitter function, all the areas that traditional sleep medicine completely ignores. And just like Mark, when we address those imbalances, his body remembered how to sleep naturally. If Mark's story resonates with you, if you've tried everything been told, oh, some people just can't sleep, or you're living with that constant anxiety about bedtime, I want you to know that there's hope. You don't have to spend another decade struggling like Mark did. You don't have to accept sleepless nights as your reality, and you definitely don't have to live with that wired but tired feeling that really steals your day. If you want to be like Mark and finally fix your sleep issues, you want to book a free consultation to get started on that call.


We'll talk about what you're experiencing. I'll explain exactly how my Complete Sleep Solution program works, and we'll determine if functional lab testing is a missing piece you've been searching for, just like Mark discovered, when you finally address a real reason, your body can't sleep, you don't just get better rest, you get your life back, your energy returns, your anxiety disappears, and you feel like yourself again. So book your consultation today@thesleepdetective.com or at the link in the show notes, and let's start your detective work to uncover what's really keeping you awake. You are meant to sleep well, and I'm here to make that happen. Thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you next week.

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