Have you almost given up hope that you can sleep well again because you’ve tried so many things? Maybe even including functional lab testing.


In today’s episode I talk with Dan for a sleep breakthrough session. Dan is an entrepreneur and like many entrepreneurs, he deals with more stress than the average person. There’s more pressure to succeed and make money and it can feel less secure than a corporate job. 


Dan has tried many things including some of the lab tests that I use and has lately been focusing on his gut health to try to solve his sleep issues. We talk about some key things that have been overlooked so far that are affecting his sleep so he knows what to do next. 


Sign up for a free Sleep Breakthrough call that will be aired on this podcast! You’ll fill out an assessment and then we’ll meet on Zoom and I’ll tell you 3 things to do right now that will have the biggest impact on your health and sleep. Schedule your call here.


Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program so you can consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted, naturally and permanently. https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs



00:00 Introduction and Overview

00:09 Meet Dan: The Entrepreneur with Sleep Issues

01:28 Dan's Sleep History and Stress Factors

03:49 Exploring Gut Health and Sleep Connection

07:28 Water Intake and Detoxification

11:05 Hormonal Imbalances and Night Sweats

13:35 Addressing H. Pylori and Gut Pathogens

16:55 Holistic Approach to Sleep and Health

19:43 Conclusion and Next Steps


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] Have you almost given up hope that you can sleep well again because you've tried so many things, maybe even including functional lab testing? In today's episode, I talk with Dan for a sleep breakthrough session. Dan is an entrepreneur and like many entrepreneurs, including myself, he deals with more stress than the average person.


There's more pressure to succeed and make money and it can feel. Less secure than a corporate job. Now Dan has tried many things, including some of the lab tests that I use and has lately been focusing on gut health to try to solve his sleep issues. So we talk about some key things that have been overlooked so far that are likely affecting his sleep.


So he knows what to do next. I'm Martha Lewis, AKA the sleep detective as a functional health coach for the past five years. I've helped myself and over 200 clients find and fix a root causes of [00:01:00] their sleep issues. This is a sleep detective podcast where you will finally understand why you can't sleep and how to fix it.


So you can consistently sleep seven to nine hours uninterrupted without drugs, even if you've already done some functional lab test.


Hello, everyone. Today I have Dan on for a sleep breakthrough session. Thanks for being here, Dan. Thanks for having me. Of course. Yeah. I'd love to get a little bit of history of what's been going on with your sleep recently and I guess in the past as well. Okay. Well, the first I remember being a super deep sleeper, maybe into the age of 21 or 22.


And I actually, it's my birthday today. I'm just turning 39. So it's been a little while. Thank you. I remember having stress related sleep issues in law school, and a lot of, sleep issues for me have been maintenance rather than onset. So typically I'm waking [00:02:00] up in the middle of the night, and that happened when I was in law school.


if I were to guess at some of the origins, I was really bored in law school. I didn't love going there, very few people do. And in my second year, I had decided that I was gonna not go to class that much. I was just checking out, and I put on this brave front that, oh, I'm super confident, nothing will go wrong.


But on the inside, I was concerned that my grades might suffer, I might not get the job that I want after law school. So I think that that dissonance had me worrying, you know, I was putting up this very brave, confident face to the outside world. Yes, I've decided not to go, there's not going to be any consequences.


It's all good. But on the inside, I wasn't quite that confident. Very interesting. Okay, how did that turn out? Well, I did get, a good job after law school and decided I didn't want to do it. that's a whole other story. We don't need to go down that rabbit hole. but that's the first time I remember having sleep maintenance kind of insomnia issues and over the years have tried many different things.[00:03:00] 


Everything from, you know, the prescription to the non prescription over the counter sleeping pills to lots of meditation. I am, uh, let's see, I think I'm an 11 year daily meditator now. Meditation is a huge part of my life. Still doing it even though it doesn't solve all sleep related issues, it turns out.


Um, uh, saunas, um, everything psychological you could imagine from cognitive behavioral therapy to all kinds of more unconventional therapy. And most recently I've gotten some, some results from a program called Right Sleep. I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's a Texan neurologist who hypothesizes that a lot of sleep issues are tied to the gut, specifically vitamin D and vitamin B production.


And so if you supplement with vitamin D and vitamin B, you can impact your sleep. And I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yes. Well, I definitely agree that the gut has a lot to do with sleep and affects a lot of other systems in the body. And, you know, I noticed from the assessment that you have [00:04:00] quite a lot of gut issues.


So has that been going on for a while? Yeah. Yeah. Who knows exactly how long? The earliest I can remember was about five years ago when I was living in New York City at the time when the pandemic hit New York. And the week that the pandemic hit New York, I had started a business. It was just an insanely, insanely stressful time.


And I had been sleeping quite well for a time up until that point, and that week, I remember waking up with sort of throbbing in the stomach. So I did some digging and worked with some functional medicine people, um, who suggested that the gut was a big factor. Mm hmm. And what came of that? Did anything help?


Um, all kinds of tests, right? Every kind of test you could imagine, all kinds of functional lab tests. Um, I would say after working with many different naturopaths, functional medicine coaches, functional medicine doctors, I would say that there was some improvement, but I've always had a sense [00:05:00] that something's missing.


We haven't quite got to the real bottom of all of this. Yeah, because it sounds like you're still having a lot of these gut issues, like you mentioned burping after every meal and some bloating and, um, you know, problems digesting fat, some loose stools, all those things. Yeah. Or those core issues remain unresolved five years later.


Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. So something's definitely missing there. Um, but it sounds like you're working on that right now. Yeah, you know, I did write sleep about a year ago, fell off for a time and back on that bandwagon now and it's definitely produced some improvement. It requires a lot of patience.


So you know, her thesis is that over the course of a year, there's going to be some ups and downs, but you stick with the program. Okay. All right. Awesome. So yeah, I mean, it sounds like your sleep problems aren't every night. It's like three nights a week, maybe, and it really is quite tied to work. Um, we [00:06:00] can it's easier to sleep.


It can be a little up and down during the work week, but there's a lot of factors at play for sure. and yeah, in an average week, probably three or four nights a week, I may have the symptom of waking up in the middle of the night. Right. Okay. And I mean, how many hours are you working?


Are you working a lot or working late or what's happening? I think it's less the quantity and it's more just the weight, right? I love what I do. I don't work an insane number of hours. The work can be strenuous and demanding on body, mind, soul, but it's not an insane number of hours.


you'd look at the hours I used to work as a lawyer versus what I do now. And you would say, Oh, okay. He treats himself relatively well, but I think the weight of making decisions that are more impactful decisions than I've ever made before, I definitely wear the weight of it emotionally.


Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense and that's good to know. And I do think it's possible to decrease that without changing, your job or your position or even how many hours you're working. [00:07:00] Yeah, handling that stress better is always possible for anyone, I think, because stress isn't going to go away unless you decide to retire suddenly, but not going to happen.


Yeah, right. And even then, like, you know, there are always stressors coming up in life. So there's no guarantee of that. Okay, good to know. And yeah, I mean, you're doing so many of the right things for sure. Some things that stuck out to me. I think you mentioned drinking three glasses of water a day. 


It's up and down. Yeah. I wouldn't say that I'm super systematic about water. Gotcha. Cause that's really important for flushing out toxins. So it's just, you know, one like seems so minor and it is pretty simple, but just, yeah, something that I noticed is definitely. you know, getting at least eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day, eight, eight ounce glasses.


Okay. Yeah. Or, you know, [00:08:00] half your body weight in ounces. So it does kind of vary per person a little bit too, but that can, that's just so important for helping us flush out toxins that are you big believer in water filters and the purity importance of the purity of the water? Definitely. Yes. And I've found, you know, Like the Brita water filters, the refrigerator water filters, like those aren't necessarily getting out all the heavy metals that can be found in tap water.


So it's definitely important to be drinking out of a, like either bottled water that's been tested or a high quality water filter. Yeah. Good question. Is there a brand name that you swear by? Um, there's one called pure effects. That is something that I recommend. I actually have one called Apex or APEC, A P E C, so it's an under the counter, um, filter.


So you do have to, you know, hook it up to the, the water [00:09:00] line under the sink. And then there's a separate ball set that it comes out of, but I use that for all drinking water. I try to use it for cooking water. So, yeah, but that's really important too. I do see. heavy metals in a lot of my clients. And for me, like I had really high uranium, um, because where I live in the mountains, it's in the soil here.


And so I drank tap water for years, not knowing. And yeah, that can build up over time. So yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. That's a good question for sure. And it's also important to have enough minerals and electrolytes in a water as well. So, like the water system that I have, it takes everything out.


So the bad stuff, but even the good minerals. So it's really important to be replenishing with those. So something I now take every day is called beam minerals. And it's a liquid and they have a electrolyze and a reboost and ideally you take [00:10:00] them both together and it just helps supply those trace minerals that we can be missing if you're drinking.


I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever seen water without, you know, water without any of those minerals in it. And I've also seen that it really helps balance minerals as well. So I took it for about nine months and then reaped. So I tested my minerals before with the hair test that I use.


And I did the beam minerals for about nine months, took the test again, and I didn't do anything else from mineral support and they were just so much more in balance with each other and all the heavy metals were gone. So yeah, so I really liked that. I think that's a great thing to add, especially if you're having distilled or reverse osmosis water.


Okay. Awesome. Uh, another thing I noticed is you mentioned some. Either night sweats or hot flashes in the night. That's less and less. I would have said, had you got me six months ago, I would have said, yeah, my body temperature at night seems to get quite hot. Definitely less the [00:11:00] case.


I don't know what I did to shift that I did something to shift it. But what could have been going on there, do you think? Well, I think of hormone imbalance. So, I mean, sex hormones being out of balance or being depleted. And then I also think of cortisol. So, yeah, and you, you know, I noticed some signs of cortisol as well.


Being alert in the evening can be kind of that out of whack pattern and trouble regulating body temperature. But when our body releases cortisol, it increases our body temperature and heart rate and blood pressure. And so when that's happening in the middle of the night, then yeah, then that's going to wake you up.


So I did the Dutch test. I can't remember the results sitting here. The Dutch test. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cause that's what I do too, to look at the cortisol pattern, but let's say it is high at night. Well then we need to know why it's not enough just to know that. I mean, you can take a supplement to lower cortisol, but it's not addressing the root of, okay, [00:12:00] well, why is your body releasing cortisol at night?


And that can be the common reasons. Yeah. So a pathogen in the gut. liver detox issues, blood sugar, imbalances, which, you know, maybe an issue for you based on the symptoms you checked off. I definitely want to start asking people, um, about their diet specifically in these calls so I can really see that a lot more.


Um, cause that could also be a factor, but those are the top three things I see, especially for cortisol at night. Diet, uh, or let's say Blood sugar. Could be tied to diet. Yes. And sorry, what were the other two? liver detox issues. And pathogen in the gut.


And I can send you information about all of those, and you know, I'll add them to the show notes for everyone listening as well, too, so you can link to those things, but yeah, that's most commonly what I'm seeing for [00:13:00] that. I remember, so, which test was it? Years ago, I did something GI, does that sound right?


There's GI effects or gI map. Okay. And GI map revealed some H. pylori and different experts had different opinions about whether that was an issue. Some people told me, oh, it's not a problem. Your level is fine. Other people said, no, it is an issue. You got to do something about it. So I remember I tried some interventions and it's just, it's very hard as a layman to understand who to trust.


Right. Right. Right. Yep. Yes. You know, but definitely with the burping you're experiencing like that's, that's definitely a huge sign of H. pylori and, um, you know, I say the same thing to my clients about H. pylori. Like some doctors and researchers say half the population has it. We've adapted to it.


We're used to it. It's not a big deal. The other side of the spectrum is H pylori causes ulcers. It's a number one [00:14:00] cause of stomach cancer, which is rare. I'm kind of in the middle where it depends on the person. It depends on the symptoms. It depends on what else is going on in the gut. So if someone has a parasite.


And Candida, like to me, that's more important than a low level of H. pylori. So, and I also look at digestion. So the GI map has a marker for elastase, which is an enzyme that digests protein. So if that's become depleted over time, and there's H. pylori, H. pylori affects protein digestion. It makes the stomach more neutral when we need it to be acidic.


That's how we digest protein and get the minerals and nutrients and amino acids we need from the protein. And so when that enzyme to digest protein is also low, then to me that means, okay, the body has had a hard time digesting protein for a while and that enzymes become [00:15:00] depleted. The pancreas can't make enough of the enzyme to keep up with trying to digest the protein.


And so in that case, and there aren't other pathogens going on, then I do recommend dealing with H. pylori, even if it's at a lower level. So it definitely depends on looking at the big picture of the GI map. So yes, it can be confusing, but. I'm amazed, I mean, I see H. pylori in about 85 percent of my clients, and I know my colleagues see it at a high percentage, and their clients with other, you know, symptoms and issues, so we just do see it at a higher rate than the 50 percent that's supposedly in the population.


So, my tendency is toward addressing it. It just might not be the first thing or the most important thing that I would look at. Then I guess there's questions of, can we address all the things at the same time? Do different interventions affect one another? It gets very complicated because I remember [00:16:00] trying lots of different H.


pylori interventions as well as supplemental stomach acid to make the stomach more acidic. Right. Proteins. Yes, I went down all those rabbit holes for quite a while. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And my approach is let's address H pylori first and then we build up stomach acid after that. But, um, so, you know, again, knowing the gut is an issue for you because of your symptoms, like not everyone has gut symptoms or digestive issues, but the gut can still be a piece of the puzzle with sleep.


But we know if someone has digestive symptoms that it's definitely a piece of the puzzle, like we know that and it just depends on, you know, what's happening for everyone is going to be different. Yeah. But that's definitely, it's definitely a piece of the puzzle. But I also see. Like it's more than just the gut because by the time [00:17:00] you're having digestive issues and let's say you aren't digesting protein well, then minerals have become depleted or out of balance because you aren't absorbing nutrients from food as well.


It's going to affect hormones, especially if the body's making cortisol to deal with inflammation and stress. from, you know, anything being out of balance in the body or from life being stressful, then that takes away resources from sex hormones. And so they get out of balance or depleted, um, pathogens in the gut are going to affect liver detox and make that not work properly.


When the gut isn't healthy, it affects our neurotransmitters. So then we're not Producing enough serotonin and GABA and dopamine that we need to be able to feel calm and able to sleep. So, I just see the body as everything is connected because it's, you know, and so the gut's affecting everything else and everything else is affecting the gut.


And so I really believe in, okay, well let's [00:18:00] look at everything that we can and help the body get back in balance as a whole. And that's gonna be the fastest way to get better. And most effective way. So, yeah, where do you want to go next? I think it's as simple as, yeah, increasing water intake from high quality water, um, possibly looking at hormones and, um, Cortisol again.


Mm-hmm . And yeah. And really addressing gut health and finding out what's going on there. And so the diet is definitely gonna play a role there. And maybe if you're in a place where it's harder to digest protein, maybe turning down the protein for a little while until the ability to digest protein.


Returns. Yeah. Well, I actually recommend, um, helping digest protein instead of just cutting it down because protein is really important and we need those amino acids. We need the [00:19:00] minerals from it. So I actually don't recommend cutting down, especially for very long instead. You know, you could do, um, like bitters or apple cider vinegar before meals to help with digestion or even a digestive enzyme.


Depending on if that's what, you know, results show could be helpful. Like, I would recommend that versus cutting down on protein. Because we need the protein also to balance blood sugar. Thank you. Yeah, for so many reasons. So yeah, good question. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Yeah. Anything else? Um, what was I going to say?


I mean, I think you can tell from me, you know, this journey is a complicated one and You know, I've gone through the journey of thinking about, uh, when I put it, I've gone through the journey of thinking about, um, boy, it would be nice to not have to learn this stuff yourself. Um, but I'm [00:20:00] learning more and more.


You really do as a patient have to learn as much as you can. And the process of working with a professional has to become a dialogue, right? Where you're more informed than probably the average layman is. So I think it's great that you're doing a podcast and helping people understand more. Yeah, awesome.


I'm so glad. Yeah. And I think, you know, you've tried. You've done a lot of these things too that I'm even talking about now and it just to me something's been missed Right, like you looked at you have looked at the gut. It sounds like you've done the Dutch But you know me and maybe it's neurotransmitters.


Maybe it's minerals Maybe it's, heavy metals, you know, but they're just pieces of the puzzle that have been missed and that's why you haven't fully recovered. So, you know, just to encourage you not to give up just because you've tried all these things. It doesn't mean that you can't get better. That's good to know.


Thank you. All right, Dan, you're welcome. Thanks for being on. [00:21:00] Thanks for having me.


You can also sign up for a free sleep breakthrough call that will be aired on this podcast. You'll fill out assessment and then we'll meet on zoom and I'll tell you the three things to do right now that will have the biggest impact on your health and sleep. You can sign up at the link in the show notes.


Thanks so much for listening and I will talk to you next time.

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