22: Your 5 options for overcoming insomnia

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the Why You Can't Sleep podcast. If you struggle to sleep and you've tried what seems like everything you are in the right place, there are imbalances in your body that are keeping you awake and you're going to learn what they are in this show. Now, let's kick off this episode with an inspiring success story from one of my clients who has significantly improved their sleep by correcting the underlying health issues that were causing their insomnia.

Andrew: "I go to bed at the time that my body tells me and wake up when my body wants me to wake up. Actually, I sleep more like seven hours a night, which is pretty normal, and that's actually been something that kind of surprised me. Once my body got the sleep that it needed for a period of time, I noticed that I was actually sleeping a little bit more than I even thought I needed. 

Martha: "Yeah, but it's interesting too because so many people think that they need eight hours. That's a magic number, and I mean the recommended range is between seven and nine, so it's going to be different for everyone, but if you're waking up feeling rested and feeling good, then that is a perfect amount of sleep for you."

Andrew: "Yeah, absolutely. And a good test of how much sleep you probably need. I don't know if you agree with this, but I would say that however it is that you sleep on the weekends when you're not setting an alarm or anything, that's probably a good test."

Hi everyone. I'm excited to talk to you today about your options for overcoming insomnia because the way I see it, you have five different options. So I want to talk about what they are, the pros and cons of each of them so you have a better idea of how you can really solve this problem forever in the long term. So your first option is to follow the basic sleep advice. If you Google how to sleep better, you're going to find the same tips everywhere, right? Don't watch screens before bed, don't drink caffeine too late in the day. Follow a relaxing bedtime routine exercise every day and so on. These same tips are everywhere. They're easily accessible, and I do think that for some people, following these rules is going to solve the problem. A lot of times it is our modern lifestyle and all these bad habits that we have that keep us from being able to sleep, but if you still can't sleep, and that's honestly most people, these basics don't work, and that's because there's something in your body that is keeping you from sleeping normally, and so it's not watching TV before bed.

That is the reason why you can't sleep. And we know this because millions of people watch TV before bed and sleep fine. I used to not be able to watch TV before bed, and then once I address what's going on in my body now I can watch TV before bed. Now I choose not to most of the time, or I at least leave 30 minutes of reading, stretching, doing something else instead of watching TV before bed. But there are many times where I watch a movie and I go straight to bed and I sleep just fine. For most people, that's not the answer. If it was, then everyone would follow that and no one would've trouble sleeping because it's an easy thing to do if it worked a hundred percent of the time. Now, your second option is take a sleeping pill. So if you go to your doctor and you tell him that you can't sleep, he might tell you about following some of those that sleep advice that I just talked about.

And if that doesn't work, he's probably going to prescribe you a sleeping pill. Doctors really don't know what else to do for this, or they might tell you his anxiety and that you should go to a psychiatrist and then your psychiatrist is probably going to prescribe you a sleeping pill. So that tends to be the medical answer to insomnia, and unfortunately, sleeping pills aren't great for us. So there are a lot of reasons why I don't think sleeping pills are good. I mean, they change your brain chemistry. They can be addictive. They're only meant to be taken short term, and the longer you take them, then the more addictive they can be because they bolted your brain chemistry and so they can be really hard to get off of. For many my clients, they also have a lot of side effect and they affect liver function because your liver has to detoxify them.

Another reason why I really don't recommend sleeping pills is because they don't actually give you natural sleep, so they sedate you. They change the amount of time you spend in deep sleep in REM sleep, so you don't get all the benefits of sleep from sleeping pills. I understand, and I'm not judging anyone who is on sleeping pills because not sleeping is horrible, and if you aren't getting any sleep, then yes, in some cases it can be better taking sleeping pill and get some sleep, but it's definitely not the long-term solution and it's really just a bandaid, right? It's not getting to the root cause of why you can't sleep. You aren't sleeping because you're deficient. In Ambien, for example, it is a bandaid. Now, the third option you have are trying different supplements and gadgets. People try supplements from CBD to melatonin to magnesium. There are all kinds of different sleep blends out there that promise better sleep.

If these don't work for you, it's because they are things that are out of balance in your body, and yes, you're trying to correct them with a supplement, but you're guessing, right? You have no idea what your body needs. You're just like, I heard that this might work. I'm going to try it and see if it helps. So it's a lot of trial and error to see if anything works, and I'm going to use magnesium as an example. Just because magnesium doesn't work to help you sleep, it doesn't mean that it's actually not part of the problem. So you could be deficient in magnesium and that is contributing to your sleep problems, but the supplement on its own doesn't help, and that's for a number of reasons. I mean, your gut needs to be healthy. To absorb that magnesium, you need to take the right dose.

A lot of times people aren't taking enough and there are likely other minerals that are out balance. If magnesiums out of balance too. Magnesium might be part of the answer, but it's not the answer, right? It's not the one thing that's going to work. And so I do recommend supplements to my clients to get their bodies back in balance, but it's not guessing because I use lab testing that's going to show exactly what your body needs. Now, there are also quite a few gadgets that have been invented to help people sleep better. There's cooling mattress pads such as chili pad. There are beds that actually rock you to sleep that cost thousands of dollars. They're vibrating devices that are supposed to stimulate certain parts of your brain to help promote sleep. And these are also band-aids, right? They aren't getting to the root cause of why you can't sleep.

So your fourth option is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and this method looks at how your thoughts, emotions, and behavior affect your sleep. And I do think that this is a very important part of overcoming insomnia. If you have anxiety about sleep or you have habits that are sabotaging your sleep, then it's definitely important to address those. So for this reason, I do use cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help my clients, but this doesn't help everyone by itself because it only addresses the mental part of insomnia. And so if there's something going on in your body that's keeping you awake, then only looking at the mental calls isn't going to help. And many of my clients have tried cognitive behavioral therapy or CBTI and it didn't work for them because they also have something that's physically causing their sleep problems. And so to get better, you really want to address both the body and the mind and everything that could be causing this.

So that leads us to your fifth option, and this is finding and addressing the root cause. And in my opinion, this is the only thing that actually works. So if you've tried everything and it hasn't helped, it's because different systems in your body are out of balance and you aren't truly healthy. Think about it. A healthy body sleeps well, so if you can't sleep, then you can't be in perfect health. Even if you eat healthy and exercise and live a healthy lifestyle, something is out of balance if you can't sleep. And so that's why I use functional lab testing to find out what that is so that we know exactly what to address. And the most common causes or physical causes of insomnia that I see are inflammation and unhealthy gut and unhealthy liver hormone imbalance, mineral imbalance, and heavy metal toxicity. As you've been learning from this podcast, the way to sleep better is to find the imbalances in your body that are keeping you awake.

I created the Insomnia Insight Program so you'll know what these imbalances are and have a plan to fix them in just 30 days. In the Insomnia Insight Program, my team and I use four functional lab tests as well as assessments to look for everything that could be affecting your sleep so we don't miss anything. Then we will give you a personalized, holistic 90 day plan to get your body back in balance so you can get the deep sleep that you want. You'll know exactly which supplements and habits your body needs. No more trying to find the magic pill or following advice you find online that just doesn't work for you. You'll also get support for six months with weekly live coaching calls and daily chat messaging to get all of your questions answered. This will ensure your plan is successful so your sleep keeps improving.

You'll also have access to valuable trainings such as Smart Sleeper Habits where you'll learn evidence-based habits that will help you sleep more peacefully. You'll learn Smart Sleeper Essentials so you can fall asleep fast and stop the 3:00 AM Wake-ups by finding the perfect diet for your body and by balancing your blood sugar. And the Smart Sleeper mindset will help you get rid of negative thoughts and anxiety about sleep so that your mind doesn't sabotage you. The program also includes bonuses, such as how to get out of fight or flight and calm your nervous system, how to minimize toxins and support your liver, how to make changing habits easier. Also, that you can restore your health and sleep deeply. There will also be challenges so you stay motivated to follow your protocol and to celebrate as your sleep keeps improving. There will be monthly bonus trainings to further improve your health mindset and sleep.

There will also be customized case reviews available. So if your sleep hasn't improved in three months, you can submit a case review where we will review your results and plan until you exactly what to do next to make sure you're successful in the program. And if you sign up from this podcast, you can get a special bonus, a Customized Sleep Jumpstart plan. We will give you top reaction steps to improve your sleep right away as soon as you sign up while we're waiting for your test results.

The investment for the Insomnia Insight program is $2,500 plus the cost of the lab tests, which are around a thousand dollars. There is financing available from advancecarecard.com. You can find out more about the program and sign up at the link in the show notes in the Insomnia Insight program. You'll know the imbalances that are causing your sleep issues, and you'll have a plan to fix them in just 30 days so that you can sleep better and make the difference you're meant to make in the world.

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