You’ve probably tried supplements, routines, trackers, and every sleep tip you can find—and you’re still lying awake at night. That’s not because you’re doing something wrong or because your body is broken. It’s because most sleep advice misses the only two things getting in the way of good sleep.


In this episode, I’m breaking down the two levers that truly matter for sleep in 2026: removing what’s actively stressing your nervous system, and restoring what your body no longer has enough of. 


You’ll learn how toxins, infections, and hidden physiological stressors keep your brain on high alert—and why no amount of “calming” supplements will work until those are addressed.


I’ll also walk you through what the body commonly runs short on as we age or live under chronic stress, and how supporting those foundations should come before biohacking, peptides, and longevity supplements.


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: Why Sleep Tips Fail

00:20 The Two Key Levers for Better Sleep

00:33 Understanding Toxins and Their Impact

00:46 The Role of Deficiencies in Sleep Issues

02:05 The Car Analogy: Gas and Brake

03:19 Removing Toxins for Better Sleep

05:51 Replenishing What Your Body Needs

06:26 Foundations Before Biohacking

07:48 Conclusion: Steps to Better Sleep

08:11 Next Steps: The 3 Step Sleep Fix


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] You've probably tried supplements, routines, trackers, and every sleep tip you can find, and you're still lying awake at night. That's not because you're doing something wrong or because your body is broken. It's because most sleep advice misses the only two things getting in the way of good sleep.


In this episode, I'm breaking down the two levers that truly matter for sleep in 2026. Removing what's actively stressing your nervous system and restoring what your body no longer has enough of. So you'll learn how toxins, infections, and hidden physiological stressors keep your brain on high alert at night and why no amount of calming supplements will work Until those are addressed,


I will also walk you through what the body commonly run short on as we age or live under chronic stress, and how supporting those foundations should come before biohacking, peptides, and longevity [00:01:00] supplements.


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 coach for the past six years, helping over 300 clients uncover what's keeping them awake so they can consistently sleep seven to nine hours without drugs.


I have been studying longevity lately, and it's been such a great reminder that health can sometimes seem so complicated and sleep can sometimes seem so complicated when it should be so easy.


I mean, we are meant to sleep an average of eight hours a night. And for a lot of people, this is just a very easy thing that happens that they don't think twice about. But for those of us who struggle to sleep, we know that it's not always easy.


But my recent studies have really reminded me of how simple health and sleep can actually be.


[00:02:00] There are really only two things getting in the way of good sleep. Now I want to compare this to a car. So we have a Ford F-150 truck. It is maroon, so we call it maroon four since there are four of us in our family, including our dog, bongo.


When you are trying to sleep without addressing what's getting in the way of it, like toxins, infections, or deficiencies, it's like pressing the gas pedal while your foot is also on the brake.


And so the gas might be your routines, your supplements, you're trying, meditation, sleep hygiene, all of those things. You're doing all the right things that should work. But there are toxins, there are pathogens, there's inflammation, there can be blood sugar swings, your hormones can be out of balance. And all of those things are pressing the [00:03:00] brake while you're also trying to step on the gas and do all the right things.


So you can keep pressing harder on the gas. You can keep doing more things. But the car still won't go because the brake is being pressed at the same time with all these things blocking the gas. And so the first thing you want to do is remove what's bad. So this is how sleep will improve when you take your foot off the brake by removing different toxins that are in your body.


Those toxins create a lot of noise. They affect how our genes are expressed. They affect how hormones and neurotransmitters are made. And so when there's all that chaos from toxins in the body. For those of us prone to sleep issues, that's what it's going to affect.


And so this is actually part of what I do in my Complete Sleep Solution program is I look directly [00:04:00] for toxins. I run a test called the Total Tox Burden that is looking at environmental chemicals, things like pesticides. It's looking at heavy metals. And it's looking at mycotoxins, which come from mold.


And everyone in this day and age is going to have toxins in their body, but our body should be able to deal with a normal amount of toxins.


But you know, if we're eating foods and drinking water that has pesticides and heavy metals, if we're exposed to mold, if we're using not as natural personal care products and cleaning products. We are exposed to thousands of toxins a day, and so it's not like we need to get rid of all of them, but we do want to reduce our exposure as much as we can. And so that is partly what I'm looking at.


And then the gut test I do is also looking for pathogens, and those pathogens create toxins in the body when they eat and excrete, [00:05:00] what they excrete is toxic to the body, puts an additional burden on the liver and is getting in the way of good sleep as well.


Now we also become depleted over time as we get older, as there are less nutrients in the soil and therefore in our food, as we're exposed to more toxins when we are dealing with more stress than our bodies can handle when our gut isn't healthy, and so we aren't absorbing nutrients from food properly. And again, those pathogens also produce more toxins. So all of these things are adding to our toxic load.


So that's the first thing, is that we need to remove what's bad, what's creating the noise that is keeping our body from being able to be in balance or homeostasis.


Now the second step is to replenish what is missing. So we, first, we want to remove what's bad. Then we want to replenish what we [00:06:00] need, what's good.


And so this is why I test for hormones, for neurotransmitters, for gut health. If you don't have enough of the good bacteria to make the neurotransmitters, then it's going to be hard to sleep. If immune function in the gut is compromised, it's going to be hard to sleep and be healthy. And so we want to really start replenishing what the body actually needs before optimizing.


And so what I mean is I have many clients who are interested in longevity. The reason they want to sleep is because they know it's so important for health and for living a long and healthy life.


But a lot of times they're doing things in the wrong order, right? They're taking random supplements for longevity or for overall health. They're intermittent fasting and cold plunging.


But what they've forgotten is to actually work on the foundations first. We need to make sure that the gut is healthy so it can absorb nutrients from food. We [00:07:00] need to make sure that we're eating nutrient dense, high quality food so that we're getting all those nutrients.


Because if the cells don't have certain B vitamins and a, D, E and K vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids ,then it's not going to be able to create energy and make all the things that we need to be able to not only sleep well, but also feel vibrant and have energy.


And so this is why I always wanna start with, okay, what is getting in the way in the body?


Make sure that blood sugar is balanced. Make sure you're eating enough protein to get the amino acids we need, which I talked about in last week's video. And getting the basic nutrients that you need. Those things need to happen first.


And then once you're sleeping well and your body's imbalance, then you focus on the other things like the biohacks and technologies and anything else you're interested in [00:08:00] to really then optimize from there. But first you have to be sleeping and in balance before we can even optimize. So that's what I mean about doing things in the wrong order.


So if you want to learn more about how I help my clients get the sleep they need, then you want to watch the next video called The 3 Step Sleep Fix for Adults Over 40.

Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify