If you’ve dialed in sleep hygiene, tried meditation, and built a solid bedtime routine—but your sleep still isn’t where it should be—there is a missing piece that most people never think about, especially if they don’t drink alcohol.


In this episode, I’m talking about how one often-overlooked organ can quietly interfere with sleep, why so many high-functioning adults miss it, and the signs that tell us it needs support—long before standard labs flag a problem.


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 to Sleep Issues

00:51 The Overlooked Role of the Liver

01:29 Liver's Impact on Sleep

04:44 Signs of a Sluggish Liver

07:35 Testing for Liver Function

10:23 Comprehensive Sleep Solutions

11:23 Get Help with Your Sleep


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] If you've dialed in sleep hygiene, tried meditation, and built a solid bedtime routine, but your sleep still isn't where it should be, there is a missing piece that most people never think about, especially if they don't drink alcohol. In this episode, I'm talking about how one often overlooked organ can quietly interfere with sleep, why so many high functioning adults miss it, and the signs that tell us it needs support long before standard labs flag it as a problem.


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 hundreds of clients find and fix the imbalances in their bodies so they can sleep well without drugs.


So I want to talk about this one organ that a lot of people don't even think about, [00:01:00] especially if they don't drink. So I'll have so many clients come to me and say, oh, there's no way my liver is an issue. I don't even drink alcohol. And even the people who do drink alcohol think that, you know, because it's a moderation that it's not an issue. But there is more than just alcohol stressing our livers and all of my clients need some sort of liver support that I can see from their labs and a lot of times from their symptoms as well.


So let's talk about why the liver is so important for sleep. According to the Chinese clock, the liver is most active between one and 3:00 AM. And so this is the time when it's detoxing not only alcohol, but also all the other chemicals and toxins we are exposed to any drugs over whether over the counter pharmaceutical, recreational that we have consumed and other toxins in the body.


And even western [00:02:00] medicine has realized that the liver's detox pathways are regulated by our circadian rhythm. And so when we are fasting overnight, that's when the body shifts away from digestion and toward cellular repair and antioxidants helping repair the body and metabolic processing especially of toxins and regulating glucose.


All of those things are helping to support liver detox and general detoxification in the body. So again, we get toxins from so many places, especially this day and age. I mean, we're supposedly exposed to 80,000 toxins a day from pesticides and herbicides in our food and in our water and heavy metals in our water, from toxins in the products that we put on our skin, the products that we clean [00:03:00] with, the products that we put in our laundry, where we wash our clothes. So we are just exposed to so many things all the time and our bodies are supposed to be able to detoxify these toxins. So, you know, since the beginning of time we've been exposed to toxins, it's just we're exposed to so many more now.


And our livers and other organs are just compromised over time because the amount of stress we've been under and because the amount of toxins we have been exposed to.


And there are also things in our body that can be creating toxins. So if there are pathogens in the gut, like a parasite or bacterial overgrowth or candida or mycotoxins from mold. So all of those creatures are releasing toxins and they are also most active in the middle of the night.


So, you know, my clients waking at three and 4:00 AM [00:04:00] this is why, and it's kind of a double whammy because the pathogens are creating toxins, waking you up, putting an extra burden on the liver, which is then also contributing to waking you up.


And how this wakes us up is that whenever these toxins are circulating around, the body releases cortisol to deal with the inflammation caused by those toxins. But cortisol is gonna wake us up when it's being released in the middle of the night so that is not what we want.


Not only is the liver, our body's filter and protector, it's one of the most important organs for our health. So it's also critical for immunity, for energy production and for digestion.


Now, besides sleep problems, there are seven other common signs that your liver is what is called congested or sluggish, which means that there are more toxins than it can handle.


So another sign is poor digestion. [00:05:00] One of the liver's other jobs is to make bile, which helps us break down fats and absorb especially fat soluble vitamins. And so you have bloating in digestion or abdominal pain or floating stools, that's a sign that your body isn't digesting especially fats well, and that your liver therefore isn't healthy.


Now hormone imbalances are also related to liver function. So it's our liver that's responsible for breaking down and removing hormones from the body, especially estrogen. And so if that's not happening, then instead of estrogen being removed, it recirculates and builds up leading to what's called estrogen dominance.


And that is where estrogen is higher than progesterone in women or higher than testosterone in men and can cause a lot of symptoms, including sleep issues.


Now, weight gain is another symptom, or not being able to lose weight, and especially [00:06:00] having that belly fat. So when toxins build up, they're causing inflammation, the body releases cortisol and guess what? Cortisol tells our body to store fat. So it is a big contributor to having weight that we can't get rid of.


Now, skin problems are another big one, so acne, rosacea, rashes, eczema. All of these things are signs that toxins are building up and coming out of the skin, and then your skin is reacting to that.


Fatigue is another big one. So our liver helps make energy for the body. Okay.


Chemical sensitivities are another common thing. So you know, I have a lot of clients who are sensitive to cleaning products and perfumes and other chemicals. If those give you a headache or make you feel anxious or irritable, then that's a sign that your toxic bucket is overflowing.


And sugar and carb cravings are [00:07:00] another sign. So hormone and blood sugar imbalances that lead to cravings are really common when the liver isn't working well.


As you can see, there are lots of different signs of liver detox issues and to those of us predisposed to sleep issues, that is one way that it manifests.


Now other people might not be detoxifying well and it doesn't affect their sleep, and that's just because we're all different metabolically, genetically. And so unfortunately, some of us are more wired to have sleep issues when our bodies are out of balance. 


Now I can find out how people's livers are functioning with the tests that I run.


One of the tests I run is called a hormone zoomer, and this is looking at our hormones. But what's really helpful is that it shows how our hormones are being broken down or metabolized by the body, especially by the liver. So it's really looking at these hormone clearance [00:08:00] and detox pathways, and so it tells us whether your liver is processing these hormones effectively and which pathways are working well and aren't working well. So it gives me different clues into different parts of liver detox like methylation and sulfation to name a few.


Now I do wanna say that a lot of times my clients are like, but , you know, my blood work always looks great. So blood work is looking for different liver enzymes, like ALT and AST that's looking at actual liver cell damage. So it's telling us whether the liver tissue is being injured. But that's gonna take a long time to show up on blood work so we can see what's going on with the different detox processes long before our blood work markers get out of range. And a lot of times when I look at my client's blood work using functional or optimal ranges, [00:09:00] there are some signs that those enzymes are higher than what's optimal, even if the lab's reference range is saying that it's normal.


Now the gut zoomer I run looks at gut health, and so it does have one marker called B glucuronidase that when that is elevated is a sign that toxins are building up and not able to be flushed out of the body. And so that's another clue there for liver function.


And then it's also going to look for, okay, why is the liver having so much trouble by looking for those different pathogens that could be living in the body and releasing a lot of toxins.


And then I've started doing a test called the total tox Burden that looks directly at how many toxins are in the body. It's looking at mycotoxins, which are from mold, environmental chemicals and heavy metals. So you know, some of my clients, and we're all [00:10:00] gonna have some toxin show up on this because again, we live in this modern day and age where we're just exposed to so many things. But some people have five show up and other people have 25 show up. And so it's just a good way for me to see their toxic burden and help them reduce exposure as much as possible, and then help their bodies be able to better get rid of those toxins.


So even though I'm talking about the liver here, everything is connected as you can see, right? It's connected to the gut, it's connected to our hormones, it's connected to energy production and the mitochondria, it's connected to blood sugar.


So this is why when I am helping my clients find what's affecting their sleep, it's always more than one thing. So while for everyone it is the liver, some aspect of the liver, there are also always other pieces of the puzzle to this that we need to find.


While you can do things to minimize toxins and support [00:11:00] your liver, if we're not getting to the root of, okay, why are there so many toxins in your body and why isn't your liver detoxing properly, then it's gonna be really hard to sleep better. So that's why I believe in looking at all the pieces of the puzzle, because there's always more than one thing going on by the time someone can't sleep. And liver detox is just one part of that.


If this is something you are interested in. Is getting my help at looking for everything that is affecting your sleep so that you can sleep normally without needing drugs or a ton of supplements or a two hour bedtime routine, that's what I do in my Complete Sleep Solution Program. I use functional lab testing plus looking at assessments and your entire habits and lifestyle to find everything that's affecting your sleep. And if this is something you're interested in and want to get started, you can book a free consultation with me so we can meet each other, talk about what's going on with your sleep, what your [00:12:00] goals are, and how the program can help you finally get the sleep that you need.


And if you want to learn more about how to minimize toxins and support your liver, you want to watch the next video.

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