If you want to get to the bottom of why you can’t sleep, book a free consultation with me here: https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs


If you've tried melatonin, magnesium, valerian, CBD etc., and maybe even started combining them hoping something will finally stick. And maybe it worked for a while. But now it doesn't. Or it never really did…


It's actually not a supplement problem. It's a signal your body is sending you. And in this episode, I'm going to show you what it's actually saying.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why common sleep supplements often stop working over time
  • What’s actually driving your sleep issues underneath
  • What needs to change if you want your sleep to work naturally again


I also share the story of a client who tried everything, and still couldn’t sleep, until she finally understood what her body actually needed.


00:00 Supplements Stopped Working

00:52 Meet Carol’s Sleep Spiral

01:48 Why Common Sleep Aids Fail

03:30 Stop Guessing Start Testing

04:13 Carol’s Root Causes Revealed

05:17 The Step By Step Fix

06:37 Results and Next Steps


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] You've tried Melatonin, magnesium, valerian, CBD. Maybe even started combining all these things, a little of this, a little of that, hoping something will finally stick. And maybe it worked for a while, but now it doesn't, or it never really did help.


This is actually not a supplement problem. It's a signal your body is sending you. And in this episode, I'm going to show you what it's actually saying.


I'm Martha Lewis, a functional sleep practitioner. I've worked with hundreds of people who came to me with a drawer full of supplements. Still couldn't sleep, and when we tested what was actually going on in their bodies, I could see why everything they had tried didn't work for long.


By the end of this episode, you're going to understand exactly why sleep supplements stopped working and what you need to do instead to actually fix your sleep for good.


Now I want to tell you about my client, Carol. So she couldn't remember everything she'd already tried, she [00:01:00] tried so many things. She was buying things she'd already bought months before. And it started simple with melatonin, then Valerian. And then she started combining Melatonin and Valerian. And Tylenol PM and chamomille Tea. And then she added NyQuil to the mix. And this was when she knew that things were not good and she needed help. Because even with all those things, they still weren't working, she still wasn't sleeping, and she was irritable. She was getting headaches, which were new for her, and she knew that it was affecting the people around her.


This was just creating more stress and making everything, including her sleep even worse. So she knew she needed help and she didn't know yet what was actually wrong.


Let's talk about these different supplements. So something like melatonin is only going to work if melatonin is actually low, and that's the main reason why you weren't sleeping.


If something [00:02:00] else is disturbing your sleep, you can take it forever, it's not really gonna help. And a lot of my clients do actually have low melatonin production, and so sometimes I do recommend a melatonin supplement. But, it's not the only thing, and that's why it hasn't been enough to help or why it doesn't work for long.


Now it's the same with magnesium. Some people genuinely need it. In fact, it's estimated that 90% of people are deficient in magnesium, and it can definitely help with relaxation and sleep. But if you're depleted because of something deeper that's driving that de depletion, like your body is stressed or your life is very stressful, then we burn through magnesium five times more than usual. Then replenishing that only goes so far. We have to address where that stress is coming from.


Now, valerian and other herbs, they're trying to force relaxation and sleep, but if there are these [00:03:00] biological imbalances keeping you awake, it's not strong enough to override them.


And then CBD, A lot of people take C, B, D, even THC, you know, THC is definitely going to sedate you and make you sleep, but it also changes the sleep stages that you're in. CB. D helps primarily by reducing inflammation, but it's not addressing the source of that inflammation. So it might take the edge off, but the moment you stop, then you're back where you started.


We will get back to the episode in just a second, but real quick, if you're listening to this and thinking, this is me. I've tried all the supplements and nothing is really working anymore, that's usually the point where you need to stop adding things and start figuring out what's actually driving your sleep problem.


Because as you're hearing supplements only work when they match the root cause. That's exactly what I help people do inside my Complete Sleep Solution program. It starts with a consultation where we look at your history and what's been going on [00:04:00] and figure out what's actually behind your sleep issues.


If you want help getting out of the cycle of trying things that don't work, you can book a consultation using the link in the description. Alright, back to the episode.


So when Carol took the lab test in the complete Sleep Solution program, we found exactly why she wasn't sleeping.


First of all, she had high cortisol at night, no wonder her body wasn't able to fall asleep. And all the melatonin and magnesium and valerian in the world aren't enough to counteract that. But the thing we need to find is, okay, why is cortisol high?


And so she also showed h pylori, which is the type of bacteria that lives in the stomach. She had inflammation in the gut. She had. A lot of toxins showing up, especially mold. So that was something that we had to address. Those things were what was causing the high cortisol.


She also had some high stimulating neurotransmitters [00:05:00] like glutamate and acetylcholine, and so that was contributing to her sleep issues as well.


So it's not even just about high cortisol. There can be other imbalances that are driving the high cortisol and things like the high stimulating neurotransmitters that are also affecting sleep.


So this is what happened throughout her time in the program.


The first couple months we made some basic changes like darkening her room, white noise, not watching screens before bed. And she got off all sleep aids immediately because she wanted to. She knew they weren't helping, and so it seemed pointless and she started sleeping better immediately from making these minor changes.


Now, I also recommended some supplements right off the bat to help with detox and bind to toxins and support the liver and give her body the minerals it needed. So a lot of times if I suspect mold, if someone has a lot of the symptoms of mold [00:06:00] toxicity, then I will start people off on these supplements right away. And a lot of times they improve pretty quickly. So this is also what helped her sleep better right away. And she noticed that the binder helped her digestion significantly.


Now, month three, she started adding hormone replacement therapy because her hormones were pretty depleted, and so her sleep kept improving.


By month four, she noticed some nights she was too tired to even read. She was sleeping solid seven hours, waking at 5:00 AM and her children, noticed that she had stopped coughing all the time.


So now at the end of the program, she falls asleep within minutes. She sleeps through the night. And everything changed for her: her energy, digestion focus, mental wellbeing, everything changed.


So her advice for everyone is don't wait. Your sleep is so important, and you will realize once you start sleeping again, how much of your life the [00:07:00] lack of sleep was affecting. And if you wanna hear her story in her words, you can watch the next video here.

Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify