BONUS. How I overcame insomnia

I am passionate about sleep because I struggled for 2 years until I figured out why I wasn't sleeping!

Find out more and sign up for the Insomnia Insight program.

Episode Transcript:

Have you tried everything from natural to pharmaceutical just to get a good night's rest? Join me, Martha Lewis, certified sleep expert and functional health coach as I unpack what's really keeping you up at night and how to change it. This is the Sleep Detective podcast and I'm going to show you how to sleep well so you can enjoy your life.

Hello. Hello everyone. Happy Halloween. I feel a little ridiculous right now, but that's okay. I am dressed and ready to go for Halloween, all for you guys. So I decided last year to get a detective costume, which I thought was super fun since I call myself the sleep detective, even have my little magnifying glass and everything, which I'm not going to use the entire time during the stream. But today I want to talk about how I overcame insomnia because the reason I'm passionate about sleep and it's my mission to help as many as people possible with sleep is because of my own struggle.

So I struggled for two years before I finally figured out what was causing it and what to do about it, and I was pretty miserable those entire two years. So I know what it's like to not be able to sleep. I know how frustrated it is, how tired you feel, how much it can really consume your entire life. And so that's why I want to help you. If this is what you're dealing with too, then I want you to know that there is an answer and it doesn't have to involve a sleeping pill. And I'm going to talk about too by so many of the things that we're told to try all the time don't actually work. So if you have questions, feel free to join in or ask them in the comments as I go, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

So again, I struggled with sleep issues for two years. My insomnia, although I didn't really call it that then, but my sleep issue started in late pregnancy. So I got pregnant with my son when I was 39, which is pretty late. And until then I had always been a great sleeper and I had actually always really needed sleep and cared about sleep. I'm very sensitive to being sleep deprived and I think some people are more than others. So I mean, I was such a dork about sleep. I used to work on an organic farm and I would wake up at 6:00 AM to get there, and so I had to go to bed by 10 or else I was just so tired. And so I would have dinner parties at my house and when 9 45 hit, I would be like, okay guys, you can keep on hanging out without me, but I'm going upstairs and going to bed, and my boyfriend would even be there as well, and I would go upstairs and go to bed and leave my friends there hanging out probably only until 10 30, 11. But I was like, I got to get sleep. So that's how much I've always cared about sleep. So when I couldn't sleep in late pregnancy, I mean I would lie awake for hours, I couldn't fall asleep. And then if I woke up, I couldn't stay asleep. I was going to the couch to try and get some sleep. My midwife was telling me to try all these herbs and do all these things. And of course that's when I started researching about sleep.

So that's what started my journey. But I figured, okay, this is just two months. And people would tell me too, like, oh, you're just getting used to having a newborn and not getting sleep. And I'm like, I don't need to get used to this. I need to sleep now. I'm not going to be sleeping much then there's no getting used to it, right? Anyway. But I thought that once my son was born, I would be able to sleep normally again. I figured it was just pregnancy and hormones or wasn't anything I could do about it, but that it would go away. So then my son was born, actually had ended up having kind of an emergency. He was in the NICU for nine days. It was a very stressful time, obviously I wasn't sleeping much then I was waking up every two hours to pump to get my milk going even though he wasn't able to nurse yet.

So by the time I left the hospital when he was 10 days old, I mean, I was just exhausted, but that's just how it goes. So we get home and he also, he never was a good sleeper. So for the first three months of his life, and this is normal when they're newborn first born, but by the time they're three months old, babies can go longer stretches and should be able to sleep a lot better. But he wasn't partly probably because he was sleeping in bed with me what I wanted to do. So I was having to nurse him all night long every 45 minutes to two hours, even when he was three months old. So by the time he was three months old, I ended up hiring a pediatric sleep consultant, even though I didn't really believe in sleep training, but I also realized that me, I wasn't being the best mom I could be to him when I was so exhausted.

And I did this very gentle sleep training method with a coach, and it made such a difference In four nights. He was waking up once a night, which he did until he was six months old and was sleeping through the night. So my life was transformed. I'm like, okay, I can do this. Having having a baby thing, I'm going to survive. And I even became a pediatric sleep consultant to help other parents with their baby's sleep because it was life-changing for me. But what I realized once he was sleeping is that I wasn't. So when I would wake up to nurse him in the night from three to six months old, I would take forever to fall back asleep. So I thought that once he was sleeping through the night as six months old, that things would change. But no, they didn't. I still woke up and was awake for hours.

And so I would try to go to bed early because I was so tired, but I couldn't fall asleep for a long time. And then again, I was awake from four to 6:00 AM and then my son was waking up at 6:00 AM for the day. So I was not getting a lot of sleep, maybe five or six hours, and I need a good eight and a half hours. So of course, I started doing all the research. I was working, I was managing the supplement department of a health food store at the time, so I know a lot about health. I also have a background in nutrition, so it's like I was a healthy person. I cared about my health, I ate organic, I exercised, and yeah, my friends know me as the health person, and yet I still had this insomnia. And so working in the supplement for the supplement store, I tried every supplement under the sun.

I got so many free samples. I paid for stuff. I tried anything that would promise to help and nothing really worked. The magnesium, the melatonin, all these different sleep formulas, the C, b, D, like everything. And I was researching online and of course I would follow all the advice online, have a bedtime routine. I stopped watching TV before bed with my husband, which was something I did for years before then and tried to do all the right things. And I just remember I would lie awake in the middle of the night and just wonder what is causing this? What did I do wrong? What is going on? I even remember Googling one time and it told me, this can happen when you're having a spiritual crisis. And I was like, okay, maybe I'm starting a business as a pediatric sleep consultant. Maybe this is my brain becoming an entrepreneur and all these things. And after months and months of that though, I'm like, no, this isn't it. This shouldn't last forever. So finally my Dana Belman, who I trained with for pediatric sleep, offered an adult sleep certification. So I decided to take that even though I was really skeptical, like I'm doing all the right things, I know what to do. But it turns out there were definitely some mindset things to work on, like me complaining about sleep all the time to my husband, to my coworkers, to my friends was not helping me.

So there was a lot of mindset, like obsessing about sleep, researching about sleep. So that certification really helped me let some of that go work on my thoughts about sleep and not being anxious about sleep, but it wasn't really getting to the root of why I wasn't sleeping. But my sleep did improve somewhat to where I could fall asleep easily and I learned to get out of bed when I wasn't sleeping in the middle of the night and so was able to fall back asleep faster. But I still wasn't sleeping. I used to, I wasn't sleeping eight and a half hours straight. And so it wasn't until I learned about functional lab testing and I saw someone who was doing that for sleep that I just had this aha moment. This makes so much sense. There's something going on in my

body that is causing this.

There's got to be, because I know it's not at all in my head when it just came on in late pregnancy like that, I knew I'm not an anxious person. And so it's like I knew it wasn't any of those things. And so I ended up doing the lab test and it gave me so much insight. I found out, first of all, I had a parasite, and this was a huge part of it for me. I think that I got that parasite 13 years before traveling in Nepal and India. So I got really sick in Nepal. I thought it was Giardia. I ended up taking antibiotics, but I had a different parasite. According to this test, I have what's called blastocystis hominini. So I don't know for sure that I got it when traveling in Asia, but I can see that when I got back from that trip is when I wasn't as vibrant and healthy as I used to be. And I also thought that it was because I was in my early thirties and I wasn't in my twenties anymore, but I just noticed a little less energy.

There was some weight that I couldn't lose, even if I did a cleanse and cut calories and all of that. And so I can just see how that after that trip, my health somewhat changed, but it was minor, but it took until I was 39 to have the effect for the parasite to damage my gut, which led to food sensitivities. So I was reacting to gluten, dairy, eggs, and the good bacteria in my gut were depleted. So gut health was a huge part of it for me. Now, I also had hormone imbalance, and that's not surprising considering I had a child at age 39. So that was another factor. And what else? I had heavy metals. I had high uranium and copper, so uranium probably from the drinking water where I live in Jackson Hole, it's common for uranium to be in mountainous regions in lots of areas of California as well.

And then copper can come from birth control, which I took for 12 years when I was younger. And so all of those imbalances were explaining why I wasn't able to sleep normally. So I started correcting those and my sleep got so much better. Sleeping well, 95% of the time I would still have time around my period when I would just have a weird night where I was awake for a couple hours, but it was only one or two nights a month. So not a big deal, right? I will take it. And yeah, I also want to mention that even before all of this happened, I would wake up to pee every night in the middle of the night and I still do. And when I wasn't sleeping well, I thought that the problem was that I was peeing because I would wake up, you go pee and then come back in bed and that's when I would be awake.

But now and before I can wake up, I go to the bathroom, I go back to bed, I go right back to sleep and wake up feeling rested. So it's totally fine. But if you're one of those people who's like, it's because I'm peeing in the night, it's not necessarily that you should be able to go back to sleep after if that's what's happening once a night. If it's happening more than that, then there's probably something more going on, which I talked about last week I think is why you're peeing at night and what can cause that. Anyway, so yeah, those tests show me so much. And it finally had a reason why I wasn't sleeping then. So I was sleeping great. This is how I'm helping people. And I had a mentor who mentioned neurotransmitters and that it could be valuable to test for that with some of my clients.

And so I went and took the test. I found out that I was deficient in serotonin and gaba and I started supplementing for those. And that's, ever since then, my sleep has just been continually good and normal. And I sleep eight and a half hours a night and I wake up feeling rested most of the time, occasionally. Recently actually I went through a stressful time. Something happened in my personal life and it affected my sleep, but I don't think it's a big deal anymore. I know I'm going to get back to sleeping fine once it passes. And so I just don't worry about sleep anymore. I used to. And so I hope that this story has been helpful, especially if you're like me and you've tried all the things, you are already healthy and that you care about your health, but there can be these underlying health issues that you don't even know are there that are affecting your sleep.

And so functional lab testing will show what those, what's going on so that we know what to correct. And that's even if blood work comes back normal, I always got blood work done every year and it's like I'm in perfect health, but I'm not able to sleep normally. So obviously something is going on there. And sure enough there was blood work isn't going to show a parasite. It might show hormones, but it's really hard to tell from blood work if hormones are in balance with each other, which is really important. So if estrogen's higher than progesterone or progesterone's higher than estrogen, then that can also lead to sleep issues and other symptoms. So the balance of hormones is really important. Blood work's not even going to show something I test for is mineral imbalance. It's not even going to show that because your body's always going to keep your minerals.

I balance in the blood, but it's going to pull from the soft tissue and the bones and things like that to keep them. I balance in the blood. So things are really out of whack if minerals are out of balance on blood work. But we can see mineral imbalance before it's really out of whack from the hair tests that I use. So I now use four different lab tests that give me the most information for the least amount of money so that I can pinpoint why people aren't sleeping and not overlook anything. So if I had just found out that I had a parasite and tried to address that, but I didn't look at hormones and I didn't look at neurotransmitters and I didn't look at heavy metals, I wouldn't have gotten any better because it wasn't just the parasite, it was all these other imbalances. And some of them are indirectly from the parasite over time, but just getting rid of the parasite would not have been enough to help me overcome insomnia for good. So we really want to look at everything that could be causing this, and that is how you can sleep better. Awesome. So if you have any questions, please let me know. I am happy to answer anything.

I did a live last week about, actually I need to do one about the four tests so that you understand, so that you can see all of those. So I can add that to my list. On the 21st, I did the four steps to consistently sleep well without drugs. And in that one I do talk about the testing. That is one of the steps. But I can tell you real quickly, the Dutch test is a dried urine hormone test that looks at sex hormones, and it's more accurate than blood work because you take five samples in 24 hours. So we see the average of your hormones throughout the day, whereas blood work is just the second in time. And again, I mentioned that the balance of hormones is so important. So this test really looks at the balance of those. And then it also shows how those hormones are being broken down by your body, especially by your liver.

So one thing I didn't mention, I also had liver detox issues, and that's a lot because of the pathogen, because of the parasite, but I mean, I got to the point a few years ago where I couldn't even drink alcohol at all. I would have one drink and would feel hungover and horrible one hour later, and then of course I wouldn't sleep well, right? We know alcohol affects our sleep, but I just got to the point where I couldn't tolerate it at all. So I took a long break from drinking alcohol, and that used to be a big part of my social life. I don't know if you're familiar with mountain towns, but drinking is part of it. We go play hard, we go ski all day, we go bike all day and then we go drink and it's fun. And that's what I did for a very long time. And I was never an alcoholic or anything like that, but I abused my liver over the years for sure by over drinking. And this parasite was also contributing to all these toxins in my body that my liver couldn't handle. So anyway, from the Dutch test, we can see how your liver's functioning and the different parts of liver detox that are happening.

And the test also looks at cortisol and your cortisol pattern. Blood work might look for cortisol first thing in the morning when you do the blood work, and it might come back normal, but we need to see, ideally cortisol is lowest first thing in the morning and then it spikes to as highest level within two hours of waking up, and then it gradually goes down throughout the day. So my cortisol was through the roof in the middle of the night from the parasite, which totally explains why I wasn't sleeping. So we actually want to see your pattern because things could be normal in the morning, but if it's higher in the middle of the night, then that's why you weren't sleeping. Now we need to find out why cortisol is high and address that, but that is one of the clues that I'm looking for.

And knowing your cortisol levels and pattern also tells me how well your body's able to handle stress in this time. So when you're first exposed to something, your body can release a lot of cortisol and it has those resources to do it. So younger people, a lot of times have really high cortisol, and if they have pathogens and heavy metals and things like that, it means that their body's able to respond to those. But as we get older, the body doesn't have the resources to make as much cortisol, and so it becomes depleted over time. So even though they might still have these infections and toxins, the body isn't able to respond appropriately anymore. And a lot of clients will tell me they feel like they just can't handle stress anymore. The littlest thing feels so stressful, and that's a sign that your body isn't able to make cortisol anymore.

So you literally aren't able to handle stress as well anymore. So cortisol and your pattern is another thing that Dutch test shows, and that's a really important thing to look at. And then the Dutch also looks at some B vitamins. It looks at melatonin, so it gives so much different information in that one test. So I definitely love that one. The second test I do is called the GI map or gastrointestinal map. So this is a stool test that is looking at overall gut health. So it's looking for those pathogens like a parasite that I talked about. It is actually looking for the DNA of those pathogens. So it's different than a test you might get from your conventional doctor. It also looks for lots of different things. So I know I've seen tests that people have gotten from their doctor that are looking for seven pathogens. Well, they're way more than that out there. Of course, we can't test for the thousands that there are, but the GI map definitely tests for a lot more of those. It also looks for h pylori, which is a bacteria that lives in the stomach, and it's one of the most sensitive tests to detect h pylori. And a lot of my clients show this, even if a breath test from their doctor came back negative, the breath test is looking for an indirect measure of h pylori with the gas that it produces in your breath.

Yeah, or if good to see you, I'm going to sign up today. That's awesome. I love it. If you sign up today, you'll get the bonus jumpstart plan too. So definitely do that and let me know if you have any questions. So yeah, so the GI map also looks for h pylori even if it hasn't been detected in other ways, and it looks at the good bacteria in your gut as well. And those are important for making 90% of our neurotransmitters. So I don't think that we know this right, but 90% of serotonin, gaba, even melatonin are made in the gut. And so if your gut isn't healthy and you don't have enough good bacteria, then you're not going to be able to make those neurotransmitters that help you feel calm, relaxed, and able to sleep. So that's another piece of the puzzle. But I will add that a lot of people are like, oh, well, I take a probiotic, and so my gut should be good, right?

I mean, there's more to gut health than just a probiotic and the good bacteria. If you have a pathogen, then we also need to address that. If you aren't digesting food well, then we also need to address that. But sometimes people have too much good bacteria, and so taking a probiotic is just adding more inflammation because that over that, even the good bacteria overgrowth are inflammatory when there's too many. And so a probiotic is making that worse. So that's why I really believe in testing instead of guessing. And it's funny, working in the health food store, I would tell, oh, yes, everyone should take a probiotic and fish oil and blah, blah, blah, right? Well, I don't think everyone should take a probiotic. I think it depends on what's going on in your gut, and we don't know that unless we test. So that is, let's see, what else about the GI map?

The GI map also shows how well you're digesting food. It shows how strong your immune system is in your gut. A lot of times if you've had a pathogen for a long time, your immune function has declined. And so then it's harder to fight off other pathogens, and the gut lining just keeps getting damaged. And so we really want to be looking at overall gut health in that way. It also has a marker for liver function. It has a marker for gluten sensitivity. So unfortunately, gluten is one of the first things that we tend to react to as our gut gets damaged. So that is common, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's permanent. So that's the good news. So again, the GI map gives this overall snapshot of gut health, so we can see what's going on there. And I want to add too, some of my clients have digestive issues like bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation. So we know already that there's something going on in the gut, but you might be like me and not have any symptoms at all. And there's still things still that the gut isn't healthy. So yes, I will tell you, none of my clients have a perfectly healthy gut. So yeah, even if you don't have those symptoms, then it's likely that your gut is a piece of the puzzle. Now, the third test I do is a neurotransmitter test.

Hold on. I want to respond to this comment. Saw something about a recent hypothesis saying the autoimmune attack response that occurs when narcolepsy develops is tied to the gut microbiome. Been eating kimchi on the regular has been helpful. I love that. Yes, autoimmunity of any kind is definitely tied to the gut. So yes, that totally makes sense. Okay, so the third test I do is a neurotransmitter test. And so this is directly testing serotonin, gaba, which I already mentioned. It's also testing other stress hormones like norepinephrine and epinephrine. I grew up learning them as noradrenaline and adrenaline and even histamine and glutamate, which those are excitatory neurotransmitters. So sometimes those are high and that can lead to sleep issues. Or when serotonin, gaba, dopamine are low, that can lead to sleep issues. So I found that by helping clients boost those or deal with whatever imbalance is happening, they get better so much faster.

So neurotransmitters again were that final piece of the puzzle for me. So it's definitely an important piece of the puzzle to be looking at. And then the last test they do is called a hair tissue mineral analysis. So this uses your hair to look at your mineral status, so different minerals can get out of balance, which can directly lead to sleep issues and even mood issues. And this can happen. Minerals get out of balance when we're stressed. So we burn through magnesium five times more quickly when we're stressed than when we aren't. So if you've been through a stressful time dealing with the death of a loved one or going through a divorce or anything like that, that's depleting your stress hormones, but also your minerals. And same with sodium potassium. We burn through that so quickly when we're stressed. So a lot of times I'm seeing these mineral imbalances or just depleted minerals overall.

Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify