Anxiety, depression, and insomnia all have the same cause: imbalances in your body.


Find out more about the Complete Sleep Solution 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 Wednesday. I hope you're all having a good week so far and everyone is okay with how the election turned out. We're not going to get into politics today, that's for sure, but that is what is happening. So today I want to talk about why you're anxious, depressed, and can't sleep. And also if you have any questions about your sleep, feel free to put them in the comments and I will answer them at the end as well. I'm happy to answer all of your questions too, but today I do have a specific topic that I want to talk about, and I know that if you have been struggling with sleep for a while, you've gone to your doctor, you've maybe gone to a psychologist or psychiatrist, you've probably been told that anxiety is causing your sleep issues.


And I've talked to so many people lately who they know that that's not it, right? Yes, they might feel anxious, but they know that that isn't the reason why they aren't sleeping or they don't feel anxious at all, right? But they're still told, oh, you have general anxiety. That's why you aren't sleeping. So I want to argue that, not argue, but I want to explain how different imbalances in the body can lead to sleep issues and also anxiety and depression, which we think of as mental health issues, but the body and mind are connected. And when your body's releasing certain hormones or neurotransmitters, that is going to affect how you feel. So I do recognize that first of all, anxiety and depression can be triggered by stress, right? Or by trauma. So I get that, but then that trauma also starts breaking down the body over time, which is then going to perpetuate, make it continue, and even make it worse.


Yes, you might be feeling anxious and wired when you're supposed to be sleeping, and so it seems like anxiety is causing it, but there are certain hormones that are actually causing your anxiety and causing your insomnia at the same time, and I hope that this is actually good news because it's not that this is all in your head. I know it's so frustrating to be told that, oh, you have anxiety, that's why you aren't sleeping. And so you just need to fix that. And then it's not something that is easy to fix all the therapy in the world. There are definitely tools that we can use to help with anxiety, but it's almost like it feels like it's your fault. It's our fault if you aren't able to control it. And I just want to point out that there can be imbalances in your body that are making you feel anxious, that are making you feel depressed and that are affecting your sleep.


So one of the main things I see with my clients, especially with mood issues, is neurotransmitter deficiencies. And so this is why antidepressants, for example, like the SSRIs, they're affecting serotonin. A lot of the drugs out there are affecting neurotransmitters. Gabapentin is meant to affect gaba, Trazodone, Lexapro, all of those are also affecting G gaba. So it's like we know that neurotransmitters are a piece of this, but you don't need a drug to get that back in balance. And unfortunately those drugs can, they're not getting to the root cause of why those neurotransmitters are low, which is what we want to do, and they have side effects. They can be addictive. So there are other ways to support neurotransmitters and boost neurotransmitters without taking a prescription drug. So one of the four tests I use in my programs is called the neuro focus panel, and this is a urine test that is looking specifically at neurotransmitters.


And most of my clients have not ever done this test before. I work with a lot of clients, I mean some who haven't done any kind of functional lab testing. And this is new to them. Others have gone to lots of practitioners over the years and almost never have neurotransmitters been looked at. So this is a huge and often overlooked piece of the puzzle, and it's why I think it's so important, especially for people with sleep issues and mood issues. So one of the neurotransmitters that many of my clients are deficient in and that I was as well is serotonin. So serotonin is our happy neurotransmitter. And so if you find difficulty finding joy from life's pleasures, if you have feelings of depression, anxiety, worry, and sleep cycle disturbances, then it's likely that you don't have enough serotonin. And if you feel anxiety or panic for no reason or overwhelm or have a racing mind and insomnia, then you might be deficient in gaba, which is our anti-anxiety neurotransmitter.


And I also want to point out that some people like me and one of my clients who I was talking to yesterday, he's like, I don't have any of these mood issues. I'm kind of surprised that he was super depleted in all of the neurotransmitters, including serotonin and gaba. I told him I'm the same way. I found out I was deficient in serotonin and gaba. I fortunately don't have a lot of mood issues even though it runs in my family, but my neurotransmitter deficiencies were affecting my sleep. That was my only symptom. So even if you aren't feeling anxious and depressed, but you have sleep issues, you're still likely deficient in these neurotransmitters. So the key to feeling calm and happy and sleeping peacefully is to support your neurotransmitters. And this was a game changer for my sleep. So my sleep got so much better when I addressed the parasite that I had, I had hormone imbalance, I had food sensitivities, I had heavy metals, and my sleep got a lot better, but it wasn't consistently good.


It was so much better than before. I didn't really even care. But a mentor suggested that I start using neurotransmitter testing for my clients. So I took the neurotransmitter test first, always use myself as the Guinea pig first, and sure enough, I'm deficient in serotonin and gaba. And once I started supplementing with those, which was almost two years ago now my sleep is just great. 99% of the time it's way more consistent. It's just, it's good. I wake up feeling rested, I sleep eight and a half hours, and that was the final piece of the puzzle. So if that's something that you haven't tested yet, then that is what could be missing for you. Let me know if you have any questions as we go along here as well. So there are other imbalances in the body that can also lead to anxiety, depression, and insomnia.


So another one is an unhealthy gut. So it's actually the good bacteria in our gut that make up to 90% of our neurotransmitters. So if you have too many pathogens and not enough good bacteria, then you're not going to make the serotonin, gaba, even dopamine that help you feel calm, relaxed, and sleepy. Now, hormone imbalance is another factor. So low progesterone, low testosterone, and low or high estrogen can lead to anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, mood swings, and more. So our hormones also play an important role in our mood. Now, high cortisol is another big one. So if you're stressed all the time or your body has a lot of inflammation, and so by stress it could be mental stress, but it can also be physical stressors in your body that you don't even know are there. For example, I had a parasite, so my cortisol levels were high all the time.


At first, cortisol makes us feel wired and anxious. And so if your body's releasing cortisol at night, you're going to feel anxious. And so it can seem like the anxiety is causing your sleep issues is not letting you fall asleep, but it's actually the parasite causing the inflammation leading your body to release cortisol that is making you feel anxious and wired and not able to sleep. And if cortisol becomes depleted. So some of my clients, they've been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, meaning that their adrenals aren't making a lot of cortisol, and that happens over time. When you're under chronic stress, then cortisol becomes depleted. Your body actually resorts to adrenaline instead, which is going to make you feel even worse. It's going to make you even more wired when you are wanting to sleep. So I don't know if that's your first name is saying I sleep, but not on time.


So I'm assuming that means you have a hard time falling asleep. And so that could be your circadian rhythm is off, and that could be from cortisol. If your body's releasing cortisol at bedtime, then that's going to make it really hard to sleep. So of course we want to find out why your body's releasing cortisol at bedtime and address that. But yeah, so that's what I do in the other testing and assessments is looking for, okay, why is cortisol high? Usually it has to do with pathogens in the gut with liver detox issues and with blood sugar dropping too low at night. Now another thing that you might not realize can lead to sleep issues and mood issues are mineral imbalances. So when our minerals get out of balance, then that can lead to mental health issues, it can lead to anxiety and depression. So that's another really important piece of the puzzle that most practitioners aren't looking at is looking at mineral balance.


And I use the hair tissue mineral analysis to see your mineral balance. And then that test also looks for heavy metals. So that is another reason why you might be feeling anxious, depressed, and not able to sleep. Heavy metals accumulate in the brain and can cause neurological symptoms. So if you have, I had really high copper in uranium, I see aluminum and mercury and cadmium in some of my clients. So that's thing that you want to be looking at. So even though anxiety, depression and sleep issues seem like mental health issues, the cause is likely in your body and not your head. And if you've been doing therapy for years and haven't gotten better, this is why it's not your fault. It's not actually because your therapist sucks or you're doing something wrong, it's because there are things in your body that are making you feel that way.


But the good news is we can find what those are through functional lab testing and fix them, and then you'll be able to feel calm and relaxed and happy and able to sleep. So the way to do that is to find the root cause of why you're feeling this way and correct it. And that is exactly what I can help with. I have two different programs that use functional lab testing to find the imbalances in your body, and then we also give you a customized protocol to get your body back in balance so that you can feel calm, relaxed, and able to sleep. My Complete Sleep Solution program is a one-on-one private coaching program. And so like I said, it includes analysis of the test, it includes a personalized protocol. As soon as you sign up, you'll start working with your coach within the first week where she will give you your jumpstart plan.


So you'll fill out some quick intake form so we know everything about your health history, your symptoms, your habits, your mindset about sleep, and we will tell you the top three things to do right away to start improving your sleep. And a lot of our clients start sleeping better right away just from working on these things before we even get the test results back. And then when we get the test results back, we look at the big picture of everything that's going on and give you a protocol including supplements to help get your body back in balance. And what's cool about the testing is that then we can see what your body actually needs. So you're not taking experimenting with all these different supplements to see if something will help. You can try GABA or L-theanine to support gaba. You can try five HTP to support serotonin, but if you don't know that that's what your body needs, then you're just experimenting and throwing spaghetti on the wall.


So the tests will show what your body needs so you aren't guessing anymore and wasting money on all these supplements that aren't actually going to help. And the supplements are meant to be taken short term, so most of them aren't meant to be taken forever. My goal is we're going to look at everything and address everything that's affecting your sleep issues at once so that you take the supplements for a few months, get your body back in balance, and then you don't have to take things forever. So that's how that works. And then the program includes 12 sessions over six months. So your meeting with your coach twice a month. Right now my coach in the Complete Sleep Solution program is Claudine. She is amazing. She has the same certification I do for functional lab testing. She's also been trained in the sleep detective method.


She has helped over 40 clients since she's been on the team to find the root cause of their sleep issues and help them sleep seven or more hours uninterrupted. So my clients have been loving working with her. I do work with a handful of clients for a higher rate, so that's an option too. But many of my clients are seeing my coach Claudine and I still oversee your case. The two of us are collaborating on your case. We will both be chatting with you during the chat support. So you'll also get six months of chat support as well as the sessions. So if questions come up between your sessions, you can get them answered. You don't have to wait two months for another appointment to get a simple question answered. And as you've probably experienced, your questions don't always come up in the visit with your doctor, for example.


They always come up after when you're actually implementing what's been recommended. So that's why the support is so important so that we can help you implement your plan. And then we also help you with the mental part of not sleeping. So if you feel anxious about sleep, if you're dreading bedtime, if you have a lot of negative thoughts about sleep, we're also going to work through that in the program. So it's very much a body and mind program. So the cost of the program is $4,000. You can pay four monthly payments of a thousand dollars to spread it out over time. And plus the cost of the lab tests, which you pay separately to the lab. So those are just under a thousand dollars for clients. In the US it's a little more, I do work with clients all over the world, so the tests are a little bit more if you live outside of the US or Canada, but just a little over a thousand us.


And even though these tests are not covered by insurance, I've had many clients use a health savings account. So that's an option as well to be able to do this without being taxed on that money that you're investing in your sleep and health. And so this is very much a health restoring program. So I see not being able to sleep well as a sign that your body isn't healthy. And so the whole goal purpose of the program is to do the testing, to look for everything that's affecting your sleep and all the imbalances in your body and the underlying health issues that are keeping you from being able to sleep normally. So then once we restore your health, then you're able to sleep well and also have energy and wake up feeling rested and be in a good mood. So it's very much looking at overall health and helping you help your body be healthy as quickly as possible, and then you can sleep normally.


So feel free to message me if you have any questions about your sleep or about the programs. I'm happy to answer you. And I will put the link with information about the complete sleep solution in the comments so you can see that there. And I will talk to you tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about how to stop spending money on medical bills that aren't actually getting to the root cause and what will actually get to the root cause. So stay tuned tomorrow morning and I will see you all then. Have a great rest of your day.

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