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How to Fix Insomnia
338 Plays1 year ago
Many of us struggle with insomnia — I have since I was a teen. In this episode we're talking to Functional Health Coach and Sleep Consultant, Martha Lewis about how we can get better sleep. She'll tell us the underlying cause she sees in *all* her clients that is keeping them from sleep. We'll also talk supplements and when they can do more harm than good.
You can find Martha Lewis at TheCompleteSleepSolution.com and on her podcast, The Insomnia Fix With Martha Lewis.
The Life Detox is brought to you by Bubble & Bee Organic
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Transcript
Introduction & Interview with Sleep Consultant
00:00:11
Speaker
I have had sleep problems since I was a teen, whether it was insomnia or delayed sleep phase syndrome where I would stay up until 4am and then sleep until noon. Getting a healthy night's sleep has always been a challenge for me.
00:00:26
Speaker
Many of us with hormone imbalances struggle with sleep. Today I'm sharing my interview with Martha Lewis, CEO and founder of The Complete Sleep Solution. She is a sleep consultant and a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner.
00:00:42
Speaker
She's going to tell us how we can get better sleep going beyond the standard sleep hygiene advice. She will tell us one underlying health problem that she sees in all her clients that is keeping them from sleep. We'll also talk about several supplements and when they can do more harm than good.
Caffeine's Impact on Sleep and Cortisol
00:01:00
Speaker
I'm Stephanie Greenwood and this is the Life Detox.
00:01:09
Speaker
I'm in a bad cycle right now and I've been in it for a long time. I wake up and I feel groggy, so I chug the coffee and then the coffee makes me wired, probably increases my cortisol levels, and then I have to take, you know, Benadryl or some kind of over-the-counter medicine, a bunch of it, in order to get to sleep at night. I'm really making my circadian rhythms
00:01:32
Speaker
artificially, I'm like, here's some drugs to wake me up and some drugs to make me sleep. How do you get out of that cycle? It's great that you're aware of it because a lot of people don't even realize the effects that caffeine has. And you're right, like it does, it increases your cortisol in a very, like it forces your body to make cortisol.
00:01:52
Speaker
and release cortisol. I actually recommend that almost all my clients get off coffee. Two, I don't know how much you're drinking, but coffee has a pretty long half-life. Women especially, we can tend to have a hard time detoxifying coffee or caffeine. Then that caffeine can stay in the body even longer.
00:02:14
Speaker
you know, drinking till 3 p.m., then that could very well still be in your body when it's bedtime. I got very addicted to caffeine and if I would just try and quit cold turkey, I would have headaches, I'd feel horrible for a few days before things started getting better. So I would always wean off slowly. So whether that meant cutting down the amount I'm drinking or starting to do like three fourths regular coffee, one fourth decaf for a week,
00:02:40
Speaker
and then going down to half and half and then doing you know a fourth regular three-fourths decaf and then I would sometimes go to black tea and then green tea like really wean off it was was the only way that I could do it whereas other people are very good at are a lot better at quitting cold turkey so but yes like I would really focus on getting off that caffeine
00:03:04
Speaker
to stop that cycle. And I actually find that I feel much better, even if I do have a night where I don't sleep well. Like I realized that I didn't like how that coffee, that caffeine was making me feel. And I actually feel much better just being a little sleepy throughout the day, maybe taking a nap, then trying to artificially wire myself with caffeine.
Exploring Cortisol's Role in Sleep Disruption
00:03:25
Speaker
So can you tell me a little bit about cortisol? That's a big topic on our show. How does cortisol affect your sleep?
00:03:33
Speaker
Yes, I love talking about cortisol. Ideally, cortisol is higher during the day. Actually, within two hours of waking up is when cortisol is highest. It should be really low at night.
00:03:48
Speaker
For a lot of people who can't sleep, it's not. That can be from mental stress. We talk about body and mind. Yes, mental stress can contribute to that and many different kinds of mental stress, but also there can be physical reasons why cortisol is high at night.
00:04:06
Speaker
If you think about it, cortisol, it's a big part of our stress response. In doing that, it gives us energy. It literally sends glucose to ourselves to give us energy so that we can run from or fight something.
00:04:21
Speaker
It helps us focus and concentrates. We can think quickly. All of this is for survival, but it's causing these effects. When that's happening in the middle of the night, this is why you wake up. Even though you're exhausted or tired, you have this wired feeling. Your thoughts are racing. Your heart might be racing. It can be from this hormone cortisol causing these reactions to happen in the body.
00:04:49
Speaker
you know, as it's responding to stress, whether that's mental stress or physical stress. So what kind of physical things would be causing high cortisol at night?
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah. One of the main things is blood sugar. When blood sugar drops too low at night, then your body's going to release cortisol because it is stressed. Again, then it's going to give you that energy, that glucose, to raise blood sugar levels. That's going to happen. Your body's always trying to be in homeostasis or balance. It's trying to balance blood sugar.
00:05:25
Speaker
So that's a common reason also having a pathogen in the gut. So like a parasite.
00:05:35
Speaker
or bad bacteria like H. pylori, another bacterial overgrowth that can happen, yeast like candida. Yeah, so all of those pathogens are nocturnal. So they're most active in the middle of the night. And so they're eating, they're excreting, they're releasing all these toxins, which causes all this inflammation. And cortisol is also an anti-inflammatory hormone. So
00:06:00
Speaker
then your body releases cortisol, deal with that inflammation and that's going to wake you up. So I see this in so many of my clients and this is a common reason for waking up at three and four and just feeling wired and not able to fall back asleep for a while.
Functional Health Coaching for Sleep Improvement
00:06:15
Speaker
Wow. So how do you test for those pathogens in the gut?
00:06:20
Speaker
Well, I use a test called the GI map. So this is a stool test that shows what's living in the gut, which shows about 75 different things, including pathogens, including good bacteria. It pretty much gives an overall snapshot of gut health. What's interesting is that actually 90% of melatonin is produced in the gut. Tell us about how you work as a functional health coach and sleep consultant.
00:06:43
Speaker
So I actually do lab testing and so they're called functional lab test, which is different than blood work that's meant to diagnose something specific. So these tests show how different systems in the body are working. So looking at gut health or liver function or hormone balance and things like that. So to help people with sleep issues, I'm really diving deep into the imbalances in their body that are causing their insomnia. So that's why things like,
00:07:13
Speaker
you know, following the sleep rules as I call them, having a bedtime routine and not, you know, avoiding screens before bed and all those things don't work for a lot of people with chronic insomnia because there's something that we're going on in the body. So that's what I'm looking for. If someone like me who has been through long-term trauma came into your office for help with sleep, what would you look for?
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I would look for the same things in you that I would look for in everyone, honestly, even though you've had this additional trauma in your life. But because we know that that stress, it breaks down the body over time. So stress damages the gut, it affects, you know, at first when we're dealing with stress, the body can release a lot of cortisol, it can make a lot of cortisol.
00:08:02
Speaker
And over time we start running out of the resources necessary to make that. So then we aren't making enough possibly. So we aren't dealing with stress. Well, you know, I definitely don't specialize in people who've been through trauma and that I work with them directly on that. Like I would outsource that, you know, wanting you to be getting your own help for that, but I would help antigen current
Linking Gut Health to Sleep Quality
00:08:25
Speaker
stress. And then also with seeing what's stressing out the body because likely
00:08:29
Speaker
that long-term stress has affected many different parts of the body over time. And so it would really help to get those back in balance as well. I look at hormones for sure, gut health as well. I look at liver function. I look for nutrient deficiencies and mineral imbalances. I look for heavy metals. I look at neurotransmitters. So I look at a lot of different systems in the body.
00:08:56
Speaker
That's pretty amazing. What are some of the most common things that you see in people that are causing their sleep problems? Yeah, well, I definitely see poor gut health in everyone. Now, there's a spectrum. So I say for some people, that's 90% of the problem. For other people, it's not. But no one in my scene has perfectly good gut health. And I don't think that's possible if you have symptoms of any kind. And maybe it's, yeah, it's even hard in this day and age to have great gut health
00:09:26
Speaker
unless you are really addressing that. So yeah, so I definitely see poor gut health. I definitely see cortisol, dysregulation, I call it. So either the pattern, you know, it doesn't follow the normal pattern that it should, it can be higher at night, which definitely explains why someone isn't sleeping.
00:09:47
Speaker
I see a lot of sex hormones being depleted like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, or sometimes I see estrogen dominance where estrogen is higher than progesterone in women or testosterone in men. That can be from poor liver function, so the liver isn't breaking down that estrogen properly.
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah, so there are a lot of different things that I see. I also see different mineral imbalances, and I typically see heavy metals in most people as well. What are some of the things that you tell people to take or to do to improve their gut health? Yeah, so it is going to be different for everyone depending on what's going on in their gut.
00:10:29
Speaker
We're definitely going to address pathogens because those are damaging the gut over time. Sometimes people don't have enough good bacteria. So probiotics, things like that are going to be
00:10:42
Speaker
important. But what's interesting is that sometimes people have too much good bacteria. So probiotics actually aren't good for them. So that's why I'm really into testing because otherwise we're just guessing. And I've come to the conclusion that there's not one supplement that's good for everyone. So sometimes things that we think are really beneficial can actually make things worse. So a probiotic is an example of that.
00:11:04
Speaker
And then, you know, if I know that the gut wall is damaged and we can work on healing foods like bone broth or supplements with L-glutamine or immunoglobulins that help heal the lining of the gut. If someone needs digestive support, this test also looks at different enzymes and how well they're digesting food. So sometimes they need support there. And then, you know, also really help people optimize their diet.
00:11:31
Speaker
so that they're eating foods that feed the good bacteria, not eating inflammatory foods that cause that inflammation, damage the gut. Yeah, so it's definitely many facets to promoting good gut health. What are some inflammatory foods that you usually recommend to cut out? Yeah, so not surprisingly, processed foods, especially refined sugar, refined flour,
00:11:56
Speaker
oils, vegetable oils like soy and safflower, but even things people don't always realize like gluten and dairy for a lot of people, especially if your gut is damaged, you're likely reacting to those foods. And so that's causing a lot of inflammation and continuing to damage the gut.
00:12:17
Speaker
And then another big one is alcohol, which isn't a food, but yeah, that's also very inflammatory too. So really taking some time. I mean, this is the first piece of advice I give anyone if you aren't sleeping or if you have any other symptoms, like go on an anti-inflammatory diet and do whatever you can to lower that inflammation, that can make a really big difference.
Hormone Imbalances and Sleep
00:12:39
Speaker
So one of the things that we talk a lot about on this show is PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. If someone comes in and you can see in their test, it looks like they have polycystic ovarian syndrome and they're having trouble sleeping, what advice would you usually give to someone like that who has estrogen dominance?
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, so one of the tests I do is called the Dutch test. It's a dried urine hormone test. So what's great about it is it looks at sex hormones, and it also looks at how they're being broken down by the body, especially by the liver.
00:13:14
Speaker
So I talked about a lot of times estrogen dominance is from the liver not clearing estrogen properly. So through this test, I can see which phases of liver detoxification need the most support. So is it sulfation or methylation or then the GI map has a marker for glucuronidation. So a lot of times it is really focusing on the liver and sometimes recommending supplements like DIMM that can help
00:13:44
Speaker
lower estrogen and then other things to help with the liver detoxify. And then my whole philosophy too is I want to lower as much stress and inflammation in the body as possible. So if cortisol is dysregulated, then I also want to know why, like where is that coming from? So that's where the other, you know, looking at gut health, looking at all those other things, why they're so connected because
00:14:10
Speaker
cortisol is going to affect the hormones and so it's looking at the big picture like that.
00:14:16
Speaker
One of the things that I'm a big proponent of is fiber, especially for women with hormone imbalances, because a lot of the time blood sugar is involved in that. And fiber just really helps to regulate that blood sugar. It also helps to detoxify the liver and help the liver do its job. Do you recommend someone increasing their vegetable and fruit intake and getting enough fiber? Is that something that you focus on with gut health?
00:14:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we're meant to eat whole foods. Like always think about, I mean, our food system has changed so much in only a hundred years.
00:14:52
Speaker
Like 100 years ago, there was no refined sugar, refined flour, canned goods, like all that was invented in the 1930s and widely distributed then. So it's literally like 100 years ago, our only choice was to eat whole foods. We didn't have psyllium husk and even any of these supplemental things, like we had to eat fruits and vegetables and meat and grains and yeah, and that's all that there was. And it was all organic.
00:15:20
Speaker
naturally because we didn't use pesticides and herbicides and chemicals. And those chemicals can affect the liver and the detoxification pathways in these chemicals that act like estrogen in the body or those heavy metals that can interfere with our hormones. Stay tuned. We're going to take a break. And when we get back, Martha Lewis is going to share her unique approach to detoxing from heavy metals. And we'll talk more about when supplements can be harmful.
00:15:54
Speaker
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00:16:14
Speaker
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Detoxifying Heavy Metals and Mineral Balancing
00:16:34
Speaker
Those heavy metals can be really hard to detoxify. What do you usually recommend for detoxifying someone if you found heavy metals in your testing?
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. I always start with mineral balancing first. This is because a lot of times, if you're deficient in certain minerals, your body might hold on to heavy metals because heavy metals will do 20% of the job as minerals. They can't even do the full job.
00:17:02
Speaker
but they can do part of it. Since the body always wants to be in homeostasis, then it's going to do whatever it takes in that moment. That can include holding on to these heavy metals. I always work on, okay, yeah, let's balance the minerals. Then, as the minerals start balancing, the body starts getting rid of heavy metals on its own.
00:17:27
Speaker
naturally without having to force it with chelation therapy or anything like that. And then I usually recommend binders that are going to bind to that heavy metal and pull it safely out of the body so that the body isn't having to deal with that. There's a lot of buzz about zeolite and different brands of that. Have you found it to be helpful? Yes. I mean, you want to be really careful about which brand you're using that is a quality brand and
00:17:53
Speaker
the particle size is right and it's not contaminated with heavy metals. Occasionally, I will recommend zeolite or usually a combination of activated charcoal and zeolite and silicon, things like that, because those can be broad spectrum and that they'll help with heavy metals, but they can also help with gut biotoxins at the same time. Instead of taking
00:18:16
Speaker
multiple different binders for different things. A more combined binder with different kinds of binders is what I tend to recommend. Can it be harmful if you're like, Oh, I think I might be mineral deficient. If you haven't done any testing and you're like, Hmm, maybe I'm mineral deficient. Maybe I should take a multivitamin. Have you seen that be more harmful than good with just kind of supplementing blindly?
00:18:40
Speaker
I think it absolutely can. A multivitamin won't have a ton of minerals necessarily, and probably taking a trace mineral supplement isn't the end of the world. I find it more dangerous with, oh, I could be deficient in calcium. Let me take a bunch of calcium. Especially because most calcium supplements don't include vitamin K2, which is necessary to put calcium in the bones and teeth where it's supposed to go.
00:19:10
Speaker
I absolutely think calcium supplements can be really dangerous unless you know that you need them and you're getting it with a vitamin K2. I know that for sleep, magnesium is usually recommended. It's estimated 90% of people are deficient in magnesium. Again, that's likely not going to hurt anything except that magnesium also needs to be balanced with calcium, sodium, potassium.
00:19:39
Speaker
When calcium magnesium are really high and sodium potassium is really low, that's creating this major imbalance that can lead to insomnia. The magnesium itself isn't necessarily harmful, although it can be like exacerbating that imbalance that's already there. So again, that is why I believe the testing is so important. Absolutely.
00:19:59
Speaker
What about melatonin supplements? Can they be harmful? Yes, because hormones also have to be in balance with each other, and melatonin is a hormone. The Dutch test that I mentioned, it actually looks at melatonin. If my clients are low, then occasionally I will recommend it because it can help with sleep, because it's a powerful antioxidant.
00:20:20
Speaker
But I see it as more for short term. And then let's address why melatonin is low long term. And that's usually, again, back to gut health. 90% of melatonin is made in the gut. So we're focusing on gut health as well so that someone isn't taking melatonin forever. We want the body to be able to make its own. So if someone wants to hire you as a sleep consultant, how does that usually work?
Remote Sleep Consultancy and Personalized Plans
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I work remotely with people all over the world, really. And how it works is because I order the lab test, and they actually go to my client's home. The clients take the samples at their home, send them back to the lab, and then I get the results. So I can work with people from anywhere, which is awesome. I work with people for six months, and they have 12 sessions over those six months. And it's very holistic because I'm looking at diet. I'm looking at exercise.
00:21:09
Speaker
looking at habits, in general habits around sleep, we're talking about stress, and then I'm recommending supplements, helping people along as I make these changes for sure. And I also offer email support so that if questions come up between sessions and people can reach out anytime and get those answered. I think a lot of that is what's missing from doctors, from a lot of practitioners. It's like,
00:21:34
Speaker
having support, right? Like you can't tell someone, change this diet, do this exercise thing, take all these supplements. Okay, good luck. I'll see you in six months. Are you covered by insurance at all? Unfortunately, the tests are not covered by insurance. However, I have had clients use health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts. So that's usually an option. Is there anything else that you want our listeners to know?
00:21:59
Speaker
I think the main thing is I want people to know that if you can't sleep, you don't have to live with this forever. I know people try so many different things and nothing works and it's very discouraging, but I believe there's always an answer because our bodies are meant to sleep well. We are made to do, we spend a third of our lives to sleep for very important reasons, and so we're meant to do it.
00:22:22
Speaker
So if we can, it's just about finding out why, what's going on in the body, what's going on in the mind that's keeping you from sleeping normally and working on correcting those things.
Concluding Thoughts on Emotional Health and Sleep
00:22:31
Speaker
You can find Martha Lewis at thecompletesleepsolution.com and she has a podcast, The Insomnia Fix with Martha Lewis. If you want more tips from her, I've linked to both of these in the show notes. So I'm going to wrap up the show with a reminder.
00:22:48
Speaker
You can drink bone broth, you can eat fruits and vegetables and take all the right supplements and get testing done. But if you are in an abusive relationship or you have unhealed trauma in your body, you will not achieve good gut health and you won't achieve good sleep. So if you have insomnia and are doing all the right things with no results, have a talk with yourself because you might need a life detox.
00:23:22
Speaker
The Life Detox is produced by me, Stephanie Greenwood, and brought to you by Bubble and Be Organic. The views and opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not necessarily represent those of myself or my company. Material and information presented here is for general information purposes only and is not medical advice. Being a guest on this show does not imply endorsement of Greenplay LLC or any of its projects. Stay well, friends.
00:23:52
Speaker
Next week we are talking with Dr. Ruth Ann Harper. She is a psychologist who specializes in narcissistic abuse and even treats patients with narcissistic personality disorder. She'll tell us how we can heal, how to handle narcissists, and so much more. I hope you'll join us next week.