Optimal Sleep Health: Will I Ever Sleep Without Meds Again?

By Dr. Melissa Gallagher, Naturopathic Physician

Reading Time: 6 minutes

This article discusses emerging/ongoing science and research. It is intended for general informational purposes only. This content is unrelated to products offered by Organixx and does not contain any representations about the performance of such products.


 

Video Transcript:

Emma says, “Hi, doc. Can you please give me some advice on insomnia? I’ve had chronic sleep-onset insomnia for 22 years and would like to know if I will ever sleep without meds again. It’s a very depressing condition.”

Okay, Emma, I totally, totally can understand. This 22 years, so two decades, of extreme insomnia is not only debilitating to the body, but can be very disruptive to your overall neuroendocrine health. 

Address Neuroendocrine and Adrenal Health

When we are dealing with any type of mild, moderate, or extreme insomnia, we are in need of addressing your neuroendocrine health, as well as your adrenal health. Those are the two kinds of categories that I want to focus on for this particular condition. I also want to offer you five different ways to address insomnia naturally.

Assess Your Circadian Rhythm and Cortisol Levels

My first way, most important, is to assess your circadian rhythm. A lot of times with insomnia, we’re imbalanced in terms of our natural sleep cycle. And ideally, we should have a circadian rhythm that rises in the morning and slowly slopes down to bedtime where it’s at a natural point where we go to sleep.

That circadian rhythm actually can be assessed and tested, and that is something where we test your adrenal health. There is a hormone that your adrenal glands produce called cortisol, and cortisol is the hormone that sets our natural circadian rhythm.

So ideally in the morning, cortisol, it starts to peak and it spikes and at the highest point is when you naturally arise. That’s when we’re awake, we’re most alert and alive, and feel like you can take on the world. Well, insomnia, a lot of times we have that flip-flopped, or sometimes the adrenal function and the state of cortisol is lower than what we want. By assessing your cortisol, that’s most critical, you can directly address the state of your adrenal glands.

Adrenal Glands and Neurotransmitter Deficiencies

Now, the other thing that comes with addressing your adrenal glands – there’s two parts to your adrenal glands. They’re two little tortilla-shaped glands that sit above your kidneys. It’s kind of like a hat for your kidneys. Those adrenal glands not only balance your sleep circadian cycle, they also are sending a ton of signals to the brain, and they also produce hormones. The middle part of the adrenal glands are called the adrenal cortex. That is the adrenal function that directly sends signals to neurotransmitters. Your neuroendocrine system is controlled by neurotransmitters. That’s basically real complicated to speak for, your brain is going to control certain body systems, and one of the body systems or cycles within the body is your sleep cycle.

By addressing our neurotransmitter health, and you can test for that, I test all the time with my patients, I want to assess three key neurotransmitters that control, 1) sleep balance, 2) sleep cycle, and then also 3) calming of your central nervous system. 

The first neurotransmitter that tends to be in an imbalanced state is the GABA neurotransmitter. GABA is actually a brain-oriented calming neurotransmitter, and it is going to be the neurotransmitter that signals when the body’s at its calmest state and trigger sleep. If you are dealing with chronic onset insomnia, then that is going to be something where GABA levels are probably imbalanced.

The second neurotransmitter very commonly known with sleep is melatonin, and the third is serotonin. Those two, serotonin and melatonin, need to be in a particular balance. If serotonin is imbalanced, melatonin will be imbalanced. This is a really critical intricate measurement, and it needs to be tested and assessed before we start to dose with melatonin or other pro-serotonin supplements like 5-HTP.

Those three particular neurotransmitters tend to be in a particular deficiency. If you are dealing with insomnia, those three tend to be the ones that will show some degree of imbalance. And in your case, you may be having all three levels at a very high deficiency state.

Hypothalamic Imbalances

Now that leads to the gland that is producing some of these neurotransmitters, and that is the hypothalamus. A lot of times with my patients, if they are dealing with hypothalamic imbalances, there is a really important way to address that from a natural perspective. I will use hypothalamic glandulars, and I will also use certain lifestyle routines and practices to help love on your hypothalamus to help regulate sleep. The hypothalamus not only regulates sleep, but it also helps increase or enhance the duration of sleep.

This is also impactful and effective for individuals who wake up in the middle of the night. If you wake up between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM, a very common time, that will be indicative of also liver imbalance. We may need to have some liver detoxing and liver love supported in your routine.

Test Histamine Levels

Now, the fourth really important way to address sleep imbalances is to assess your histamine levels. There are a lot of different blood tests and labs that we can run to evaluate if you have elevations in histamine. There are ways to assess this also in your own body. Like if you have a reaction to the environment, you have allergies, environmental allergies, or if you get a bug bite and it becomes raised and red, that can be an indicator that you might have some elevations, mild or moderate elevations, of histamine. Some folks have more intense histamine imbalances that lead to things like PoTS and other diagnoses. But histamine control is really critical for addressing your inflammation levels.

Address Systemic Inflammation

At the core of histamine increase is going to be systemic inflammation, and there are a lot of different ways to address inflammation. When we’re dealing with sleep, it’s not just the stomach in your body, but we’re also dealing with brain – neuro-based – inflammation. Foods, environmental toxins, allergens – those can all be sources of inflammation, as well as gut imbalance. 

One of my favorite Organixx products that I love to recommend is the Joint & Muscle Care. That has a very wonderful blend of systemic inflammation lowering supplements, and it also has the power and potency to pass through the blood-brain barrier to help support your neuroinflammation and lower those levels.

Calm Your Central Nervous System

The fifth and final way that I like to recommend to individuals and patients like yourself who have sleep imbalances is we need to calm your central nervous system. There are a lot of different ways to do this. One of my favorite over-the-counter ways is by incorporating a full complex blend of magnesium. And the Magnesium 7 here at Organixx is really, really powerful because they have an assortment of magnesium types. But there are two critical magnesium forms – magnesium glycinate and magnesium borate – that can help calm down your central nervous system. 

This is proven and very impactful for helping ease you into it calm central nervous system state that can offset some of the inflammation and some of the stress that the body is experiencing that could be preventing you from moving into a sleep state.

Meditation and Thymus Tapping

I’m also going to recommend meditation. Super, super powerful at helping calm down your central nervous system. I also recommend something super easy that you can do any time you’re kind of feeling stressed or anxious, particularly at night, I recommend thymus tapping. Your thymus gland is right here in between your chest, just at the lower part of your breastbone.

The thymus gland can actually instantly calm down your central nervous system and create a sense of calm and peace within your body. You make a little fist and you just do like a Tarzan tap and you can tap like this for five to 15 seconds. You want to do a little forcefully, so you kind of hear my vibration. But after doing that, you’re going to feel a vibration here in the mid-chest. That’s your thymus gland getting invigorated. 

Doing all of these balancing activities, plus right before bed, tapping your thymus gland will definitely help to address the insomnia.

I hope that’s helpful, Emma. Please keep us posted on your progress. 


Magnesium deficiency is linked to stress, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety, trouble sleeping, sore muscles, migraines, and many more debilitating health conditions.

If your body needs magnesium, you want the most beneficial kind your body can actually absorb. Organixx Magnesium 7 gives you seven (7) of the very best, most bioavailable types of elemental magnesium available.

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Dr. Melissa Gallagher, Naturopathic Physician
Dr. Melissa Gallagher, Naturopathic Physician, holds a Masters in Holistic Nutrition and a Doctorate of Naturopathy. In addition to providing expert guidance to Organixx, Dr. Melissa maintains a busy private practice in Texas. Her primary focus is working with individuals addressing digestive disorders, hormone balance, detoxification therapies, and primary and secondary lymphedema cases through lymphatic decongestive treatments.

Comments

  1. Thank you for your comprehensive explanation of insomnia. I really appreciate all of this detailed information. Thank you. I am taking Magnesium 7 now and have been taking it for some time. I may have to start with the Magi-Complexx.

  2. I also been suffering insomnia for many years .live a very stressful life .. I am also a 24/7 caregiver . Will this help me sleep?

    • Hi Martha, I am so sorry to hear of the health challenges you are facing. Sending a prayer your way. Many people have had great results using the product. However, as you know we are unable to guarantee it will work for everyone. Different people have different needs and tolerance levels. However, we have a world class return/refund policy which says, we are confident that Organixx provides only high-quality supplements. However, If for any reason you're not happy with your results, simply return your bottles OR canisters within 1-year of the purchase date. And even if they're completely empty - we'll send you a FULL refund of the purchase price. All returns must be made within 1-year (unless otherwise stated on the order page of the product you purchase) from the shipment date. Full policy here https://shop.organixx.com/pages/return-policy So you having nothing to lose by giving it a try. Hoping you find some relief soon. Have a wonderful day!

  3. Dr. Gallagher- thank you for such an informative article. I have been researching insomnia for years and this is one of the best to date. After reading, I looked into trying to find a holistic endocrinologist in northern NJ, but came up empty. I would be willing to travel a bit if you had any references. I'm desperate. I did reach out to the Parsley Institute in NYC. They

    have functional medicine doctors with background in endocrinology, but not specializing. Hoping to hear from you so I can start my journey to being really well instead of sub-par!

    Laurie Pisani

    • Hi Laurie! We are glad to hear you found this information helpful. We are sorry to hear about the health challenges you have been facing. Sending a prayer your way. Unfortunately, we do not have the information you are requesting. Here is a link to Dr. Melissa's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Rc1fFDKjIUnSAe6R_Cdeg Hopefully you can connect with her staff to see if they have this information. Wishing you the best in health!

  4. I have been taking organixx magnesium 7 for a month now due to sleep issues. However I am taking only 250mg. I wanted to know if the recommended dose on the bottle which says take 2 capsules.. wouldnt that be too much as I read somewhere that 400mg is the limit for adults. Please advise.

    • Hello Vasudev,

      Overall, magnesium is considered safe to take, but large amounts can cause GI upset and diarrhea in some people. Go with your healthcare provider's recommendation and listen to your body. Some people find it beneficial to start with one capsule (250 mg) and work up to 2 capsules (500 mg). If you are severely magnesium deficient or have other health considerations, your healthcare practitioner may recommend an even higher dose than the 2 capsules. Please work with your doctor to determine the optimal dose for you.

      Enjoy your day! :)

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