Struggling with Insomnia? Don’t spend another sleepless night!

You’ve probably tried everything to get a good night’s sleep — from counting sheep to natural remedies for insomnia (and not-so-natural ones too) — yet... you still can’t sleep well or deeply!

And chances are your insomnia and anxiety about sleeping or resting get worse when you’re facing more external stress: from family, friends, or work. You literally take all those thoughts to bed — and don’t sleep.

But beyond rest, sleep is essential for speeding up your antioxidant processes, since melatonin — the sleep hormone that’s produced from the “happiness hormone” serotonin — also acts as a powerful antioxidant for your blood-brain barrier, which protects your brain.

Benefits of sleep for your metabolism

Sleep is key to metabolic regulation because your circadian rhythm helps:

• Regulate glucose metabolism — when you don’t sleep well, you crave more sugar or enemy foods to boost energy
• Manage leptin (the hormone that tells you when you're full) and ghrelin (the hormone that tells you when it’s time to eat)
• Produce growth hormone, the anti-aging hormone — 70% of it is produced during sleep; it also helps you burn fat and increase bone density

Causes of Insomnia

Have you ever really asked yourself what’s keeping you from relaxing and sleeping?

Your body is burdened by the many stresses of modern life — psychological stress from news, politics, work, family, friends, the pandemic, etc. That’s the obvious one, right?

But what about biological stress and the other hidden factors that may also be weighing you down?

• Food sensitivities: Those foods you don’t digest well — often full of additives and highly processed — stress your system because they’re harder to metabolize. They inflame and damage your gut lining, preventing the absorption of key nutrients you need to produce sleep hormones and relax. This same inflammation also triggers cortisol, the hormone that keeps you alert.‍
• Imbalance in your gut microbiota: When there’s an overgrowth of harmful bacteria, fungi, or parasites in your gut or body, your immune system becomes activated — producing stress hormones that can worsen insomnia.‍
• Environmental chemicals and toxins: Not just from industry — but also those found in everyday household products, which can further disrupt your microbiota.‍
• Electromagnetic waves: In the 21st century, we’re constantly bombarded by tech — computers, tablets, phones — and the intermittent dopamine spikes from social media. This overstimulates your body, raises alertness and dopamine levels, and throws off your circadian rhythm. Blue light from these screens blocks melatonin synthesis.

So, beyond your everyday stress and worries, your internal biology directly influences your sleep too!

If you're carrying this biological burden day after day, your cortisol levels increase — and while cortisol should rise in the early morning to help you wake up, it stays elevated in stressful or inflammatory lifestyles — which is exactly why you can’t sleep.

What can you do to get rid of insomnia?

It all starts in your gut and the nutrients that go in it. “Think of your gut as your inner guardian”. Here are some tips from Dr. Mark Hyman’s Sleep MasterClass:

• Replenish with friendly foods that are easy to digest and absorb — if you don’t digest well, you won’t rest well.
• Eat foods like leafy greens, animal proteins, etc., that provide nutrients like:
• Magnesium (a muscle relaxant and key for sleep and happiness hormones), zinc, copper, iron, B-complex vitamins.
  Dr. Hyman recommends taking vitamins in the morning and minerals in the evening.
• Replenish with proteins, amino acids, and supplements like 5-HTP, essential for producing serotonin and melatonin (the happiness and sleep hormones).
• Protein also helps regulate blood sugar overnight, preventing glucose spikes from waking you up. You may also need digestive enzymes to support nutrient absorption.
• Supplement with digestive enzymes to improve digestion — take 2 with each meal.
• You can get NutriWhite Digestive Enzymes here.
• If you're on a ketogenic diet, add some carbohydrates to your last meal to prevent cortisol spikes.
• Add berries and polyphenol-rich foods — these boost melatonin, your antioxidant sleep hormone.
• Eat mindfully — mealtime is not the time for work or stress!
• Also: Remove triggers. Remove food sensitivities, processed foods, and stimulants (like coffee, tea, mate, and sugar) — especially after 2 p.m.
• Eat meals that are appropriate in size and satisfying, several hours before bed — so digestion and rest don’t overlap. Both are managed by your parasympathetic nervous system.

Additionally, in your daily routine:

• Get natural sunlight for 10–15 minutes during the day to activate vitamin D
• Turn off screens and lights by 9 p.m. to protect your circadian rhythm
• Avoid working after 5 p.m. — night shift workers are at greater risk for obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes
• Keep your room dark, cool, and free of devices/screens — or take a warm bath before bed
• Don’t start your day on your phone — wait at least 30 minutes to avoid beginning your day with stress
• Exercise during the day — ideally in the morning or at least 3 hours before bed
• Keep a journal to unload your worries before sleep
• Use your bed only for sleeping or intimacy — not for work, if possible!

By doing this, you’ll not only sleep better but also restore and enhance your health and mood through the 3R Immuno-Nutrition Protocol.

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Bs. Natalia Rosal

Nutritionist-Dietitian
NutriWhite Ambassador

References:

Sleep MasterClass de Dr. Mark Hyman :

https://courses.drhyman.com/sleep-course-own

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