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Writer's pictureDeb Wood, PhD, ND

Can't Sleep?

Wellness Wednesday's at The Renova Center are FREE lectures sharing wellness information. On May 1, 2024 at noon, there will be a lecture on SLEEP SOLUTIONS: INSOMNIA and how to SLEEP. Join us as we learn and progress with the launching of the ongoing: Reset's Program to Sleep. If you are having problems losing weight, suffering from low energy, or just don't feel well, INSOMNIA is more than likely at the foundation. Sleep revitalizes the body, mind, and spirit. Join us on May 1st in the Natural Path Cafe to learn how to fall asleep faster, and get deep and restful sleep.


Insomnia & Sleep Issues


If you suffer with insomnia or sleep issues, you’ll know how debilitating it can be. Poor sleep over and over again can make you feel like you’re going to mentally and physically breakdown. You may even question how you will get through each day. I truly understand how hard it is to live with sleep issues. Even if you wouldn’t list insomnia or sleep disturbance as one of your chronic issues, learning how to harness sleep so it can be the most healing it can be is a critical part of looking after your health now and in the future. Thankfully, there are answers for you. You can heal and sleep soundly again.


If you look to conventional medicine with questions about your insomnia or other sleep issues, you may be told a number of possible reasons for why you can’t sleep. And some of them may carry some truth. Your doctor or health practitioner may say the cause of your sleep problems are grief, anger, anxiety, depression, worry, restless legs, or chronic pain or you may be told you have sleep apnea. All of these things can be a part of the challenges you are having. But there’s much more to understand. For example, what is truly the reason behind your restless legs, depression, anxiety, and aches and pains.


In the following article I will explain the truth behind chronic and mysterious sleep conditions. In my book Thyroid Healing, I have an entire section dedicated to this important topic because it’s so critical you and your loved ones get the answers and support you need so you can get the deep, healing sleep you deserve.


Mystery Sleep Conditions

When your anxiety and depression are not connected to your circumstances, it can be frustrating not to know or understand their causes. In addition, when you are having sleep issues and you cannot connect it to anything at all, it can be even more disheartening. Lying awake with no answers can create even more anxiety and make falling or staying asleep all the more elusive. At times, someone who is having sleep issues will get an answer from an expert, which will temporarily relieve the person from the confusion. Perhaps that person will even be able to sleep for a week or more because their sleep challenges feel like less of a riddle. However, many times the answers we get from conventional medicine and alternative health communities are not the right answers, and therefore don’t offer a true solution for healing. In many cases, the misinformation we may receive from well-meaning health practitioners may actually lead us further astray or result in even more struggle and confusion. The inability to sleep is still one of the greatest mysteries to modern medicine today.


For example, many people with sleep problems are told that they are having trouble with their thyroid, and that is what is keeping them awake. The truth is that a thyroid problem is not going to keep you from sleeping. But you can lose sleep if you’re worried about having a thyroid problem. Many people lose sleep when they first get their diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, or hyperthyroidism because they’re told their body is attacking its own thyroid. But this is a great mistake by medical communities. Your body never attacks itself. It loves you unconditionally and is always working for you. I address this mistaken theory in detail in Thyroid Healing. Someone also may not sleep if they’re worried about having thyroid surgery. But your thyroid itself is never going to create insomnia. It’s not possible. Unfortunately, it is very common for people to be told their sleep disorder is because of their thyroid. This new, recent blame game on the thyroid is so prevalent right now that I address it extensively in Thyroid Healing, along with the true causes of insomnia and other sleep disorders. My goal is to cut through the misinformation and confusion which is preventing people from having the health and sleep they desire and bring the real truth to you. You deserve to know what’s really happening in your body.


Different Kinds of Sleep Disorders

It is critical to understand our sleep disorders and exactly what is happening in the body so we can begin to take steps toward healing. We have to locate the target before we can go after it. It’s almost impossible to effectively and fully heal a symptom or condition without understanding it. Even if you have healed a symptom or condition before without knowing it’s true cause, it’s possible it could come back later in life or the unknown root cause could be creating another symptom that you are unaware is actually related. This is why the answers to our health problems we receive from science and research are so lacking—they don’t know the true causes of chronic mystery illnesses like insomnia and other sleep disorders in most cases, so how could they know the correct treatment? 

Everyone experiences sleep problems in vastly different ways. Read the following descriptions and take note if one or more of them apply to you.

  1. You cannot fall asleep at first, then eventually you fall asleep after several hours. When you wake up in the morning, you do not feel well rested because you could not fall asleep right away.

  2. You fall asleep right away, but you wake up in the very early morning unable to fall back asleep before it is time to get up. You get a racing mind as the sun starts to rise and anxiety because you are unable to fall asleep.

  3. You initially fall asleep easily, but then you wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back to sleep until the early morning when you fall asleep again.

  4. You are in and out of a miserable sleep all night long because you never fall into a solid restful state. You keep getting the frequent urge to urinate, which gets you out of bed over and over.

  5. You cannot sleep the entire night, and when morning comes, you feel completely exhausted and crash at various times throughout the day. You may or may not attempt a quick nap here and there. Then when it is time for bed, the whole thing starts over again.

  6. All throughout the day you are exhausted and you struggle with all your tasks, and all you can think about is the next chance you get to lie down and close your eyes. All you want to do is go to bed. When nighttime hits, you are suddenly awake and it is difficult to wind down enough to get to sleep on time. 

  7. You are able to fall asleep and stay asleep for a full night, only you wake up feeling like you need another eight hours. Maybe your loved ones report that you snore or you have very shallow breathing throughout the night; they say you woke yourself up snoring, which makes you come to understand that your sleep is broken all night. 

  8. Just as you sink into deep sleep, a jerk happens. Either your arm, neck, head, or leg jerks and it wakes you up again. Sometimes you can bypass it and you can fall asleep. Or you wake up in the middle of the night to urinate and then you go back to bed and can’t fall asleep because the jerking occurs once again. 

  9. You are tired and ready to go to sleep, except there is a weird buzzing sound or another symptom keeping you awake. This can be either tinnitus, restless leg syndrome, itchy skin problems, or aches and pains.

  10. Work night shifts.

The Potential Causes of Sleep Disorders

While many experts today will lump most of these sleep disorders under thyroid problems, this is a trendy trap that you need to be aware of so you don’t fall prey to it and start addressing an issue that isn’t even the cause. Sleep issues have nothing to do with the thyroid. Below I will explain the true reasons for insomnia and other sleep issues that medical science and research are unaware of. No two causes of sleep problems are the same, just as no two sleep disorders themselves are the same. While people’s sleep issues may be very similar to each other, they will never be identical. Keep this in mind as you learn about your own insomnia or other sleep challenges. 


Liver Issues

One possible cause stems from a liver that’s overheated, stagnant, or sluggish from toxins and a diet too high in fat or processed foods. The best way to have a full understanding of your liver and how to support it is to read Liver Rescue. The liver could also be inflamed because it is trying to fight one or more pathogens (viruses and bacteria) that have nested in the liver for many years, even decades, and they are releasing neurotoxins and dermatoxins. Research and science have not yet discovered that pathogens releasing these toxins are the cause of many symptoms and illnesses. 


When you go to sleep for the night, your liver shuts down operation and runs on autopilot. By around three or four in the morning (it’s different for everyone), your liver starts to wake up again and once more begins to process poisons, viruses, and debris (such as dead cells, including dead red blood cells.). If you have a sluggish liver, then as the liver tries to do its job at this time, it goes into subtle spasm. Most of the time, it’s not anything you can feel, but for some people it’s enough to wake them up. This accounts for those nights when you fall asleep normally, then suddenly you’re up again in the early morning hours, and after a certain period of time, you’re able to nod off again. This can also explain those miserable nights of sleep where you drift in and out the whole time. 


Sleep issues caused by something going on in the liver tend to be present in someone dealing with a thyroid issue, not because the thyroid is causing the problem but because thyroid issues are also caused by EBV. This is something I discuss at length in my book, Thyroid Healing.


Viral Issues

Viral issues are one of the major causes of trouble with sleep. The Epstein-Barr virus, shingles, cytomegalovirus, HHV-6, and even some bacteria can poison our systems and keep us up at night. That’s because viruses such as Epstein-Barr excrete neurotoxins, which can create the issues of not being able to fall asleep for hours, or waking in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep. Viral-caused insomnia is often mistaken for a thyroid issue, because, as I said, it’s common to experience insomnia and thyroid trouble side by side. It’s not because an under or overactive thyroid causes sleep issues, despite what you may hear from other sources. 


MSG and Toxic Heavy Metals in the Brain

If someone has MSG or toxic heavy metal deposits speckled throughout the brain, which is extremely common, these alone can keep a person from getting quality sleep. Mercury deposits are what cause OCD, Tourette’s, anxiety, depression, and much more, which, when coupled with a pathogen like Epstein-Barr Virus, can only make things worse because the virus is feeding off of the mercury and releasing more poisons, such as neurotoxins. Medical communities are unaware of just how prolific this virus is and the hundreds of symptoms and conditions it causes. I share the reasons why research and science have missed just how much EBV is responsible for in Thyroid Healing. They are also unaware that viruses feed off toxins like mercury, which allows them to strengthen and thrive and create further issues.


Digestive Tract Issues

Some people have digestive sensitivities, which are actually connected to the nervous system because nerves are attached to every part of the colon. As food moves through the intestines, it hits those sensitive nerves throughout the night. Sometimes it is so subtle it is barely noticeable but it can be enough to disrupt your sleep. Even if there is no pain or gas in your gut, these digestive tract sensitivities may be related to your sleep disorder and you simply are not aware of it.


Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea can occur if you have a sinus problem or a post nasal drip. It can also occur if you are overweight and lying down, which may put pressure on the chest and throat, prevents proper breathing from taking place during sleep. The third kind of sleep apnea is a mystery to modern medicine. In this case, it is a neurological sleep apnea where the brain is sending out incorrect messages to the vagus and phrenic nerves using electrical impulses and neurotransmitters that are being weakened or interrupted by toxic heavy metals or viral neurotoxins.


Adrenal Issues

Another potential cause for sleep issues occurs because of a high stress lifestyle that pumps adrenaline into your bloodstream all day. Adrenaline keeps you up until very late and then by the time you wake up in the morning you are exhausted. 


These are just some of the reasons why your sleep may be suffering. Other possible causes I address in detail in Thyroid Healing include anxiety, which is not as self-explanatory as you may think, emotional wounds, and other neurological issues. 


Your Very Own Sleep Account

There is a common belief floating around that once you miss an hour of sleep, that sleep is gone and you can never make it up. You can never get it back. This is false. The truth is that we have a divine sleep account that is owed to us from the minute we are born. Every time you miss a minute, hour, day, or week of sleep, that time is automatically put into your sleep account to save for a later date. All is not lost. Those three hours of sleep you lost the night before are not gone forever. They are waiting for you in your very own sleep account, controlled and maintained by the Angels, and you will get them back some day. It is a misguided belief that you cannot catch up on sleep or gain your sleep back. Once you’re able to target your sleep issue and begin to heal by restoring your liver, detoxing the MSG and heavy metals, mending your digestive tract, healing your adrenals, or eliminating EBV, get ready. Because your sleep account is waiting for you and you are going to enjoy plenty of restorative, healing sleep. It’s your divine right and one of the unknown universal laws.


Foods for Sleep

There is so much we can do to heal viruses, work on our digestive and liver problems, and detox from heavy metals, MSG, and other toxins that could be contributing to your sleep issues. I go into further depth on what’s behind your sleep issues, how you can heal from them, why bad dreams are good, which foods and supplements are the most helpful for healing, and so much more in Thyroid Healing


The Sacred Sleep Window

Sleep is so important for healing and yet it can be impossible to sleep when you have any of these issues. It can seem like a catch 22. That’s why it’s so critical to know about the Sacred Sleep Window. Between 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. your body does most of its healing. If you are able to sleep during that period, your body is healing at an accelerated rate. Even if you only catch 10 minutes, those 10 minutes will be potent. The restoration your body performs in that snippet of time will power you through on your path to healing. If you’re not able to sleep during this window, even lying down with your eyes closed will allow your body to continue healing. This is because even if you are still conscious, part of your brain is asleep. If you work night shifts or just have a lot of difficulty lying down in this window, you can nap or lie down with your eyes closed between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This four hour daytime window is the equivalent of the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. for healing. 


Angel of Sleep

The Angel of Sleep is always there for you if you need her. Whenever you’re seeking guidance or comfort, speak her name aloud and ask for her help. She’ll aid you in your path to a better night’s sleep, whether because of a health issue or an emotional trial. The Angel of Sleep will watch over you as you travel to the land of the subconscious.


Moving Forward

I know how frustrating and debilitating sleep problems can be. We tend to beat ourselves up when we are unable to get restful sleep, and it is very easy to blame ourselves. Stay light-hearted and know that the answers are now here for you. The information here and in Thyroid Healing is here to help you move forward and finally get the sleep waiting for you. 

It can take time to resolve a sleep issue. It will take time for your body to cleanse itself of toxins, heal, and rebuild, so in the meantime, remind yourself of the laws of sleep: that your sleep account is waiting for you no matter what and that you deserve healing sleep. On top of this, you can help yourself navigate whatever rocky nights come your way with the foods and supplements I share in Thyroid Healing, the Sacred Sleep Window, and the Angel of Sleep. Soon enough, you will be able to take full advantage of your sleep account and cash in on countless nights of restful sleep.


This item posted: 01-Nov-2017

The information provided on this Site is for general informational purposes only, to include blog postings and any linked material. The information is not intended to be a substitute for professional health or medical advice or treatment, nor should it be relied upon for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of any health consideration. Consult with a licensed health care practitioner before altering or discontinuing any medications, treatment or care, or starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program. Neither Anthony William nor Anthony William, Inc. (AWI) is a licensed medical doctor or other formally licensed health care practitioner or provider. The content of this blog and any linked material does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Anthony William, AWI or the principal author, and is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or up to date.


SLEEP SOLUTIONS: Natural Path Cafe at the Renova Center, MAY 1, 2024 NOON.



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