How to Heal Insomnia: A Holistic Approach to the Root

by Eric Sanchez June 27, 2025

How to Heal Insomnia Naturally: A Deeper Look into the Body’s Need for Rest

Insomnia is defined as the inability to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake feeling refreshed. On the surface, it might look like a symptom of stress or poor habits — but in reality, it's often a much deeper signal that the body is inflamed, overstimulated, or stuck in a state of internal imbalance.

Over the years working with clients through detoxification, I’ve seen just how many chronic conditions are intertwined with poor sleep. Anxiety, autoimmune symptoms, high blood pressure, adrenal fatigue, brain fog, depression, digestive issues, and hormonal chaos — many of these spiral out of control simply because the body isn't able to fully rest, repair, and reset overnight.

This is why addressing insomnia isn’t just about sleeping pills, melatonin, or cutting screen time. It’s about understanding why the body can’t wind down — and what’s going wrong in the systems that regulate circadian rhythm, detoxification, and nervous system tone.

Why Sleep Is Critical to Detox & Regeneration

During the day, your body is outward-focused — digesting food, managing movement, thinking, working, and processing constant stimulation. All of this activity leads to the production of metabolic waste, including lactic acid, ammonia, and countless cellular byproducts.

Sleep is the body’s window to process and eliminate these acidic wastes. While you rest, the body enters a parasympathetic state (rest and repair), slows down digestive function, and finally filters out what you’ve accumulated— particularly through the kidneys and lymphatic system.

If you’ve ever noticed that your urine is cloudier in the morning, this is no coincidence. It’s the body finally able to filter.

In fact, deep sleep is when:

The glymphatic system in the brain clears waste through cerebrospinal fluid
The adrenal glands power down, giving your nervous system a chance to shift out of "fight or flight"
Tissue repair and hormone recalibration occurs (including melatonin, serotonin, cortisol, and growth hormone)
Emotional and sensory information is processed and stored in long-term memory

Put simply: healing doesn’t happen without quality sleep. Which means any true detox plan must prioritize restoring it.

Two Faces of Insomnia

Not all insomnia looks the same. In clinical practice, I tend to see two major types:

Difficulty falling asleep – often tied to elevated cortisol, racing thoughts, nervous tension, or overstimulation.
Waking during the night – typically due to blood sugar fluctuations, kidney activity, adrenal spikes, bladder irritation, or subconscious anxiety.

Both types can exist together. The root causes, however, are usually internal — not just lifestyle-based.

What's Really Preventing the Body from Sleeping?

Let’s go deeper into the core physiological reasons why insomnia happens — and how detoxification restores balance.

🌿 Adrenal Fatigue and Cortisol Disruption

Your adrenal glands produce cortisol, a hormone that should follow a natural rhythm: higher in the morning, lower at night. But when you're chronically stressed, consuming stimulants, or dealing with internal inflammation, the adrenals become dysregulated.

Result: you feel wired at night and exhausted in the morning. This is incredibly common in clients who push hard during the day and don't have enough restorative downtime.

On an internal level, burned-out adrenals also impair your kidneys' ability to filter waste, allowing acids to accumulate in the body and irritate the nervous system.

Herbal supports I often use: ashwagandha, rehmannia, schisandra, rhodiola, adrenal glandulars (only when needed).

🌿 Mucus Congestion in the Head and Glands

The pineal gland, which secretes melatonin, is deeply embedded in the brain. It functions best when the surrounding tissues are oxygenated, hydrated, and free of congestion. Unfortunately, most modern diets are mucus-forming — especially with long-term consumption of dairy, meat, gluten, and starch.

This mucus doesn't just affect digestion — it also backs up into the sinuses and cranial cavity, impeding lymph flow and compressing glands like the pineal and pituitary.

Clients with sleep apnea, sinus pressure, anxiety, or even vivid nightmares often have excessive stagnation in this region.

Detox focus: citrus mono meals, brain/nerve formulas, lymphatic drainage herbs, and sinus-specific tools like mullein, fenugreek, and dry brushing.

🌿 Nervous System Irritation

The nervous system is a two-part system: sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/repair). For sleep to occur, the parasympathetic system must dominate.

But chronic stress, trauma, or even unresolved emotional loops will keep your body stuck in high alert. Over time, this creates nerve ring patterns in the iris (visible through Iridology), and clients often present with symptoms like jaw clenching, shallow breathing, mood swings, and nighttime overthinking.

Restorative supports include: skullcap, valerian, passionflower, lemon balm, and California poppy — often combined in a custom formula.

🌿 Digestive Issues and Malabsorption

Believe it or not, your gut plays a huge role in your ability to sleep. Serotonin — a precursor to melatonin — is synthesized largely in the GI tract. If the colon is impacted, the microbiome imbalanced, or the pancreas/liver under-functioning, this directly influences neurotransmitter activity.

Low levels of B vitamins (especially B6) also impair sleep regulation — but instead of isolated supplements, I recommend detox-friendly, bioavailable sources like bee pollen, spirulina, and dark leafy greens.

If you’re not digesting or absorbing well, sleep will suffer.

🌿 Inflammation in the Bladder, Prostate, or Uterus

Frequent nighttime urination can destroy your sleep cycle — and it’s often due to underlying inflammation (which is, functionally, acidosis).

In men, an enlarged prostate can compress the bladder. In women, uterine pressure from cysts, fibroids, or colon prolapse can irritate the bladder wall. These issues are often tied to congested lymphatic systems, poor kidney filtration, and adrenal burnout.

Reducing inflammation through deep tissue detoxification often solves these issues far more effectively than conventional meds.

🌿 Parasites and Fungal Overgrowth

Parasites are nocturnal — they become more active in the evening to feed, reproduce, and trigger cravings for starch and sugar.

Symptoms include:

Restlessness between 2–4am
Anal itching (especially pinworms)
Night sweats
Vivid dreams or nightmares

Most people have some level of parasitic load — especially if they’ve eaten meat, been around pets, or experienced digestive symptoms. Detoxification with targeted antiparasitic herbs (like black walnut, clove, wormwood) is an essential layer of any healing protocol.

So… How Do You Know What Your Root Cause Is?

Here’s where Iridology (offered here) becomes so powerful.

As a trained Iridologist, I assess your eye structure, fiber patterns, discolorations, and lesion signs to determine the health of your:

Pineal gland
Adrenal glands
Kidneys
Nervous system
Digestive tract
Lymphatic burden
Colon and pelvic cavity

This allows me to create a personalized plan — instead of guessing which herbs or routines you need. For example: someone with chronic insomnia and digestive bloat may need liver/gallbladder drainage and parasite support. Another may need intense adrenal rebuilding and brain nerve support. The root is different for everyone.

Healing Insomnia Through Detoxification

When detox is done correctly — in the right order, with the right support — the body starts to regain balance. Clients begin to:

Fall asleep faster without racing thoughts
Stay asleep longer and wake up refreshed
Regulate mood and digestion
Notice less inflammation and pain
Eliminate the need for medications like Zolpidem, antihistamines, or melatonin

But this kind of healing doesn’t happen overnight — and it definitely doesn’t happen through isolated hacks or quick fixes. It’s a process of cellular cleanup, glandular restoration, and nervous system recalibration.

My Favorite Herbs for Supporting Sleep During Detox

While the full protocol depends on your body’s weaknesses, here are some of the most effective sleep-regulating herbs:

Ashwagandha – Adaptogenic, helps recalibrate cortisol and support adrenals
Lemon Balm & Chamomile – Gentle but powerful nervine sedatives
Passionflower – Eases repetitive thoughts, useful for nighttime anxiety
Skullcap & Valerian – Potent sedatives for nervous system exhaustion
California Poppy – Calms the “wired but tired” system, great for sensitive clients
St. John’s Wort – Improves serotonin regulation and nerve repair
Mullein, Pleurisy Root, Fenugreek – Used to decongest sinuses and airways for better breathing at night

These herbs are not taken blindly — they’re incorporated into strategic formulas based on your detox phase and organ/gland condition.

Lifestyle Tools to Support Deep Sleep

These daily practices enhance results when paired with internal detox work:

Salt soaks (Epsom or Dead Sea) to calm the nervous system
Blue light blockers after sunset
Weighted blankets for parasympathetic activation
Journaling to clear mental clutter
Third-eye meditation to calm the mind and stimulate pineal balance
Herbal tea ritual as part of your wind-down
Decluttering your bedroom to create a healing environment

A Final Word on Melatonin

Melatonin can be helpful short-term — but long-term use can suppress your own production. Think of it like insulin: the more you use, the more dependent your body becomes.

I recommend tart cherry extract as a natural, food-based option for mild cases, but for lasting results, you must rebuild the pineal gland from the inside out.

Ready to Get to the Root?

If you're tired of trying random supplements, chasing symptoms, or relying on pills to sleep — it’s time to get serious about healing.

Through Iridology and personalized regenerative detoxification, we can identify exactly what’s keeping you up at night — and help your body remember how to rest, repair, and regenerate naturally.

👉 Click HERE to start your journey.

Until next time,
In health and healing,
Eric