Can’t Sleep? Before You Reach for Another Gummy, Let’s Talk About Why

Melatonin. Magnesium. CBD. THC. Tryptophan. Sleep gummies. Mocktails. Mouth tape. Magnesium lotion. Weighted blankets. Red lights. Brown noise. White noise. Pink noise.

And, naturally, TikTok would also like to inform you that your inability to sleep is probably caused by cortisol, estrogen, parasites, your Vagus nerve, a magnesium deficiency, your liver, the wrong bedtime snack—or possibly all of the above.

Welcome to sleep advice on the internet.

Some of it is useful.

Some of it is based on legitimate emerging research.

And some of it appears to have been created by someone with a ring light, an affiliate link and a truly breathtaking amount of confidence.

Meanwhile, millions of people genuinely aren't sleeping well.

So instead of immediately asking: "What can I take to make me sleep?" we'd like to start with a different question:

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

Because insomnia isn't always the problem.

Sometimes insomnia is the symptom.

Pain, stress, sleep apnea, hormonal changes, restless legs, nutritional deficiencies, alcohol, medications, blood-sugar issues, circadian-rhythm disruption and lifestyle factors can all interfere with sleep.

And swallowing something that makes you drowsy doesn't necessarily address any of them.

Not All "Bad Sleep" Is the Same

There's a big difference between:

·         being unable to fall asleep

·         falling asleep easily but waking repeatedly

·         waking at 3 a.m. with a brain that has apparently scheduled a mandatory staff meeting

·         waking because you're hot and sweaty

·         waking because your neck, back, hip or shoulder hurts

·         waking multiple times to urinate

·         snoring, gasping or choking

·         feeling like your legs simply cannot stay still

·         sleeping eight hours and still waking up exhausted

Those differences matter.

They can help us figure out what needs to be addressed instead of simply escalating from one sleep gummy to two.

The "Tired but Wired" Brain

You're exhausted.

You get into bed.

Your brain responds:

Fantastic. Now seems like an excellent time to analyze every problem you've had since 1997.

Stress, anxiety, rumination and hyperarousal can absolutely interfere with sleep.

But despite what social media would have you believe, being awake at 2 a.m. does not automatically mean that you have "high cortisol."

Cortisol is an essential hormone with a normal circadian rhythm. It isn't a toxin that needs to be "flushed," "detoxed" or defeated with an $8 powdered mocktail.

For persistent insomnia, one of the best-supported treatments isn't a supplement at all.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is considered first-line treatment for chronic insomnia.

CBT-I uses techniques including stimulus control, sleep scheduling and cognitive strategies to retrain the patterns that can perpetuate insomnia. The American College of Physicians recommends CBT-I as initial treatment for adults with chronic insomnia. [1]

Sometimes the most evidence-based "natural" treatment doesn't come in a bottle.

Perimenopause and Menopause: No, You're Not Imagining It

If you slept beautifully for 40-something years and suddenly find yourself wide awake at 3:17 a.m. contemplating whether you should reorganize the pantry, hormones deserve a place in the conversation.

Sleep disturbance becomes significantly more common during the menopause transition. Research supports relationships among changing ovarian hormones, vasomotor symptoms and disrupted sleep. [2,3]

Hot flashes and night sweats can obviously wake you.

But hormonal changes may affect sleep in more complicated ways as well.

And there's another menopause-related sleep problem women need to know about:

Sleep apnea.

The risk of obstructive sleep apnea increases after menopause. [4]

Women don't always present with the stereotypical symptoms, either. Instead of simply reporting dramatic snoring and daytime sleepiness, women may report insomnia, fatigue, morning headaches, brain fog and repeated nighttime awakenings.

So if your sleep suddenly falls apart in midlife, we shouldn't automatically assume you need magnesium.

And we definitely shouldn't assume your adrenal glands require a TikTok-approved "cortisol detox."

We need to look at the whole picture.

Snoring Isn't Always Just Annoying

We joke about snoring. We probably shouldn't joke quite as much as we do.

Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway repeatedly narrows or closes during sleep:

·         Breathing stops.

·         Oxygen can fall.

·         Your brain wakes you just enough to reopen the airway.

·         You fall asleep again.

·         And then the process can repeat—sometimes dozens of times per hour.

·         You may have no memory of it whatsoever.

Potential clues include:

·         loud snoring

·         witnessed pauses in breathing

·         gasping or choking

·         morning headaches

·         dry mouth

·         nighttime urination

·         daytime fatigue

·         brain fog

·         waking unrefreshed

And please:

If someone may have obstructive sleep apnea, the answer is not automatically mouth tape.

The internet has somehow managed to turn adhesive tape into a universal treatment for snoring.

Snoring can have multiple causes. Sleep-disordered breathing needs appropriate evaluation, and suspected obstructive sleep apnea may require a home sleep apnea test or an overnight sleep study.

Making yourself sleepier doesn't fix an airway that repeatedly closes while you're asleep.

Neither does pretending it isn't happening because your smartwatch gave you a sleep score of 82.

Pain: The Sleep Disruptor People Forget About

If your neck hurts every time you roll over, your shoulder wakes you when you lie on it, your low back starts aching at 4 a.m., or tension headaches make it difficult to relax...maybe your sleep problem isn't primarily a sleep problem.

Research consistently demonstrates a relationship between chronic spinal pain and disturbed sleep. Greater pain is associated with greater sleep disturbance, while inadequate sleep can also increase pain sensitivity. [5]

That creates a miserable little cycle:

Pain → poor sleep → increased pain sensitivity → more pain → worse sleep

This is where treating the musculoskeletal component matters.

For appropriate patients, conservative care may include chiropractic care, acupuncture, therapeutic exercise, massage or other strategies aimed at reducing pain and improving function.

We're not suggesting that a chiropractic adjustment is a treatment for insomnia.

We're saying something much less sensational—and much more logical:

If pain is keeping you awake, treating the pain may help you sleep.

Revolutionary, we know. No viral dance required.

Acupuncture Deserves a Place in the Sleep Conversation

Acupuncture is particularly interesting because it may play more than one role.

It can be used as part of a treatment plan for certain musculoskeletal pain conditions, but acupuncture has also been studied directly for insomnia.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating 31 randomized trials involving 2,226 participants found that electroacupuncture improved sleep-quality scores and insomnia outcomes compared with control interventions. The authors also noted important limitations, including small sample sizes and variable study quality. [6]

More recent analyses of acupuncture for primary insomnia have also reported improvements in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores, although the quality of evidence ranges from very low to moderate and study heterogeneity remains an issue. [7]

Translation:

There is promising evidence for acupuncture and insomnia.

It isn't magic.

It doesn't "reset your nervous system in one treatment."

And we aren't going to tell you that one specific acupuncture point will "cure insomnia" because somebody drew a red circle on an ear and posted it to Instagram.

But acupuncture is a reasonable non-drug option to discuss as part of an individualized sleep plan.

And that's what evidence-based natural healthcare should look like:

use what the research supports, acknowledge what we don't know yet, and skip the mystical marketing nonsense.

Could Nutrition Be Part of the Problem?

 

Absolutely.

But again, this doesn't mean everyone with insomnia needs a $175 supplement panel and twelve bottles of capsules.

Sometimes nutritional evaluation is genuinely useful.

For example, iron deficiency has an established relationship with restless legs syndrome, a condition that can significantly disrupt sleep. A review of the literature found substantial evidence linking iron deficiency and RLS, with iron treatment demonstrating benefit in many studies of deficient or otherwise appropriate patients. [8]

Other nutritional and metabolic considerations may include overall diet quality, inadequate intake, excessive caffeine, alcohol use, blood-sugar regulation and potential medication or supplement interactions.

This is where naturopathic medicine and individualized nutritional evaluation can be useful.

Instead of:

"I saw on Instagram that everyone needs magnesium."

we'd rather ask:

·         What are you eating?

·         What are you taking?

·         What symptoms are you having?

·         Are there reasons to consider laboratory testing?

·         Could a deficiency actually be present?

·         Could one of your medications or supplements be contributing?

That's considerably less exciting than "THIS ONE MINERAL FIXED MY SLEEP IN THREE DAYS!!!"

It is also considerably more responsible.

Speaking of Magnesium...

Magnesium may be helpful for some people.

It is involved in numerous physiologic processes, including nervous-system and muscle function.

But magnesium has achieved almost mythical status online.

Can't sleep? Magnesium.

Constipated? Magnesium.

Anxious? Magnesium.

Muscle cramps? Magnesium.

Mercury in retrograde? We're reasonably certain someone is selling magnesium for that too.

The actual sleep research is much less dramatic.

A 2026 systematic review of randomized controlled trials found inconsistent evidence for magnesium supplementation and sleep, with overall certainty rated low to very low.

So:

Can magnesium be appropriate? Yes.

Does everyone with insomnia have a magnesium deficiency? No.

Should the entire population take magnesium glycinate because TikTok said so? Also no.

The form, dose, medical history, kidney function, other medications and actual reason for taking it all matter.

Melatonin: It's a Hormone, Not a Bedtime Vitamin

Melatonin is another supplement that has somehow become synonymous with sleep.

But melatonin isn't actually a vitamin.

It's a hormone.

Your body naturally produces melatonin in response to darkness as part of the circadian system that regulates sleep and wake timing.

Think of melatonin less like anesthesia and more like your brain announcing:

"Attention everyone: nighttime has arrived."

That's why melatonin makes particular sense for certain circadian-rhythm problems, including jet lag and some sleep-timing disorders.

Its effectiveness for ordinary chronic insomnia is much less impressive.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has suggested against routinely using melatonin to treat sleep-onset or sleep-maintenance insomnia in adults based on the available evidence. [9]

But Didn't We Just Hear That Melatonin Causes Heart Failure?

In 2025, articles appeared warning that long-term melatonin use was associated with a dramatically higher risk of heart failure.

And within approximately twelve seconds, the internet did what the internet does:

It sensationalized the headline for clickbait.

Researchers analyzing electronic health records of more than 130,000 adults with insomnia found an association between documented long-term melatonin use and subsequent heart failure.

That's important and It deserves further investigation.

But the original findings were presented as a conference abstract at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions—not as a completed peer-reviewed clinical trial.

People who take melatonin long-term may differ from people who don't in many ways, including insomnia severity, underlying health conditions and medication use.

In 2026, a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials examining melatonin and cardiovascular outcomes did not demonstrate the same cardiovascular harm implied by the headline. [10]

So we're not telling everyone to throw away their melatonin, or to keep using it long-term.

We're saying:

If you've been taking something every single night for years, perhaps it's worth asking why you still need it.

That's a much better healthcare question.

What About Tryptophan?

L-tryptophan is an essential amino acid involved in pathways used to produce serotonin and melatonin.

Unlike many trendy sleep ingredients, there is some clinical research behind it.

A systematic review and meta-analysis found that tryptophan supplementation—particularly at doses of 1 gram or more—may reduce wakefulness after sleep onset, although improvements weren't consistent across every sleep measure. [11]

That doesn't mean everyone should start taking it tonight.

Tryptophan participates in serotonin pathways, which means medications matter, especially certain anxiety/depression medications. Supplement-drug interactions need to be considered. Always review possible supplement interactions with your pharmacist or healthcare providers.

Again:

"Natural" does not mean "pharmacologically irrelevant."

Your body does not check whether something came from the supplement aisle before deciding whether to metabolize it.

CBD: The Marketing Is Ahead of the Research

CBD may be one of the greatest examples of the gap between:

"People say this helps them sleep"

and

"We have strong clinical evidence that this treats insomnia."

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized studies found that cannabinoids overall improved subjective sleep quality.

But here's the interesting part:

CBD-only interventions did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement compared with placebo. [12] The studies that showed improved sleep metrics contained other cannabinoids in addition to CBD, like CBN.

CBD may still help certain individuals, particularly when anxiety, discomfort or other symptoms contribute to sleep difficulty.

But based on current evidence:

CBD alone = proven insomnia treatment is not a scientifically defensible statement.

No matter how calming the label looks.

THC: Also More Complicated Than TikTok Would Have You Believe

THC-containing cannabis products may make people sleepy, and clinical trials suggest cannabinoids can improve some subjective measures of sleep.

But that doesn't mean THC is a perfect long-term sleep solution.

Tolerance can develop. Regular use can lead to dependence in some individuals. Discontinuation can temporarily worsen sleep.

Interestingly, another popular internet statement—that THC simply "destroys REM sleep"—also oversimplifies the evidence.

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found that cannabis administration did not consistently alter sleep duration, latency, efficiency or sleep architecture across studies. [13]

So the evidence doesn't support either extreme:

"Cannabis is an amazing natural cure for insomnia!"

or

"THC completely destroys healthy sleep!"

Welcome to science.

It's annoyingly nuanced.

Sometimes the Most "Natural" Treatment Is Fixing the Actual Problem

This is the part of sleep care we think gets overlooked.

Natural healthcare shouldn't mean:

Replace prescription sleeping pills with seventeen supplements.

It should mean looking at the person in front of us and asking what is actually interfering with normal physiology. It’s getting to the root of the problem.

Maybe it's:

·         Pain.

Address the musculoskeletal problem.

·         Hot flashes and night sweats.

Address the menopause symptoms and discuss appropriate treatment options.

·         Snoring and apnea symptoms.

Get evaluated for sleep-disordered breathing.

·         Restless legs.

Consider iron status and other contributing factors.

·         Chronic insomnia.

Consider CBT-I.

·         Stress and hyperarousal.

Work on the underlying stress response rather than chasing a mythical "cortisol detox."

·         Nutritional concerns.

Evaluate the diet, symptoms, medical history and appropriate labs rather than blindly supplementing.

·         Circadian disruption.

Look at light exposure, sleep timing and whether appropriately timed melatonin actually makes sense.

Pain plus stress plus menopause plus a questionable diet plus three glasses of wine at night?

Well...

Now we have a project.

But at least we're treating the actual person instead of their Instagram algorithm.

Before You Take Another Sleep Gummy...

Ask yourself:

·         Do I struggle to fall asleep—or stay asleep?

·         Does pain wake me?

·         Do I snore?

·         Has anyone heard me stop breathing or gasp?

·         Do I wake with headaches or dry mouth?

·         Did my sleep change during perimenopause or menopause?

·         Am I waking because I'm hot or sweating?

·         Do my legs feel restless at night?

·         Could nutrition or a deficiency be contributing?

·         How much caffeine am I actually consuming?

·         Am I using alcohol to fall asleep?

·         Could one of my medications or supplements be interfering with sleep?

·         Am I getting daylight, movement and regular exercise?

·         Am I treating the reason I'm not sleeping—or just making myself sleepy?

There Is No One "Best" Sleep Remedy

And that's probably the most important takeaway.

One person may benefit from acupuncture.

Another may need treatment for neck or back pain.

Another may benefit from nutritional evaluation.

Another may need CBT-I.

Another may need their menopausal symptoms addressed.

Another may need iron studies.

Another may appropriately use magnesium or melatonin.

And another may need a sleep study because they've unknowingly stopped breathing repeatedly every night for years.

Good healthcare isn't about finding the trendiest sleep hack.

It's about figuring out what's interfering with normal sleep and addressing as much of the underlying problem as possible.

Sometimes that involves conventional medicine.

Sometimes it involves natural and conservative care.

Very often, the best approach includes a little of both.

Because the goal isn't simply to knock yourself out for eight hours.

The goal is healthy, restorative sleep.

So before asking:

"What should I take for sleep?"

start with the much more useful question:

"Why am I not sleeping?"

If you are interested in exploring some natural and alternative options for sleep issues, our providers are always on hand to help.  Visit our website at www.naturalcarewoodbury.com or call 651-232-6830 to schedule a consultation or visit today.!

Selected References

1. Qaseem A, et al. Management of Chronic Insomnia Disorder in Adults: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2016;165(2):125-133. doi:10.7326/M15-2175.

2. Lampio L, et al. The role of ovarian hormones in the pathophysiology of perimenopausal sleep disturbances: A systematic review. Sleep Med Rev. 2023.

3. Xu Q, Lang CP. Examining the relationship between subjective sleep disturbance and menopause: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Menopause. 2014;21(12):1301-1318.

4. Jehan S, et al. Menopause and Sleep Apnea. Maturitas. 2019.

5. Van Looveren E, et al. The Association between Sleep and Chronic Spinal Pain: A Systematic Review from the Last Decade. 2021.

6. Xu HY, Wu LN, Zhang Y, et al. Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Integr Med. 2024;22(4):459-472. doi:10.1016/j.joim.2024.05.005.

7. The dose-effect relationship between acupuncture and its effect on primary insomnia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 2025.

8. Iron deficiency and sleep: A scoping review. 2020.

9. Sateia MJ, et al. Clinical Practice Guideline for the Pharmacologic Treatment of Chronic Insomnia in Adults. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017.

10. Melatonin supplementation and cardiovascular outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. 2026.

11. Sutanto CN, Loh WW, Kim JE. The impact of tryptophan supplementation on sleep quality: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Nutr Rev. 2022;80(2):306-316.

12. Santos da Silva GH, et al. Effectiveness of cannabinoids on subjective sleep quality in people with and without insomnia or poor sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised studies. Sleep Med Rev. 2025;84:102156.

13. Cannabis and sleep architecture: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Med Rev. 2025.

This article is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat a medical condition. Persistent sleep problems, suspected sleep apnea, significant menopausal symptoms and the use of supplements, cannabinoids or medications should be discussed with an appropriate healthcare professional.