Last Updated on August 19, 2026 by Deliciously Organic Editor
We’ve all been there. You’re lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, totally exhausted — but sleep just won’t come. Or maybe you fall asleep fine, but you wake up at 2 or 3 AM and can’t get back to sleep no matter what you do.
If you’re wondering what to do when you can’t sleep, you’re in the right place. Today I’m going to skip all the tips you’ve already heard (yes, I know about limiting caffeine!) and get into the real root causes of why sleep is so hard for so many people. Once you understand why it’s happening, the fix starts to make a lot more sense.
Let’s dive in.
Why Can’t I Sleep? The Two Biggest Root Causes
High Cortisol
Cortisol is a main stress hormone. It should be highest in the morning to wake you up, and then slowly drop throughout the day so you feel sleepy at night. But if your body is stuck in “fight-or-flight” mode, which is very common today, cortisol can stay high in the evening when it should be dropping. This keeps your brain wired and alert, even when your body is completely exhausted. Sound familiar? This is called the “wired but tired” feeling.
Here are some everyday things that can keep cortisol too high at night:
– Using overhead lights after sunset
– Not eating enough food during the day
– Skipping meals or fasting too long
– Being too busy and over-scheduled
– Not getting sunlight in the morning
– Mental or emotional stress
– Over-exercising
– Eating a very low-carb diet
– Always being in a rush
Blood Sugar Imbalance
This one is huge, and most people don’t connect the dots. When your blood sugar drops too low in the middle of the night, your body sends out cortisol to bring it back up. That spike in cortisol wakes you up and often sends you straight to the bathroom.
If you wake up between 1 and 4 AM and need to use the restroom, blood sugar imbalance is almost certainly the reason. The good news? This is very fixable.
What To Do When You Can’t Sleep: 12 Holistic Tips
1. Eat a Small Protein + Fat Snack Before Bed
If you get a second wind at night, or you lie down and just can’t fall asleep, try eating a small protein and fat snack right before bed. A piece of raw cheese, a spoonful of almond butter, or half a chomps stick all work great. This helps bring high cortisol levels back down so your body can relax and sleep.
2. Eat a Snack If You Wake Up at Night
If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, do the same thing and eat a small protein/fat snack. A hard boiled egg, raw cheese, or a spoonful of almond butter can calm the cortisol spike that woke you up and help you fall back asleep faster.
3. Balance Your Adrenals During the Day
Cortisol is made by your adrenal glands. When your adrenals are overworked, your whole sleep cycle can get thrown off. Taking steps to support your adrenals during the day like reducing stress, eating regular meals, and avoiding fasting can have a big impact on your sleep at night.
4. Use Essential Oils
Before bed, rub 1 drop of cedarwood and 1 drop of lavender on the bottoms of your feet. Then diffuse those same oils in your bedroom. I’ve shared this blend with thousands of people, and I can’t tell you how many of them come back amazed at how well they slept. It’s simple, it’s natural, and it works!
5. Turn Off Your Wi-Fi and Put Your Phone Away
Man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from Wi-Fi, phones, and computers can disrupt sleep. Put your phone in another room or at least switch it to airplane mode. Unplug computers in your bedroom. You can even put an automatic timer on your router so it turns off when you go to bed. This is a small change that can make a big difference.
6. Cut Back on Sugar
If you’re waking up at night to use the bathroom, it’s almost always a blood sugar issue. Cutting back on sugar during the day, avoiding intermittent fasting and eating 3 meals a day can help keep your blood sugar more stable at night. This will result in fewer wake-ups and better, deeper sleep.
7. Support Your Liver If You Wake Up Sweating
Night sweats are usually a sign of liver congestion. Supporting your liver with the right foods and supplements can help reduce or even eliminate night sweats completely.
Here are my top tips to support the liver naturally to get rid of night sweats.
8. Get More Magnesium
Magnesium calms the nervous system and helps your body wind down. But stress burns through magnesium fast, which is why so many of us are low in it! A simple way to boost your magnesium is to take an Epsom salt bath for 20 minutes before bed. You can also take a magnesium supplement if needed. My favorite is magnesium lactate.
9. Eat More Vitamin A-Rich Foods
Vitamin A (aka retinol) plays a big role in setting your body’s internal clock. When your body gets enough Vitamin A, it can properly respond to light signals — knowing when it’s daytime and when it’s time to sleep.
Get your Vitamin A from eggs, grass-fed meats, organ meats, and cultured dairy. Cod liver oil is also a wonderful supplement for this.
10. Get Morning Sunlight
This is free, simple, and incredibly powerful. Every morning, go outside and spend 2–3 minutes getting natural sunlight in your eyes (don’t look directly at the sun). This tells your brain to set your circadian rhythm and signals that it needs to make melatonin about 12 hours later.
If you can also step outside for a few minutes at sunset, that sends another sleep signal to your body. Do this every day and you’ll notice a real difference.
11. Try Natural Sleep Supplements
While you’re working on the root causes, these supplements can help you get better sleep in the meantime:
MinChex — take 2 before bed
Valerian Complex — take 1 before bed
Nevaton Forte — take 1 before bed
12. Evaluate Your Bedroom
Sometimes the fix is simpler than you think. Ask yourself:
– Is my mattress supportive? If not, it might be time for a new non-toxic mattress.
– Is my room dark enough? Try blackout shades or unplug electronics that glow.
– Is the temperature right? A small fan or hot water bottle can help a lot.
A good sleep environment sets the stage for everything else to work.
What Can I Drink to Help Me Sleep?
Chamomile tea is one of my all-time favorites. It’s naturally calming and easy to find. Just make sure to drink it plain without sweetener. Sugar raises your blood sugar, which can actually make it harder to fall asleep.
And don’t forget the protein and fat snack trick mentioned above. A small snack like a hard boiled egg, a spoonful of almond butter, or a piece of raw cheese can help lower cortisol quickly so you can drift off to sleep with ease.
Why Am I Sleepy But Can’t Fall Asleep?
One of the most frustrating feels is being totally exhausted but still unable to sleep. This is almost always a sign of high cortisol. Your body is tired, but cortisol is keeping your brain alert. This is called the “wired but tired” state. The tips above, especially the protein and fat bedtime snack, cutting stress, and getting morning sunlight, can help break this cycle.
The Bottom Line
Sleep is when your body heals, restores, and resets. Not getting enough sleep can lead to serious health problems over time including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid issues, depression, and adrenal fatigue.
But here’s the good news: most sleep problems can be solved when you get to the root cause. Whether it’s cortisol, blood sugar, low magnesium, or poor sleep habits, there are natural, gentle ways to get your sleep back on track.
Start with one or two tips from this list and see how you feel. Small changes add up, and your body truly wants to sleep. Sometimes it just needs a little support.
Sweet dreams!
How can I learn more about the steps I can take for thyroid disease?
I have four fantastic options for you!
- To download my 50 of my top tips to support the thyroid naturally, tap here. I’ll also send you an educational email every few days to help you learn how to support your body naturally.
- If you’d like to learn from first steps you can take to help support your thyroid, check out my class, “5 Keys to Thyroid Hormone Balance”. It’s just 45 minutes and I promise you’ll learn something new!
- If you’re looking for a step-by-step plan for Hashimoto’s that truly works (no more piecing together info!), check out my 90-Day Thyroid Reset Program.
- Book a consult with me for one-on-one help. Here’s info about what working with me looks like.
Thank you so much for these tips! I hadn’t heard of cedarwood as an essential oil for sleep. 🙂
I did quite enjoyed your advice included in today’s email! ☺️
I’m so glad to hear! 🙂
Hi Carrie- Thank you for this post! Nothing is better than a good nights sleep. Or…wait…your chocolate chip cookies are pretty darn close. So many good tips that we forget. I had not heard about putting your phone in airplane mode!
I am wondering what your thoughts are on soaking in Magnesium Chloride vs. Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt). I have heard that Magnesium Chloride penetrates the skin better. It is just more expensive. 🙁 My 9 yr old daughter is a gymnast and frequently gets sore muscles.
I looooooooove your website & cookbooks. Thank you for all your hard work to give us such great information & delicious family recipes!
Are you putting the two essential oils directly on the feet without a carrier oil (Cedarwood and Lavendar)? How many drops would you put in a diffuser?
Thank you for sharing the tips about blood sugar imbalance. I did not realize that a blood sugar imbalance causes waking in the middle of the night and also causes trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I am also going to try using cedarwood and lavender essential oils on the bottoms of my feet. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found the info helpful! 🙂
Thank you. Loved all the information & tips. Shared with all my friends!😊
So glad you found it helpful!
I’m a HUGE follower of Donna Eden, Energy Medicine. Total life changer for me.
Also, try rubbing a stainless steel spoon on the souls of your feet. Use slow, figure 8′ s movements, then reverse the 8′ s. 4 or 5 on each or, more until feet feel less tense.💚👌
I do this every night to fall asleep.My yoga teacher in India taught me this breathing technique to calm the overactive mind we tend to have when trying to fall asleep. Take a slow deep breath in,saying “So” in your mind,as you inhale, and “Hum”,as you slowly exhale. So Hum in Hindi means “I am,that is”.If you concentrate on those words you clear your mind and won’t think other thoughts like making lists in your head of what you need to do tomorrow or forgot to do today. This is a lot of why people can’t sleep. This technique works for me every time.
I’m so glad you’ve found the technique helpful!
Great tips! There’s a few things we cannot do. All our clocks and our alarm system and outdoor surveillance runs off WiFi. Turning it off means resetting dozens of devices. We cannot turn off our phones. We don’t have a landline and we have elderly parents. Not sure if airplane mode would work. It should though. If calls cannot get through though it’s a problem. Plus we are both first responders and need to be reachable.
We both wear mouth taping … it’s becoming very prevalent to prevent mouth breathing and I wear Invisalign aligners so no food at night. It’s bad enough getting up to pee LOL. I can’t imagine having to take out aligners and then brush my teeth…before going back to bed.
I bought an app called Headspace. It has several get back to sleep routines that don’t require removing our Somnifix strips and my orthodontic aligners.
I’m curious about the blood sugar though. I assume since we eat no grains of any sort, no sugars, no fruit but only meat, eggs and green veggies we’d have very rock solid glucose levels. Since I do this professionally I pretty adept at checking my own sugars. I’ve never been lower than 80 when I awaken. Doing intermittent fasting so was curious about the effect of gluconeogenesis during sleep. Sure wish Ōura could track sugar. No pricking.
I’m most definitely going to get the essential oils. I enjoy a cup of Doc Parsley’s Sleep Remedy which is lavender flavored (DH likes the apple). I used to despise the scent of lavender until I discovered that stuff scented with it was a fake ester and not real. Now I grow it in my yard. It’s planted under the bedroom along with star jasmine and if I feel really daring I may open the window on a hot summer night. May get murdered in my sleep though. Part of our stress here is from a dense population area with a lot of economic diversity. A nice way of saying high crime LOL.
Thanks for the great site. I just bought the Pelican shower filter. It’s made by the same company that makes our R.O. systems in the house and in our motorhome. I’m so tired of that chloramine smell. I haven’t had a nice soak in years since the water supply was changed over. They did not bother to tell us and our fish all died. Used to be you could fill the tub with super hot water and by the time it cooled the smell at least had dissipated. We’ve removed our pool and given away our hot tub. Sigh.
A while back, I stumbled on eating a spoonful of natural peanut butter before going to bed and found it helped me sleep. I thought I was probably crazy, so thanks for validating this trick!
I’m so glad it helped!
Are the essential oils you mentioned ok for children? My 10 year old has been having problems sleeping.
Yes, but you’d need to dilute them if applying them on the skin.
I find that having a cup of milk boiled with a large pinch of turmeric, a tiny pinch of black pepper and half a teaspoon of ghee helps to sleep well apart from increasing body immunity. In India we drink it practically daily to ward off flu etc. too.
I love this idea!
@ranjana: Yes. I make Golden Paste and use it to make Golden Milk at night.
My problem is my kitty wakes me early (this morning it was 4 am) when she sleeps all day. I need to get her moving more during the day…..AND I need to get to bed earlier…..Retired, so a little bit disorganized about sleep time…..
I realize that this post is older, and it IS good information. Carrie always has good info! However she may need to update. Im concerned about the Magnesium Supplement recommended. Even though Standard process is a good company, this particular one is troublesome.
1. Sunflower oil is a seed oil and I try to stay away from it.
2. I’m not crazy about “multi-” supplements that contain a bunch of other things like calcium or iron or other vitamins that I may not be deficient in. I like to test- not guess.
3. What TYPE of magnesium is in it? Typically, Magnesium Taurate is good for promoting calm and L-threonate helps with anxiety.
4. Beware that It contains naturally occurring Vitamin K1. If you are taking blood-thinning medicines, are pregnant or nursing, or have been directed to eat a diet low in oxalates, you would need to consult with your health care professional before taking this product.
5. Lastly, you’re getting 70 mg of some type of magnesium. Is this enough? I’ve been told by a functional doc that Magnesium dosage should be 5 times your body weight in milligrams, so I take 675 Mg. Increase to bowel intolerance.
I’ve commented on her older posts here before but I don’t think she monitors these pages anymore. Thats too bad. Someone should.
Hi Jann – EZ-MG is still a mg supplement that I recommend. High oleic sunflower oil is sometimes used as a preservative and is a good source of omega-6, so I’m ok with it being in this supplement. It’s a plant-based mg and it contains all forms. I always recommend asking your practitioner how much of a specific supplement that you need. I answer each and every question that some in no matter how old the post. Thanks!