By Dr. Karen DeVore
If there’s one thing I wish more people understood about their health, it’s this: you cannot out-supplement or out-caffeinate your way through poor sleep. Sleep is not a luxury or a badge of productivity to skip—it’s foundational to healing, balance and long-term wellness. At the Tortoise Clinic, where we approach health through both integrative and holistic lenses, sleep is often the thread that ties it all together.
We live in a culture that applauds hustle, thrives on stimulation and often views rest as a weakness. Yet, as a practitioner, I’ve seen time and again that when sleep suffers, everything else starts to unravel—hormones become imbalanced, digestion slows, inflammation increases, cravings intensify and mental clarity disappears.
Why Sleep Is Your Body’s Reset Button
During sleep, your body performs its most critical behind-the-scenes work. Cells repair. Muscles recover. Hormones reset. The brain processes and detoxifies. In fact, deep sleep is when your body releases growth hormone, which helps repair tissues and regulate metabolism. Your liver is busy detoxing. Your immune system recalibrates. And your nervous system has a rare moment to truly rest.
When sleep is disrupted or insufficient, the effects can be wide-ranging and sneaky. You might wake up exhausted despite getting “enough” hours. You might feel wired at night and sluggish in the morning. You might have trouble losing weight, staying focused, or regulating mood. And here’s the kicker: traditional labs may show everything as “normal.”
That’s where a holistic approach makes all the difference.
The Integrative Approach to Sleep
In integrative medicine, we don’t just ask how many hours are you sleeping? We ask:
- How do you feel when you wake up?
- Do you have trouble falling asleep—or staying asleep?
- Do you feel wired at night and wide awake at 2 a.m.?
- Are you struggling with anxiety, hormone shifts or night sweats?
- Are you using screens late at night? Eating late? Skipping morning sunlight?
We look at the entire picture—nervous system function, cortisol rhythms, melatonin production, hormone balance, stress exposure, nutrition, lifestyle and more.
What many people don’t realize is that sleep disturbances are often not about the sleep itself—they’re symptoms of deeper imbalances. At the Tortoise Clinic, we blend Western diagnostics and Eastern wisdom to get to the root. That might include looking at adrenal fatigue, estrogen/progesterone shifts, thyroid dysfunction, or gut inflammation—all of which can disrupt your rest.
Beyond the Sleep Aids
It’s tempting to reach for sleep aids or melatonin when nights get restless. And while they can offer short-term relief, they rarely address the why.
We prefer to ask: What is your body trying to tell you?
Sometimes it’s a stress response that needs rewiring. Other times it’s low progesterone, blood sugar instability or even chronic inflammation. Instead of masking those signals, our job is to decode them—and guide your body back into balance.
That might mean incorporating acupuncture to calm the nervous system, adaptogenic herbs to support stress resilience, magnesium to relax tight muscles or simple lifestyle shifts like screen-free evenings and earlier meals.
Introducing: The Sleep Assessment
To better understand the sleep patterns and hormonal rhythms of our patients, I’m thrilled to share that we’ve launched a new, non-invasive sleep assessment at the Tortoise Clinic. This easy, at-home saliva test measures your melatonin and cortisol levels at key times throughout the night, along with progesterone, giving us a clearer picture of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Unlike standard tests that offer a snapshot in time, this assessment helps us understand how your sleep hormones fluctuate overnight, guiding more precise and personalized care—without the need for blood draws or guesswork.
If you’re tired of feeling tired—or if sleep has quietly slipped out of your routine and left chaos in its place—know this: rest is not a weakness. It’s your body’s greatest tool for repair.
And you deserve more than temporary fixes. You deserve answers, insight and support that meets you where you are.
At the Tortoise Clinic, we believe healing happens one steady, intentional step at a time—and sometimes, the first step is simply learning how to rest.
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