Why You Can't Sleep: What Causes Insomnia and How To Fix It For Good

Martha, who goes by "The Sleep Detective," takes a distinctly different approach to insomnia than most shows on this list. Instead of soothing you to sleep or teaching behavioral techniques, she investigates the physiological root causes that standard sleep advice ignores. The 25-episode series is structured as a sequential course, starting with an explicit instruction to begin at episode one. From there, she walks through how cortisol dysregulation, metabolic dysfunction, food sensitivities, blood sugar instability, gut health problems, hormone imbalances, liver function, and neurotransmitter deficiencies all contribute to sleep problems. The episodes are short and digestible, typically 6 to 20 minutes each, making them easy to work through during the day. Martha's argument is that sleep hygiene, the advice you've heard a thousand times about dark rooms and no screens, fails when the underlying cause is biochemical rather than behavioral. The 4.8-star rating from 24 reviews suggests the people who find this perspective resonate with it strongly. The show leans into the alternative health space, so listeners who want strictly evidence-based clinical guidance may find some claims less rigorous than they'd prefer. But for insomnia sufferers who've done everything the standard advice recommends and still can't sleep, the show's focus on body-level root causes offers a different angle worth considering.