Ep 457: Is Your Sleep Position Hindering Your Night’s Rest? With Dr. Peter Martone

Did you know if your spine isn’t in alignment you could be stuck in fight or flight stress mode?  Sleep is a major time for the nerve and the body to relax and repair. But what if your spine is out of alignment at night, causing pain or interfering with circulation and keeping your nervous system from repairing fully?  Dr. Peter Martone is a chiropractor, educator and injury prevention specialist who has dedicated his life to helping clients get WAY better sleep by focusing on spinal alignment before falling asleep. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause interviews Dr. Martone on the connection between chosen sleep positions, health conditions and sleep quality. 

Resources From The Show:

• Dr. Martone’s Website – Dr. Sleep Right
• 4 Week Sleep Challenge – Quarterly
• Fundamentals of Way better sleep course
• VIP Membership – coming soon!
• Dr. Martone’s Neck Nest – give it a try 10% off with HF10
• Medical professionals WAY better sleep certification program – Summer 2025
• Instagram: @drsleepright
• Free: Sleep Risk Assessment

Our Partners

Podcast Transcript

1:30 – What brought Dr. Martone to chiropractic medicine

4:01 – There’s more to Chiropractic medicine than getting your back cracked?

7:53 – Pull your head out of the matrix and see things differently

9:12 – The curve in your neck can affect your digestion

10:08 – How does your body being out of alignment send a danger response through out the body?

11:39 – The number one reason people crave better sleep

12:42 – Arms and hands falling asleep at night?

15:33 – How does sleeping position relate to fatigue?

21:49 – Sleep positioning and temperature

23:27 – Balancing how you sleep can help reduce night sweats

25:27 – Demonstration of how Dr. Martone sleeps and his recommendation for stomach sleepers

31:34 – Why Dr. Martone only uses melatonin when he travels

34:10 – Advice for if you drink or take edibles

35:41 – Dr. Martone’s weekly intermittent fasting schedule

39:04 – Opinion on sleep scores and sleep apps

45:23 – Dr. Martone’s program overview

48:31 – Background on the Neck Nest

52:39 – Where to find Dr. Martone online

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[Intro] Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly

fix of tips, tools, and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds, and fit

physiques for life.

Hey health junkies, on this episode of the Health Fix Podcast, I’m interviewing

Dr. Peter Martone.

He is a chiropractor, but he’s focusing on sleep in his practice.

And in fact, he has a program called Get Way, W.A.Y.

Better sleep.

His techniques have been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox News,

and over 50 international podcasts.

And now this one, very important.

And we’re going to be talking all about how you sleep,

meaning the position in which you sleep,

how that impacts your vagus nerve,

and how that vagus nerve of yours can really jack

with your health and all kinds of other things

that tie into sleep.

So if you’re struggling sleep or you’re wanting

to optimize your health in general,

This is a fabulous podcast for you.

Let’s introduce you to Dr. Peter Martone.

JANNINE: Hey, health junkies.

I have Dr. Peter Martone on today

and we are going to be talking about sleep

and how lovely it could be if we get the right positioning.

Now, Dr. Martone, as I mentioned in the intro

is a chiropractor and of course,

I always love to kind of dive in with any practitioner

and find out what brought you to chiropractic medicine.

So first, Dr. Martone, welcome to the Health Fix podcast.

DR. MARTONE: Thank you so much for having me, Jannine

and I really appreciate it.

So what brought me to chiropractic, believe it or not,

I was at UMass Amherst.

I was undecided.

I was on my role of blades.

And I’m jamming around, ’cause the campus is so wide.

And I remember, holy mackerel, exercise science.

I like exercise.

I love science, my favorite subject.

So I rip down, go down the hill,

And then I changed my major to exercise science.

I loved it so much, like the study of the body

and the Krebs cycle and nutrition.

And then everything about health,

I just started really aligning with

and having ADD like myself,

once you’re in aligned and you’re passionate about something,

it’s like whole steam ahead.

So then it became an exercise physiologist.

I love to study human biomechanics.

So I had the minor in kinesiology.

And then I was going to medical school.

And I was going to medical school

and I had been to chiropractic before,

but it wasn’t even on my radar

because I really didn’t like it the way that I had it.

And then I had met a chiropractor and he’s like,

where are you going?

I’m like, oh, I’m going medical school.

I’m too excited.

He’s like, you ever think about chiropractic?

I’m like, yeah, but it’s really not my jam.

And he was asking me questions.

And he’s like, why, you know, asking me questions.

And we came up to the point that I had gone to a chiropractor

when I was in a car accident.

And from that car accident,

I had always had a stomach issue.

And he’s like, you know, if the spine’s out of alignment,

it could affect the nerve that goes to your stomach

and we could get rid of that stomach issue.

I’m like, no, no, no, I’m fine, I’m fine.

I had it long story short, takes me into his office.

We get adjusted and my stomach probably went away.

I registered a chiropractor

’cause I love the idea,

’cause they had never heard it before,

that the alignment of your structure

can play a role in health and wellness,

and I was always a health conscious individual,

so it really aligned with me.

JANNINE: Oh man, you know, I mean,

that’s the thing I think a lot of people don’t really know

about chiropractic medicine and the connections.

So we think about back cracking, you know what I mean?

I’ve had similar experiences, you know,

growing up with chiropractic,

and you just go in, they wrench on you,

you know, get it cracked.

All right, you’re out.

And that’s what people think,

but they don’t realize that there’s more to it than that.

And there’s more directions you guys can go

and different things you can come up with,

like sleep for that matter.

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, oh, wow.

That, now talk about a zig zag, right?

So I zig zag now into the sleep industry.

So, adjusting patients, helping them with,

I mean, we had people coming in with allergies, asthma,

reflux because of my personal story, but I had always had back pain, even as a chiropractor.

First 15 years of my practice, I’ve been in practice over 25 years now.

So when you’re looking at helping other people with pain and discomfort and you yourself,

I’m a justifier as having ADD is kind of part of my avatar.

I can justify anything away.

So I was like, oh, my shoulder problem is,

now it’s because I’m a rock climber and I’m a mountain biker

and all my back problems because I like

to do these adventure races and I’m adjusting people all the time

and then people are coming in.

Oh, I can help you with your pain,

but then I can’t help myself with my own pain.

So not really a good place to be.

And then I ended up finally herniating my disc.

I’m in the emergency room because I couldn’t move.

My entire leg was numb.

I’m like screaming in pain.

I’m hooked up on delotted.

That’s the only medication that put me at somewhat of ease

and really one of the lowest parts of my life

because I’m sitting there like, how does it come to this?

I’m a chiropractor for, you know, at that time,

about 14, 15 years.

I’m in the emergency room.

I didn’t know if I was ever gonna bike again.

I didn’t know what’s gonna happen when I practiced.

I thought I was gonna need surgery.

So I finally was able to get mobile,

got out of the emergency room,

started reviewing x-rays,

and I reviewed 3,000 x-rays at the time,

and I just kept reviewing them,

and reviewing them, and reviewing them,

and it came up with a pattern.

And I found that I didn’t have a back problem all these years,

which I was getting adjusted,

and it felt good while I got adjusted,

but would always come back.

I had forward head posture

that was resulting through the body’s adaptive response

and a so-ass major muscle spasm,

cause of my hip saguado alignment,

and the so-ass is the only muscle that attached

to a human disc, which weakened my disc all those years,

and I’m like, what?

Could it be that straightforward?

Could I?

And then thinking, like, when can I fix my neck?

I’ve been over somebody all day long.

I’m like, I’m gonna have to do it at night

when I’m sleeping.

And could it be if I can improve the arch

and structure of my neck,

Body posture just to head position,

could I get rid of the disc problem on my own?

And that’s what ended up happening.

So fast forward, I didn’t get into the sleep industry

to help people sleep.

I got into the sleep industry to correct their structure

while they sleep, which gives it a very different,

a very different take on sleep and then fast forward.

We’ve helped thousands and thousands and thousands of people

transform their sleep by getting the posture right

when they sleep.

JANNINE: Oh, wow.

You know, I think a lot of people don’t think about that

in terms of posture, sleep connection.

I think there’s a lot of people who’ve been through

every treatment under the sun, even surgery,

and still have the same pain.

And, you know, having reviewed a lot of X-rays,

not 3,000 by any means in my practice,

I see a lot of people that have lost that curvature

of the neck.

It’s just straight up and down.

And so is this what you’re talking about?

If someone, you know, someone who’s listening right now

like, oh, yeah, my my doc or post accident, I was told my my

x-ray showing that my neck is straight up and down. I lost my

curvature. This is what you’re talking about helping them at

night.

DR. MARTONE: Exactly. And then then what what really became so apparent once,

you know, it’s like the reticular activating system in your

brain. Once you buy the car, now you see the car everywhere. So

once I I’ve become pulled my head out of the matrix per se, now

start seeing things differently. Right? So now when patients, let’s say I was

adjusting them and we’re helping them with their asthma and their breathing and

we’re doing all these things to balance what’s called the autonomic nervous

system. Right? We’re trying to improve the function of a very specific nerve and

that’s called your vagus nerve. And your vagus nerve comes out right out from

underneath the skull and then goes down and its main focus is to turn on and help.

Immune system, digestive system and reproductive system.

All three of those systems are supported by the vagus nerve.

And when you lose that curve in the neck, it affects the integrity of that nerve.

So when we started changing people’s sleeping position, we didn’t just see pain in their

spine go away, but we saw digestive improvement. We saw all of these health related issues because

I was already tied into those. And then I saw my results in my own private practice just getting

transformed because people are changing the way they sleep. And that’s where we came up with all

of our sleep protocols based around improving that integrity of that cervical spine. And yes,

If somebody loses the curve in their neck, they’re going to also have related digestion issues,

immune system issues, and hormonal imbalances. 

JANNINE: Wow. That sums up a lot of different things,

and it also brings in, for me, something to think about when I’m working with patients,

too, because let’s face it, sometimes there’s some cases in which it’s a tough fix, right?

We’re trying to help someone find their fix. We’re trying to help someone figure out,

“Okay, what do we need to do to get you back in balance?”

And that darn vagus nerve, I tell you,

if it senses any danger, it’s gonna pop off.

So I’d love for you to explain how being out of balance,

being without your curvature,

how that sets off this cascade

of like danger response throughout the body.

DR. MARTONE: So picture this, if I’m watering a garden

and I’m stepping on the garden hose,

The garden isn’t going to be able to flourish because it’s not getting the

life force from that hose. Well you can do all we want to the garden if we’re

not addressing that flow of water or life or energy what you would say to the

garden there’s you’re always going to be making up for something and not going to

be able to get the results that you’re looking at. Your life is going to be

inhibited by that pressure. So when you look at the body, the body works in very

different, so it has these two different systems, right? And there are some systems

are designed to keep you alive or survive. And the other systems are designed to

make you thrive. So the way that I explain it to my patients is your body is

like an iPhone or a cell phone.

You’re alive or your function or all your apps.

And if you want to use all your apps at the same time, what do you have to do at night

when you sleep?

You want to plug it in to recharge the battery.

So the vagus nerve or the parasympathetic system is the recharge.

The performance system is all your apps, which is the sympathetic when you’re away.

So if you want performance, we’ve surveyed now through our systems, thousands of different

people.

And the number one thing that people want more of, or why they crave better sleep is they

want more performance during the day.

They want to have more energy with their spouse and their families and they want to feel like

they can be their best self.

Well, you can’t do that if you run down and you’re not plugging in and you don’t have

that high bagel tone.

So I would at the beginning, if it was just sleep, like most experts talk about, they

talk about sleep from the aspect of getting good sleep, getting good rest, getting good

repair.

But if you have pressure on that vagus nerve the entire night when you’re sleeping, I don’t

care how good your sleep is, you’re not going to be able to perform because there’s that

compression due to that sleeping posture.

And that’s really where, where our, that’s why I believe people don’t get good sleep.

And where what makes us different is we’re really focused on maintaining the integrity

of that alignment called corrective sleeping position while you sleep.

JANNINE: Mm.

Okay.

Okay.

So this kind of brings up something that I know a lot of people might be thinking about right

now.

And something that I think about in my practices, a lot of folks will have numbness, right?

Maybe their feet go numb.

Maybe their arms.

hands and arms, especially in women. I’ll get this complaint quite often. Like, oh, you know, every

night, you know, I’m sleeping, I’m doing great. And all of a sudden waking me out of nowhere,

my hands are numb, my arms are numb. And it doesn’t feel good. You’re talking about the same thing

here, right? Exactly. Now this comes from two areas. If it’s the whole hand, it’s from a, from

vascular, right, vascular issue, which is blood, blood flow. If it’s specific fingers,

than it comes from nerve.

So something’s getting compressed.

More often than not, the person that is the whole arms

falling asleep, it’s happening at the rib level

because the arteries getting jammed up going down the arm.

And if that’s an issue, that same level

also goes to the thyroid gland, also goes to the throat.

So somebody’s arms that fall asleep,

you would ask the questions, you know,

do you have fatigue, do you have thyroid issues?

you having any heart palpitations because then you start to see the nervous system is

broken up into three branches. Motor nerves, which are 45% of the nervous system, autonomic

nerve which is that survive and thrive, that’s 45% of the nervous system. So only 10% of

the nervous system is sensory in nature. So when you start feeling things in half of

that pain, so when you start feeling things and feeling pain, you’re only looking at

10% of the entire picture. So when you are when you’re focusing in on the symptoms or the pain,

you’re you’re not being able to you’re not relating the bigger picture. So there’s also

muscle tension patterns that are issues. There are organs that are involved. So when we start to

understand that we start to look beyond the pain, we can really get to the true cause of the problem.

JANNINE: Makes sense, makes sense. You know, you had mentioned fatigue. And that’s probably the number one

complaint I get in my office, hands down, anyone who’s getting older and even younger folks too,

it seems fatigue, fatigue, fatigue. And you know, we go through the sleep hygiene, everyone’s kind

of aware of the, you know, glasses and whatnot, but they’re, but they’re not thinking about

position of how they sleep. And this was one after I listened to your, your podcast with

Wellness Mama, Katie there. I was like, I sleep on my belly and I do wake up face up. I know,

I know now that I have the neck nest that you provided me with, I am changing things. So I

would love for you to speak about sleep position related to fatigue related to all kinds of other

things that we’re jacking ourselves up with in that department.

DR. MARTONE: Trying to listen better. So I’m going to say I see you. I hear you what you say matters.

But when we so sleeping on your stomach, right is one of the is is is one of the major things that we really try to help people with because you going from a stomach sleeping position.

The more pressure you have against your face.

And against your chest.

the safer you feel, but the more compression you have against the maxillary bones and sinuses

and different things like that. It’s the quickest way to throw yourself out of alignment. But

it’s very difficult for a person like you that has that stomach sleeping because you feel safe

in that position. It’s not a comfortable position. It’s a safe position. So you fall asleep very

quickly. People believe in not on the stomach part can fall asleep very quickly because you’re

you have that very safe environment.

So now we sunny side you up.

Now you’re exposed, you don’t feel comfortable,

you can’t even, you can’t even,

you don’t feel comfortable in your own space.

You when you’re sleeping back,

you feel like you’re falling backwards,

there’s so many different things that happen

to the stomach sleeping avatar that flips upside down,

that needs to be addressed,

and that’s what we do within our programs.

But so sleeping posture, there are a few laws in the body.

The first law is body posture adjust to head position.

So if, and then second law, which is Davis’s law,

but tissue remolds based on the stresses applied

and wolf law bone remolds based on the stresses applied.

So basically your spine’s like clay.

So if you’re sleeping in all of these contorted positions,

you’re molding your spine to become twisted.

And then when you wake up, you’re either in pain,

you feel stiff, you don’t feel energized

’cause your body’s tossing and turning all night long

because you’re not in the right posture.

So my, our entire sleep system

is focused on 10 minutes of falling asleep.

That’s it.

I just wanna put your body into the position

that I can give you body the best chance of a great night’s sleep and do the things that

are important for the first 10 minutes.

Understanding that when you fall asleep, you are not in control.

Your subconscious is in control.

So we want to teach you subconscious with different hacks to be able to fall asleep this

specific way and then give into the safe space of what sleep is.

That’s kind of where we live.

JANNINE: Wow.

Okay.

So yeah, I got to go back subconsciously and be like, huh, what, what in my childhood made

me want to sleep on my belly?

DR. MARTONE: Actually, Doc, let me do something for you.

JANNINE: Yeah.

DR. MARTONE: So you have a screen, you see the screen that I’m pointing at like that, that iris.

So that’s looking at us at all times.

JANNINE: Yeah.

The camera may circle and look at me through that circle and real small and then bring that

back to your eye. All the way back to your eye. I went to my nose. 

DR. MARTONE: Yeah. Okay. See what

eye you looked at, man? 

JANNINE: Yeah. And you’re right handed. 

JANNINE: Yeah.  

DR. MARTONE:  So you sprained also your right

ankle to let you know that ankle sprain is preventing you from turning your head to the

left side in your neck shifts to the right and your hip shifts to the left. Now, knowing

that avatar about you, I can also tell you that you have an ADD brain, a brain that is

an internalizer so you think a lot.

And that type of brain requires safety and comfort in order to fall asleep.

You need more protection than the average person.

That’s why you’re a stomach sleeper.

And typically the ADD brain is going to sleep on this stomach because they crave that.

So when we put you on your back, there are very specific things you do with the cross-dominant

individual than you do with a regular person.

JANNINE: Whoa.

All right.

So you got to tell me because now you’re I’m like, okay, have you been doing

recon on me?

Hmm.

Cause the ankle thing totally true.

Absolutely true on that right ankle, like bad some years ago.

So 

DR. MARTONE: You can see the way that you translate in that then you go when you

translate to that side, what nerve is affected?

Vegas nerve.

So I can tell you have digestion issues, hormonal imbalances and immune system

issues and those are all based on just me looking at you through a screen.

So, and that’s, that’s one of the programs that we’re going to be

launching this year is I’m teaching people this neural structural protocol

and how to listen to what people say, but look past what they’re saying and

read their neurology to be able to treat them differently.

JANNINE: Whoa.

My mind is blown right now.

And I’m like, dang, yeah, you, you pretty much got me figured out crazy, crazy.

So some other folks who are listening to this right now,

I’d be like, oh my gosh, it’s me too.

That’s me too.

It sounds like a lot of us have different patterns

of imbalances within Vegas Nerve,

within different things that happen.

So I’ve got this belly sleeping thing.

What are some of the other common patterns that you see

just so we can kind of highlight to a lot of folks

that might be listening, maybe it can resonate with somebody.

DR. MARTONE: I don’t understand that.

What are you asking me about?

JANNINE: Yeah, what other patterns of sleep can, you know,

instead of belly like side or curled up

or what do these things mean?

I’m kind of trying to figure out sleep interpretation here.

Like Freud meets chiropractor meets neurologist.

DR. MARTONE: I know it’s, I freak people out when I do this to them.

Like we do something in my office called the reverse intake.

When somebody comes in to see me,

I put their paperwork face down.

Because I have my staff interview them then it’s all faced down. I say work

I’m going to tell you what you wrote on this paper based on I mean asking you a few questions

Because I want people to know how consistent these patterns are like you’re saying

So when you’re looking at somebody’s sleeping there’s very there’s when you really break it down

I mean airway can be an issue

If people’s core temperature are an issue,

they’re feeling of not being able to get out of their own head is an issue.

There are really few issues that we all have problems with because we all live very, very similar lifestyles.

So if somebody has a shoulder issue or a hip issue, you have a sleeping problem.

You’re either side sleeper or you’re stomach sleep.

Now, if you are a back sleeper and you have those issues, then you’re using your pillow incorrectly

and you’re not putting yourself in no proper issue.

So positioning is key.

But the second thing is temperature regulation.

Like that’s positioning will make you toss and turn

all night long and destroy your structure.

And that affects the vagus nerve.

But if you don’t get your temperature correct,

you’re never going to get good sleep,

good deep restorative sleep.

And that’s another thing that I see

happen when we’re curled up in these balls

and we eat late at night and our hormones are going out of control because they’re aging.

And you need to create a posture and use your covers effectively to be able to give your

body space to be able to sleep the right way.

JANNINE: Makes sense.

So are you saying, because of course a lot of people who listen to this podcast, do you

kind of have a little bit, they’re a little older, they’re possibly having some night

sweats, things of that nature.

Are you saying that by balancing how you sleep,

balancing your posture at night,

you can have less hot flashes and nights.

DR. MARTONE: That’s fantastic.

But why?

Tell me why that would happen based on what we just went over

right at the beginning.

It, because it improves the function of what nerve?

JANNINE: The vagus nerve.

– Yeah.

DR. MARTONE: And the vagus nerve is 80% of all of the health

to the reproductive system,

which is your hormonal system.

Yes, there’s some parasympathetic innovation

down at the sacrum, but also body posture

just ahead position, so sacral misalignment

and hip misalignment are all due to forward head posture.

Yeah, everything’s connected neurologically.

So that’s really my biggest thing being in the sleep world

is getting people to understand if you have health

limitations, more than likely structural imbalances also

that are associated with those that are unidentified.

And if you don’t read them or learn how to look at them

or at least be addressing those,

you’re never gonna be able to get the health that you,

we call it way better health.

You won’t be able to achieve the health

that you’re looking for.

JANNINE: That makes sense.

It makes sense.

You know, the longer I’ve been doing this podcast,

the more I’m learning like, yeah, it’s back to basics.

It really is back to basics.

Now, a lot of people right now are using weighted blankets,

I pillows things of that nature.

Can you weigh in on that?

How does that play into working on posture overnight,

working on vagus nerve, things of that nature overnight?

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, I tried using the weighted blade.

I mean, pressure is great.

Pressure is great for sleep.

It just didn’t, I didn’t like that constriction,

’cause, excuse me, I think they’re just too big.

So I ended up doing a pillow on my chest

and a pillow on my forehead,

sleep mask going like I called the head garage. It’s kind of a really weird looking, you know.

So is this on video? Like what’s the podcast video? 

JANNINE: Yes. Yes. 

DR. MARTONE: Ok,  I’m going to show you behind me how I sleep.

And you’re going to be like, you’re not, you can fall asleep like that. And more specifically,

actually, I’m going to show you knowing your avatar how you should sleep at the beginning

because you’re not going to be able to sleep flat on your back. You’re going to need a little bit of elevation

just based on knowing that

JANNINE: All right guys that are listening on audio he’s going to do a demo here and we’ll make sure to add in a little bit there too

So dr. Mertone we do both video and audio so I’m gonna kind of do a little narrative if we need to– 

DR. MARTONE: Ok, you narrarate and

I will keep my mouth shut, go ahead.

JANNINE: Oh, no, right now he’s got the table,

he’s got an incline, looks like a wedge of sorts there,

and he’s gonna put that on the table.

And then he’s got the,

it looks like a regular pillow there.

DR. MARTONE: And this is the Neck-Nest.

JANNINE: Yep, Neck -Nest there.

What’s the regular pillow doing there on the table?

DR. MARTONE:This is going over my forehead.

JANNINE: Ah, okay, okay.

So that we are doing the garage.

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, we have to do the garage.

I can’t sleep without a garage.

JANNINE: Okay.

(laughs)

All right, he’s laying down,

he’s got his blanket on him getting all cozy.

He’s laying down on the wedge and the neck nest

and he’s got a little technical.

DR. MARTONE:I need to keep my chin to keep my chin– my chin, jaw, shut.

JANNINE: Oh, okay, so he’s tucking himself in

with his blanket, putting it under the chin.

And now he’s kind of getting his head in position

so that he’s got the neck nest underneath the neck,

kind of giving the curvature, yes?

DR. MARTONE: Yep, and the head’s off of the back of the neck nest.

that’s really important that their head’s not supported.

JANNINE: Got it, got it.

All right, all right.

So he’s getting cozy.

Now he’s got the pillow right over his head there.

That, and you got your mouth out though.

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, I have my mouth, the pillow’s over my nose.

I mean, above my nose and my mouth, over my eyes.

So what we find is when you have pressure against your eyes,

it’s just like the ostrich sticking its head in the ground.

It feels safe. So when you’re sleeping on your stomach,

oh, so safe. Right? And you’re basically creating pressure against your face,

pressure against your chest. That’s safe. Pressure creates safety. That’s like swaddling as a baby.

If a baby is crying, you will swaddle the baby. And that’s what we want to create this swaddling

type of thing during that at night.

JANNINE: Hmm.

Man, you know, I never thought this much about sleep in terms of safety, right?

Because we think we’re in our bed.

How much safer can it be here?

Right?

You know, we’re cozy, but, but it makes sense because that vegus

nerve of ours is so interesting.

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DR. MARTONE:  And then try, for those of you that travel,

holy mackerel, that first night of traveling,

your body subconsciously is like a,

somebody gonna smash through the door, the window.

You’re like, it’s, it’s so, you have to,

I use all the pillows.

I put ’em here, here on my chest, over my head.

I put them all around me.

I take every pillow off of the bed.

And I even like to get, I don’t,

if I’m travel alone, I like two queens,

so I have extra pillows.

So I get, it’s, I’m a nut, right?

because I need to create, I need to get my body, you know,

acclimated to the time zone, which is tough enough.

It’s the only time I’ll use melatonin

and some deep sleep products.

And then, and then I need to create that safe,

pressured environment.

We do a lot of these videos on like Instagram

where if I’m traveling, I show you how to rip

all the covers off and get down to it.

(laughs)

JANNINE: We will definitely put that on our podcast.

That’s the doctorjkrausend.com for the travel

because I think travel is a big thing

because a lot of people will tell me like every time I travel,

either the first night, like you said,

or the whole time that they’re traveling,

they do not sleep well.

So you’ve got the secrets to helping get a good night’s sleep

while traveling.

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, I have to because I’m a sleep freak, you know what I mean?

No, I like that sleep freak.

JANNINE: Yeah 

DR. MARTONE:  yeah, because I have to get good sleep.

I require a lot of energy and a lot of sleep.

In order to expend as much energy as I do,

I require a lot of sleep and good amount of downtime.

JANNINE: Makes sense. I mean, I think a lot of people do,

and I think we underestimate that.

I think we really do, especially if someone’s an entrepreneur,

if someone is speaking, if someone is in a high intensity type of position.

Now you mentioned something about I only use melatonin and sleep aids when I travel.

So, you got to break that down for us and let us know like what’s your thought process there?

Give us a scoop. 

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, I believe like in order for you to create a good sleep hygiene

or in order to have great sleep, you need good sleep hygiene.

and your body naturally needs to be able to go through these sleep cycles, four to five,

sometimes six sleep cycles a night. In order to get good deep restorative sleep, you’re going to need,

you know, you want those sleep cycles to be at the your healthy sleep cycles and deep sleep

of the first 30 of sleep cycles, then your REMs trickles in there and you get REM more towards the

end. So your body needs to go through these natural cycles. When you take anything of support

of hormonal support, you’re going to drive the body through those sleep cycles. You may sleep,

but you’re not going to go through that natural restorative process that you actually need.

So that’s why I don’t like taking any of those types of sleep supports like melatonin. We created

something that’s called deep sleep. It uses magnesium, uses vitamin B, esopholic acid, niacin,

like different things that help tryptophan convert to serotonin which then converts to melatonin.

So natural supports, it also uses a lot of genine to cool your body core temperature because you need

to cool right at the beginning of your sleep cycle. So I like using like magnisiums and different

things that help support the body’s natural systems to sleep. I don’t like using melatonin to knock

you out. And that’s kind of really my my rule of thumb. And last, it’s very difficult for you to

to tie into let’s say you’re going into your traveling time zone stuff like that. At that point,

I weigh the the the temporary benefit of being able to knock yourself up to get to sleep. And

you only should need that for a night or two. 

JANNINE: Okay. Okay. Definitely a different way of thinking

about things. And I know a lot of folks that are listening to us might be using multiple sleep

to get to sleep, because I do hear that from patients often when they come in.

They’ve got six different things on board to help them to sleep and you’re like,

“Huh, something else is going on in that department.”

Now, being a sleep freak, I’m going to coin it for you here that you are.

What happens with things like alcohol, THC, edibles, things of that nature?

What have you found with folks and how do you tie it in from what’s your blanket statement

on those sorts of things and how do you hack

if you’re gonna drink?

DR. MARTONE: Just talking about that a couple days ago.

So listen, I drink, I don’t mind alcohol.

I love to have myself a margarita on a Friday night

after my 24 hour fast,

which isn’t always the best thing to do.

But I will tell you, getting knocked out

from alcohol, THC, very, very different than getting,

It’s just like taking a sleep aid.

That next day, you’re gonna be run down,

tired, and fatigued.

In order to do that, if you’re going to do that,

you have to have some sort of napping regimen

within your schedule to make up from the rem rebound

in the last REM sleep that you get.

Your body is gonna make up deep sleep

if you give it a night or two.

Your brain’s gonna be run down, which,

so just a rule of thumb.

Your brain recharges in REM sleep,

your body recharges in deep sleep.

So deep sleep, the body will make up

if you’re giving it the right consistency.

REM sleep is a little bit tougher.

So you do wanna be able to have, like I said,

a good napping schedule within your schedule.

So if you could take a nap during the weekend

or something like that.

So.

JANNINE: Okay, napping it is,

if you’re going to do those kind of things.

Okay, I got to ask, 24 hour fast.

Is that, is that, do you do that once a week?

Do you do that once a month?

Is that, is that regular for you?

DR. MARTONE: So I do it every week.

So I do a, basically my schedule is Monday’s

intermittent fasting, I don’t eat till noon,

so which is, which so, that’ll eat soon.

So I won’t eat till noon.

And then I’ll eat a big salad.

It’s a live food with, I don’t even care.

Chicken, fish, meat,

doesn’t matter. I’m not really worried about it. And then I’ll have dinner. Typically, my

dinner is about 630. Then I go to in the dinner small because I go to bed at 930. So I don’t

like to eat close to that three hour window that I don’t like to eat in. So then Tuesday,

same thing, Wednesday, same thing. Thursday is different. Thursday, I have my no Thursday

is the same because I have my meal at 6, 6, 30, but I don’t eat until Friday at 6, 30.

And the way Friday is different is I do two fasting workouts.

So I work out in the morning doing weights, and then I do cardio right around noon time,

which I was getting dizzy doing that.

I’m not now.

And so if I do get dizzy, I’ll just, I’ll have a banana or I’ll do something before

that before I eat at five or six. But it’s like 23, 22 to 23 hours. And then Saturday

is my anything day. And then Sunday is anything ish. But I just, I cut my food right or a little

earlier on Sunday. So I’m ready for the Monday. So so it’s four, one, two. So four days of

intermittent fasting, one 24 hour fast and two high carb days or anything. I want days

JANNINE: Gotcha, gotcha.

Is this something that you recommend to your clients too?

Or is this just what you’ve biohacked

and found that works best for you?

DR. MARTONE: I do.

I actually learned it from a good friend of mine,

Dr. Dan Pompa.

And so he, it’s what he taught me,

oh man, 10 years ago.

And I still do it.

Yeah.

The fasting workout,

So I always did that the muscle workout in the morning,

but I’m adding the aerobic workout in as of the last three weeks.

JANNINE: Wow. Well, sounds like it sounds like an interesting experiment.

Definitely something that, you know, I think a lot of folks in terms of your

plan of eating could resonate with and get on board the fasting workouts.

I have to do that. I’m afraid of throwing up. It’s like.

DR. MARTONE: Well, and also the female needs to fast different than these.

The fasting workouts a little different.

that you can still do the fasting workout, but you want to have a little bit of carbohydrate before you

workout. So in that length of time, like muscle workout, that’s fine. But if you’re going to do

in a aerobic workout, the female avatar needs a little bit of carbohydrate should have a little bit

of carbohydrate because sexual hormones are a little differently.

JANNINE: Noted, noted. All right. So because a lot of us have different apps and we have different watches and

and or rings and tracking things and a lot of people,

my family included, like to wake up in the morning

and tell you their sleep score.

So what’s your opinion on all these different sleep apps?

Which one do you like if you like any?

Give us a scoop on what you think about those guys.

DR. MARTONE: Well, that’s the sleep.

My biggest thing with a sleep tracker

is just be consistent with one.

I mean, they all inherently have issues, right?

And but the, we are the, the viability comes in

is the length of time you use the same tracker.

And then what you do is you use your own,

how you’re feeling.

So I just happen to use an auraing.

Not that I think it’s the best,

it’s just the easiest for me.

So I put an auraing on and like my score this morning,

I was a, and I had a long weekend,

I was skiing, I was snowmobiling,

I mean, I had a pretty tough weekend.

So my readiness this morning was really good,

’cause I got 10 hours of sleep last night.

My readiness was about a 93.

My sleep score was a 90, which is a little low for me.

And I used to be, and I can have a horrible night because I don’t wear it when I have

my horrible nights.

My sleep score could be a 40, right?

So you know, just understanding your patterns and then how you feel when you’re at your

best and then look at your tracker and see where you were.

And then you kind of, and don’t compare yourself to other people.

That’s the worst thing that you can do.

Your physiology is your physiology.

I see people that, oh my God, my HRV is unbelievable.

They have digestion issues.

They have allergies.

The immune systems are so dysfunctional.

So don’t compare yourself and look at just one thing and then go to the research and

and say, oh, because everybody loves to pull out one thing

from society and say, this is what we need to work on,

because this is how 100 people felt after this research.

Well, what about the millions of other variables

that you’re not looking at?

It’s just drives me crazy sometimes when people like,

oh, but the research said, hold on a side note,

especially on sleeping position.

Because people will come at you and they’ll say,

the research says that side sleeping

is the best sleeping position.

based on you when your body has the best lymphatic drainage.

And clap, the lymphatic drainage is important because then you’re going to get all time

as if you don’t compatically drain well.

Well, do you know that that research was done on rats and the rat structure is completely,

the rat cervical spine is very different than the human cervical spine.

So they’re not looking at the integrity of the spinal biomechanics,

they’re looking at a rodent and then there’s a significant statement within that 2015 study

that says we understand that we did this on rats,

but we are concluding based on our rat study that the same position is great for humans.

And that’s the gold standard on sleeping position that people using and it drives me crazy.

JANNINE: I think about it. I don’t even know how a rat sleeps.

Like I would imagine they sleep on their belly.

I can’t imagine they sleep on their– – 

DR. MARTONE: Belly side, yeah.

JANNINE: Yeah, like belly– 

DR. MARTONE: They put them on their side and they jam these.

I don’t know how they did it.

There’s inhumane things that you can’t do in humans.

JANNINE: Right.

DR. MARTONE: And you know, and–

JANNINE: Yeah, yeah, no, the research industry on rats. I, I know they’re rats, but I still, I’m like,

but yeah, like, I don’t know. I’ve never seen a rat sleep and I don’t, I hope I don’t ever

actually to be honest. No, thank you. So let’s go back to HRV for a second, because a lot of

people like you said will judge their entire life off of their HRV scores. And that can

be it sounds very problematic. Like you said, someone can have an HRV that’s that’s phenomenal,

but they’ve got all kinds of things off. So– 

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, exactly. I looked at a kid to HRV

just today. He sent it to me. He’s like, what do you think of my scores? I’m like, wow,

That’s a HRV of a 75.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an HRV of a 75.

And I’m not going to campaign my health to this kids because I have so much, you know,

my energy is it runs so high in my HRV readings are down at, you know, well, they were at

30.

I brought them up to 48 to 50, but I feel unbelievable when my HRV is 48 or 50.

This morning, my HRV was lower because my body is run down from the weekend.

I still got a good sleep score, but my HRV is low.

What does that tell me?

I need some rest and repair.

I need rest and repair.

And it’s not just sleep.

It’s how much sugar did you have the day before?

How much is your body thinking?

So people look at sleep, which I think is great

as the, oh, I got eight hours of sleep.

But what did you do?

How much sun did you get the day before?

There’s so many variables of health

And it’s overwhelming a little bit.

So I teach people this.

I have very, as you can tell, pretty structured.

And I have, I say, in the summer times it’s different.

Just own Monday through Thursday.

That’s your health for days, right?

And then Friday, you know,

mess around on a Friday fun day, you know, do what you want.

I like the 24 hour fast.

just like challenging my system and then do what you want Friday night to Sunday.

And I think if you get into that pattern that’s doable for people because every

weekend you know or whenever your weekend is people like all right I need to get

back on the track Monday it starts again it starts on Monday.

Anyway you follow up the rails on the weekend I don’t think you should follow

so far off the rails but but just if you we can live that line right work week

health week, weekend, my time. I think that that’s pretty fair.

It is fair. 

JANNINE: It is fair because I mean, when someone gets into too strict of a routine,

I feel like that causes more mental, you know, wonkiness in that department. Now, what other

things do you do when you work with clients? Are you working? Are you doing any testing?

Are you doing any nutrient stuff? Like give us give us the whole program overview so that

folks get a sense of what you’re up to?

DR. MARTONE: Yes, so my systems are all right now within sleep.

So what I do in that most of them,

the one-on-one coaching is if I do that,

that’s, you know, I don’t have a lot of space

in my life for that right now.

We’re inventing and doing different products,

we’re working on different patents.

So what people can do if they resonate with what we’re doing,

We do a lot of online programs.

So when I do my coaching, it’s with 100 people on a line,

or 50 people, or 25 people.

So we have a few different things.

We do a four week sleep challenge, right?

We do that quarterly, where it’s just a process

of self-regulated by you, but I do an introductory call

and then an end call.

Then we have something we call,

we call getting way better sleep.

So it’s awakening the full potential

of a well rested aligned you.

And we have a fundamentals course where that gives you the five pillars of what it takes

to get way better sleep.

And then we have our VIP membership that we’re launching.

That’s where there’s a little bit more exposure because I do a call with — I’m going to be

doing a call with our group every other week so they’ll be able to ask me direct questions.

And if they ask questions, more people will be able to listen to them.

And then that’s where all of my drip education lives, where you get our library of 60 videos

where it teaches you exactly what to do to fall asleep well.

JANNINE: Wow, cool stuff.

I think a lot of people though are going to be like, all right, I want you to do the

thing that you did with me with the hand and figuring out the imbalance.

Do you do any of that like as demos or anything in any of your your live calls or any of those

things?

DR. MARTONE: So we are doing if they’re let’s say if doctors listening or they’re health coaches listening

or massage therapist PTs and they want to deliver they want more confidence in when they recommend

and take their understanding. So how we treat you treat one way I treat another way but massage

therapist treats another way but if we all used a similar lens so when we refer to each other we’re

looking at people the same way, we’re calling, you know, that’s our way better

sleep certification program, which we’re launching in June of this year. That, if

you really want to dive in, that’s where we’re, I’m teaching the course and I’m

teaching you all of these things. So you can master your take what I’ve

learned over the last 26 years and you can then use that to be able to take

whatever you do to see people differently to treat differently.

JANNINE: Oh, cool.

I think a lot of people might be into that because we definitely do a lot of

coaches that they’ll listen to this podcast.

Now, of course, the, the number one thing that I had in the back of my mind

throughout this podcast and how you’re getting way better sleep is, is using the

Neck Nest.

And of course it was, you sent it to me.

I’ve only had a couple of days in on it.

And I would love for you, because we did the brief demo here halfway through the

the podcast, I would love for you to kind of give folks the background on the

neck nest and why you created it and how it’s helping with structural

alignment as you use it.

DR. MARTONE: Yeah, so that’s great.

So one of the laws in the body, it basically, it’s not even a law.

It’s everybody knows that we say it.

And so it really needs to be a law.

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Right.

So and that aspect is applied to every aspect of our, of our life.

So when I was reviewing those 3000 x-rays,

I started jamming pillows under my neck,

and then I would recommend them to patients

and they’re like, “Which one do I use?”

I’m like, “Well, bring in a 650-filled down pillow.”

And then, “Oh, what about my cervical pillow?”

Okay, bring it into this.

And I found that most of the pillows out there,

even the cervical pillows, support the neck,

but they also support the head at the same time.

And when you do that, support weakens.

Anytime you support something, you weaken it.

So you’re supporting the head and the neck at the same time,

you’re gonna complicate the problem

that’s happening in your cervical spine.

So in lieu of that, I wanted to use distraction

to gently stretch a curve into my neck

because distraction is a force that causes change.

So when I came up with these concepts and principles

and applied laws, I figured, holy mackerel,

I gotta create something that makes my head

hang off the back of it.

And I don’t, so if I support my head,

I’m only supporting a small base underneath the ocipital,

but my head’s really hanging out there in space.

So that’s why I created an Neck Nest.

It was, it came out of my frustration, I guess,

to try to create some standard

as to what I knew my patients were using.

And then in Dr. Mercola, if you’re familiar with him,

he was really designing a new one for him.

But he was really an integral part of pushing me to say,

“Listen, just design your own pillow.”

And that’s why we ended up coming up with the nickness.

JANNINE: Wow.

No, it’s neat.

I’m looking forward to trying to get out some more

and seeing how it helps me to convince myself

that safe is okay, face up.

This is going to be a work in progress since we have 46 years of sleeping on our belly.

So this is going to be some time.

How long does it on average take someone to really adopt thee–

DR. MARTONE: You know, that is such a great question.

It’s one of the questions we get so often.

All I can tell you is think about just the first 10 minutes of your life.

minutes of your sleep patterns. If I have you focus on this, it’s like I can’t do that.

If I you got to sleep in this position for eight hours, I can’t what are you talking

about gets people anxious. It could take you two weeks. I have people the first night it

happens or it could take full months. All you need to do is focus on the position that

you fall asleep in the first 10 minutes of your sleep. This is what we teach our program.

The first 10 minutes of your sleep ritual, how you’re putting yourself to sleep, how

you’re using your covers, how you’re using your covers if you sleep with a spouse.

You know, all of those are very, very, very important and you’re only in control with

how you fall asleep.

Once you fall asleep, the body is going to take over.

It’s going to do whatever the heck it wants.

So let it do whatever it’s going to do.

Just fall asleep the right way.

JANNINE: Oh, man.

I think that’s a great place for folks to just start off.

your next step moving forward folks and go from there. So of course you you laid out a lot of things

that are coming out in the future, a lot of stuff in terms of resources folks can have right now.

Let’s talk about how they find you on your Instagram so they can watch you travel and sleep. Let’s

talk about your website and give folks the whole scoop Dr. Martoni. DR. MARTONE: Yeah so they can go in on

We’re on Instagram, I think we’re on TikTok too, but I think that’s going away.

I don’t know.

At @doctorsleepright.com, oh sorry, @doctorsleepright, D-R-S-L-E-E-P on Instagram.

And if you want to follow us, you can follow any of our programs or look in there in our

programs, @ drsleepright.com.

You can also take a free sleep risk assessment to see how your sleep habits are affecting

your life.

And then there you can find out more about the neck nest because there’s a link to our

sister site which is the neck nest.

And you can find out more about that, find out more about sleeping position, you’ll find

out more about that 10 minute sleep ritual, things like that.

JANNINE: Awesome.

Oh my goodness, Dr. Martoni, you have blown my mind and especially in terms of what you

know about me having never met me before.

And now I’m like, okay, that’s it.

I have to, I have to really work on my sleep position.

You’ve convinced me, so I hope that a lot of folks take all this messaging here and use

it to help your sleep.

So thank you again for coming on.

I really appreciate it.

DR. MARTONE: Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

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