Insomnia Treatment in Greenville, SC
Insomnia treatment in Greenville, SC. Acupuncture and functional medicine help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed. Call Dr. Hendry at (864) 365-6156.
"I have been going to Dr. Hendry for 2 months now, for Acupuncture and Supplements. After 2 months, this is the best I have felt in over 2 years. My energy is so much better, my gut and digestion is back to normal."
— Danny Pyatt · March 2026 · Google Review
What Is Insomnia?
Most insomnia patients try the obvious things first. Stop looking at phones before bed. Cut caffeine after noon. Try melatonin, then more melatonin, then a prescription sleep medication. The medication works for a while. Then it doesn't. What's missing from most insomnia treatment is the question of why the nervous system can't turn off at night. For many people, it's cortisol too high in the evening — HPA axis dysregulation that maintains physiological alertness long past bedtime. For others, it's low progesterone that normally provides the GABA-agonist calming effect in the luteal phase. For others, nocturnal blood sugar drops trigger a cortisol response at 2–3am that fully wakes them. Melatonin doesn't fix any of these. The right question is which one is happening for you specifically.
Common Symptoms
Root Causes: A Functional Medicine Perspective
Insomnia has multiple physiological causes that standard medicine rarely fully evaluates. Elevated evening cortisol — from HPA axis dysregulation — prevents the drop in cortisol that signals the brain to initiate sleep. Low melatonin production, often exacerbated by evening screen exposure and blue light, delays sleep onset. Magnesium and GABA deficiencies reduce the calming of the nervous system needed to transition into sleep.
Hormonal changes are a major but underrecognized cause of insomnia: low progesterone (which has GABA-agonist properties) causes insomnia in perimenopausal women; hot flashes in menopause cause frequent waking; low testosterone in men disrupts sleep architecture. Blood sugar dysregulation causes nocturnal hypoglycemia that wakes patients in the early morning hours (2–4am). Thyroid dysfunction — both hyper and hypothyroidism — disrupts sleep. Identifying the specific physiological driver is essential for effective treatment.
How We Treat Insomnia at IHP
Acupuncture improves sleep through multiple pathways: increasing melatonin secretion, raising GABA levels, reducing evening cortisol, and calming the sympathetic nervous system. A 2019 systematic review of 30 randomized controlled trials found acupuncture significantly superior to no treatment, medications, and other conventional treatments for improving sleep quality and reducing sleep onset latency.
Dr. Hendry's functional medicine approach addresses the root physiological cause: cortisol rhythm correction, hormonal optimization, magnesium and adaptogen supplementation, blood sugar stabilization, and thyroid treatment where relevant. Sleep hygiene and evidence-based behavioral interventions (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia principles) are integrated into the treatment plan, as CBT-I has the strongest long-term evidence of any insomnia intervention.
Dr. Hendry's Approach
Sleep is a neurological transition that requires a specific physiological state: declining cortisol, rising melatonin, parasympathetic dominance, stable blood sugar. My research on heart rate variability gives me a precise window into autonomic nervous system state — I can identify whether the sympathetic nervous system is still dominant at bedtime and target treatment to that specific failure point. Cortisol rhythm testing and HRV measurement together give a much more useful clinical picture than sleep questionnaires alone.