If you’re reading an article titled “How to Sleep”, chances are that you’re stuck in a struggle with sleep and are looking for answers. (If you’re not, well, welcome anyway, and sorry for the confusion… and also, what are you doing here?) I’ve written this guide to help you understand how sleep works and how …
As the dozens of emails in our inbox from every single company we’ve ever interacted with keep reminding us, these are unprecedented/uncertain/trying times. Seriously though, we are living through a global pandemic – an enduring worldwide crisis and natural disaster – and everything about what normal life used to look like has been upended. We’re …
Sleep logs are usually an essential part of behavioral insomnia treatment for two main reasons: 1) baseline sleep data (pre-treatment) guides the initial sleep schedule modifications by providing important calculations such as sleep efficiency, average total sleep, sleep latency, and time in bed, and 2) ongoing sleep data shows trends during treatment and can tell …
Track Your Sleep Using These Nifty Sleep Logs (Part One) Read More »
Not uncommonly I get asked about taking melatonin supplements, and I find that quite a few of my clients are taking melatonin currently or have in the past. And it’s not hard to see why it’s so widespread. You can get it without a prescription, it’s marketed as natural and safe, and it’s available in …
Boosting Your Melatonin (With This One Weird and Completely Legal Trick) Read More »
Sleep problems don’t usually get triggered for no reason – they’re usually caused by an identifiable event or source, for example: work stress, going away to college, an injury, or a new baby. Similarly, sleep problems don’t usually stick around for no reason, either – that also has a cause. In other words, there are …
5 Common Coping Behaviors That Actually Perpetuate Insomnia Read More »
If you’re like me, having the morning cup of joe is a daily (and mandatory) ritual. We’re in good company, as more than 60% of Americans reportedly drink coffee every day, drinking an average of 3 cups daily. Caffeine is an effective stimulant, and the world’s most widely used drug. Most of the caffeine we consume comes …
By now, you probably have already read somewhere or been told by someone that it’s not good to be using your phone in your bed. Perhaps you’ve even tried cutting back on your in-bed screen time, but haven’t noticed much difference or found it too hard. After all, your phone is your bedside alarm clock… …
Here’s Why Your Smartphone Should Stay Out of Your Bed Read More »
If you have children, going through a period of “baby sleep training” probably sounds familiar. There is a wide range of popular methods for sleep training your infant, from the cry-it-out method on one end of the spectrum to attachment parenting on the other end, and many methods that fall in between. While there are …
4 Ways Adult Sleep Training is Like Baby Sleep Training Read More »
Why are naps bad? Sometimes, I’m asked by a client why they have to give up napping. Or if power-naps are okay. If you glance through any number of “sleep hygiene” guides, most will specifically recommend to avoid napping. So, why are naps bad for you? Truthfully, there is nothing inherently wrong with napping. In …
To Nap or Not to Nap, That is the Question (For Insomnia Sufferers) Read More »
CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) is a behavioral treatment approach specifically developed for treating insomnia. It consists of several treatment components – based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles – that are commonly used together to treat insomnia. Because it is a multi-component approach, there isn’t one authoritative or manualized version of CBT-I; instead you’ll find …
