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‘ ’But I’m not spending that much time in bed’’ Oh, but she was. Jacqueline, 51, came to me after struggling with insomnia for years. She had been taking strong sleeping medication for about two years, but her sleep was still disrupted, and she wasn't feeling particularly wonderful during the day either. She had recently started a stressful new job, moved to a different community, and was living far away from her family. Life had changed quite a bit, and her evenings had beco

I became a sleep coach because a sleep program almost killed my very dear aunt. Her insomnia started after she married off her last child. What should have been a wonderful new chapter in her life became the beginning of years of sleepless nights. It would take her hours and hours to fall asleep. Some nights, she didn't sleep at all. Once a week, usually after Shabbos, she would treat herself to a sleeping pill. The rest of the week, she muddled through, she's a trooper. She

"It took me hours to fall asleep last night, but for the first time, I felt so calm and empowered." I can't tell you how much I loved hearing those words from a client. Because THIS is what real progress can look like. The interesting part? She wasn't celebrating a wonderful night of sleep. She was celebrating a night when sleep took hours to arrive. Now, you might be wondering how on earth that could possibly be considered progress. After all, when someone hires a sleep coac

She didn’t need a new plan. In June, I finished working with a mom and her nine-year-old daughter. Let’s call her Sarah. They were such an amazing pair to work with. Mom really understood her daughter, and Sarah was incredibly articulate for nine years old. She also knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted to become an independent sleeper. That was our goal. We worked together for three months, meeting every week. We always had the bigger goal in mind, but every week we set a

I knew it was working. I checked anyway. One of the perks of my new oven is that it has some very clever features. Except apparently, they’re not that new. I’ve just never used them. 😂 One of them is delayed cooking. You put the food into the oven, set everything up, and tell the oven when you want it to turn on. Brilliant. I probably could have been using this for years, but it took someone actually showing me how to do it before I finally tried it. So the other day, I was

6 a.m. I was wide awake. And my first thought was, “Yep. I told you so.” Let me back up. The night before Yom Kippur, I was getting ready for bed and thinking how nice it would be if I could sleep a little later than usual the next morning. It was a fast day. I didn’t have to get up early. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could just sleep? Then my brain did what brains sometimes do. Watch. This will be the morning I wake up at 5 a.m. I was so convinced that this was probably going

I know better. And I’m still not doing it. Lately, I’ve been getting a little lazy about putting my youngest daughter to bed. There. I said it. We live on two floors, and the bedrooms are upstairs. My youngest has a bedtime routine. She eats supper, finishes whatever she needs to finish, takes a bath, reads, brushes her teeth. She knows what she’s supposed to do. The problem is me. By that point in the evening, I’m usually still downstairs. I’m cleaning up the kitchen, talkin

I asked her if she had 15 seconds. That was today’s sleep strategy. Literally. She looked at me and smiled. I know. It sounds almost ridiculous. Fifteen seconds? What could possibly happen in 15 seconds that would make any difference to someone who is waking up at 5 a.m. with a mind that simply will not stop? But sometimes it’s the smallest things that show us what has been missing all along. She falls asleep instantly. That isn’t the problem. My client is 38 years old, and s

“Mommy, please can you bring me a melatonin? I can’t fall asleep.” I actually stopped when I heard him say it. I was at my neighbor’s house one evening, borrowing something, when I heard her son calling from his bedroom. “Mommy, I can’t fall asleep. Can you please bring me a melatonin?” He’s not even four. 😳 I must have looked surprised because his mother looked at me and said, “You don’t know what I go through every night.” Then she started telling me. Every night, she star

I sat down to a double espresso at 10 p.m. I know. Some of you are already thinking, Are you crazy?! But it was delicious. It was finally quiet in my house. The kids were sleeping, nobody needed me anymore, everything I needed to do was done, and I had finally closed my phone for the day. And I was relishing the quiet and my coffee. I'm a huge coffee drinker, and here's the part that might surprise you: Coffee does not keep me awake. I can drink a double espresso and be aslee

I have some exciting news to share! I had the honor and privilege of being invited by Chani Schreibhand to write for The Uplift Magazine, Issue 26: UNCHARTED. I’m so excited to be part of this issue and to have the opportunity to share my work with the readers of The Uplift. For this issue, I answered one of the most popular questions I get as a sleep coach. It’s a question I hear over and over again, and I was excited to have the opportunity to share my perspective and answe

“Can you confirm that not sleeping is dangerous?” That was the question a school secretary asked me. She was struggling with insomnia, but it wasn't just the lack of sleep that was frightening her. She was terrified of what might happen because she wasn't sleeping. What she was doing in the middle of the night really struck me. She wasn't Googling how to sleep. She wasn't searching for another sleep tip. She was Googling: “What could happen if I never sleep again?” Think abou

Want to get your kids back on schedule, and teach them how to become independent sleepers? Reach out to me. I can help you understand what’s really happening with their sleep and create a plan that works for your child. Schedule a Free Sleep Consultation School hasn’t even started yet. So why are some kids suddenly sleeping worse? I was thinking about this after receiving an email from a former client this morning. She has been doing exactly what so many parents are told to

“I am SO bored.” Those were the words I kept hearing from my daughter, and honestly, I understood why. We are in that crazy stretch of summer when day camp is over, school hasn’t started yet, and we are all trying to keep the wheels on. Work. Kids. Meals. Schedules. School supplies. Uniforms. Shoes. Trying to remember who needs what, when, and where. Preparing for Yom Tov. Answering emails while someone is asking what’s for dinner. Trying to get everything done while there ar

I woke up in the middle of the night, and I thought I knew exactly what to do. Usually, when I wake up and realize I'm not falling back asleep, I give it a few minutes. If I'm still awake, I get out of bed, read a book, or do something quiet until I feel tired again. I'm generally very calm about it. I don't look at the clock and panic. I don't think, Oh no, I'm never going to fall back asleep. I know it will pass. But recently, I woke up toward morning and waited a few minut

My fridge broke a few days ago. Thankfully, I have a regular-size refrigerator downstairs in the basement and a very small refrigerator upstairs. Normally, I have one working, full-size refrigerator in my kitchen, so the little fridge upstairs is simply a convenience. It holds a few drinks, some yogurts, and whatever else I happen to put in it. But when my kitchen fridge stopped working, that tiny refrigerator suddenly became very important. I started making do with whatever

Do you remember what it feels like to be yourself? Not the exhausted version of yourself. Not the person who wakes up already counting the hours until bedtime. Not the person who has forgotten what it feels like to have energy. When you are living with insomnia, it is not just about being tired. It changes everything. Your mind feels foggy. Simple decisions suddenly feel overwhelming. You stand in front of the refrigerator trying to decide what you want on your bread, and som

“Melatonin is a healthy sleeping pill, right?” I hear this question all the time, and I understand why people ask it. When you are exhausted, when you have spent another night staring at the ceiling, when you are desperate for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, you want something that will help. You want something that feels safe. You want something that feels natural. And because melatonin is sold in the supplement aisle, many people assume it must be the healthier version

Sometimes insomnia isn’t the diagnosis. Sometimes it’s the clue. When 19-year-old Malka came to me, she thought she had a sleep problem. She was exhausted. Her energy was unpredictable, and she didn’t feel like herself anymore. She had reached a point where she had even given up her job because she didn’t feel like she could handle everything she was experiencing. In her mind, the answer seemed simple: “If I can just fix my sleep, everything else will fall into place.” So tha

A mother called me about her 16-year-old son, and within two questions, the entire conversation changed. Her son was learning in Israel and was finally on break. His days were filled with everything a teenager dreams about: surfing, ATVing, hiking, exploring, spending time with friends, and creating memories he would probably talk about for years. But one morning, he called his mother embarrassed. His friends had been telling him that he was talking in his sleep every single