All Posts

After Chanukah, the chaos finally quiets down. The food is gone. The guests are gone. The kids are back in school. Life is supposed to return to normal. And you are done. Done hosting. Done traveling. Done holding it all together. You crawl into bed exhausted — physically, mentally, emotionally — and you’re sure sleep will finally come. Except it doesn’t. You toss. You turn. You check the clock. 2:07 a.m. You’re so tired your eyes burn. Some nights, you’re literally crying fr

Today is the last day of Chanukah. Last night was the party. As a sleep coach, I often notice how moments of anticipation — even joyful ones — can quietly take over our nervous system. And for most of this week, my house felt like it was holding its breath. Not the loud, chaotic kind of excitement — but the tight, buzzing kind. The kind where kids count days the way adults count minutes before a flight takes off. For weeks, my kids were deep in decision-making mode. Flippin

"Two things can be true at the same time." I say this a lot. And honestly? Most people don’t get it at first. Drop it in a first session and some clients might give you the “Wait… what?” look. They come in expecting instant healing. Calm, happy, sleeping like a baby, problem solved. Yeah… that’s not how life works. Healing and progress aren’t all-or-nothing. You can feel calmer, happier, freer—and still wake up at 5 a.m., jittery, heart racing, stuck in your mind. And guess w

I read a line last week that stayed with me: “You are so poor that all you have is money.” At first, I laughed. Then I winced. Then I felt the weight of it—a quiet, uncomfortable truth that echoes in so many lives I see every day. Because it’s not about money at all. It’s about the part of us that can feel empty, no matter how full our calendars, our bank accounts, or our social standing might be. I work with teachers, therapists, business owners, and parents—people who are s

A while back, I signed up for a business coaching program. I paid big bucks.  I was promised massive results.  And because I’m a hard worker, I showed up fully and diligently worked my way through the course. On paper, it should have worked. But it didn’t. And looking back now, the most painful part of that experience wasn’t the money. Not everyone thrives in every program — I understand that. Sometimes you do the work and things still don’t click. That’s life. What hurt was

It’s the first night of Chanukah. The menorah glows softly on the table—a tiny miracle of light—but Liba is staring at the ceiling, caught in the same nightly struggle she’s been fighting for years. Half a pill now? Another later? What if she wakes at 2 AM? Her body is exhausted, but her mind refuses to rest. For a while, things were different. After completing her three-month sleep coaching program, Liba had made incredible progress. She was down to a quarter of a pill, mana

Yesterday, I wrote about my daughter Brenda — how she can’t wake up for school but pops out of bed at 6 AM on weekends. (If you missed it, go read it — it’s wild). https://www.chevymermelsteinsleepcoach.org/post/why-my-10-year-old-can-t-wake-up-for-school-but-pops-out-of-bed-at-6-am-on-weekends Today is the adult version of that story. Because if Brenda’s sleep is shaped by her thoughts, guess what?  So is mine.  So is yours. So is every adult who’s ever stared at the ceiling

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you already know that my sleep-coaching journey started because of one person: my daughter Brenda. Brenda is 10 years old — your typical, fiery, opinionated, doll-loving girl. She’s creative, emotional, funny, stubborn, and has more opinions than I have coffee mugs (which is saying a lot). And her sleep story is one that shaped not only how I parent… but how I coach. If you’ve never read her full journey, I wrote about it here: ..

Clients come to me struggling — sometimes with themselves, sometimes with their kids. I guide them, coach them, walk alongside them through sleepless nights, anxious mornings, and overwhelming days. I cheer them on through the small wins, help them navigate setbacks, and celebrate when the pieces finally click. And then… poof. They disappear. The other day, I got a message from someone I’d never spoken to before. She’s an avid reader of my daily blog, but this note stopped me

We throw around the phrase “rock bottom” like it’s a clear point on the map. A final stop. A moment so low, so dark, so painful… that the only direction left is up. But here’s what nobody tells you: Rock bottom isn’t actually the bottom. There’s always a trap door. For so many people struggling with sleep, anxiety, or burnout… that trap door is the real reason they can’t move forward — even when they desperately want to. Let me tell you about Chana (name changed), a mom of

Montreal has been ridiculously cold lately. Gray skies, snow falling every night — the kind of weather that makes you want to wrap yourself in a blanket and forget the outside world exists. Between frozen sidewalks and restless nights, it feels like many of us are struggling to sleep. Last week, I had a seemingly simple task: exchange a pair of gloves for my son. The first pair was too big, the second pair just slightly smaller. Easy, right? I handed over the first pair and w

Even after graduation and becoming a certified sleep coach, one of the things I love most about this field is that we never  stop learning. Every week, we hop on Zoom with our mentor, hear from guest speakers, and walk away with new tools and new perspectives. Sleep coaching isn’t a static profession—it’s alive, growing, and constantly evolving. Honestly? Some weeks it feels like we’re all still students… just students who drink more coffee and have far less patience for slee

We tend to want to stay under our covers, especially when the days are short, gray, and freezing. Here in Montreal, it’s been snowing for days, and I honestly haven’t seen the sun for a couple of weeks. Last night, I even asked Chat GPT when the sun last made an appearance! The thought of bundling up and heading outside? Sometimes it just feels impossible. If you’re finally warm and cozy at home, why bother? Groceries get delivered, Amazon knows my address in its dreams… But

I had the privilege of interviewing Dassa Friedlander, a mom from Lakewood, New Jersey, and a dedicated children’s sleep consultant. Honestly, it was such a breath of fresh air to speak with someone who truly gets it — the exhaustion, the second-guessing, the “why won’t this child sleep?” moments that every parent faces. Our conversation flowed with so much wisdom and heart. I asked her five key questions about children’s sleep, what parents are struggling with most, and how

If you missed Part 1 — my personal behind-the-scenes story of surviving my son’s wedding chaos — check it out here:   Read Part 1: How It Took Me Weeks to Recover from My Son’s Wedding You survived the chaos. You checked all the boxes. You made it through the whirlwind. But your brain? It’s still buzzing. Why? Because your nervous system hasn’t caught up yet. And here’s the part that surprises almost everyone: sleep disruption doesn’t always happen right away. Sometimes your

Ever wondered why your brain sometimes refuses to switch off after a huge life event? Tomorrow, I’m diving into the science of why it can take two weeks — or even longer — for your mind to truly process everything. But today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my own story: the whirlwind chaos, the nonstop exhaustion, and exactly why my sleep went completely sideways. I mentioned in a previous blog that I married off my son at the beginning of November — in the States. And l

Ever lie down at night, completely wiped out, only to have your brain wake up like, “Oh good, finally she’s not busy — let’s go through every single thing she didn’t deal with today.” Before we go any further, a little teaser:  Tomorrow’s blog is a big one — “Can processing a huge event take two weeks?”  Spoiler: I lived through it, and my nervous system had a whole journey. Stay tuned. That, my friends, is what happens when we don’t process our day  — and it’s one of the big

Sleep Coaching Success Story: How One Client Overcame Travel Insomnia and Anxiety Last week, my phone rang — and when I saw the name on the screen, a slow, unwelcome feeling of dread crept into me. Every coach has that  client. The one who drains you.  The one who never seems to see any progress.  The one who brings the fear, the “what if this never changes,” and the constant self-doubt.  The client who leaves you wondering:  Am I failing her? Does she even trust me? What mor

So yesterday I had one of those glorious parenting moments where you think, Oh, this has to become a blog. Not because it was meaningful or sentimental or inspirational — no, no. Because it was so absurdly teenage that it deserves to be immortalized on the internet forever. Let me set the scene. My daughter Chana is one of those socially gifted teenagers — you know the type. The kind with a circle of friends who somehow manage to talk during school, after school, and then fiv

For a moment, I was in full panic mode… I couldn’t believe it — now my next son was having the same sleep struggles. What was wrong with me? Until I took a deep breath. Yesterday, I shared the story of my 13-year-old son — a deep, solid sleeper his entire life — suddenly telling me he couldn’t fall asleep and was wide awake at 1 AM.   Check out Part One here . Then came Part Two, where I stayed neutral and asked gentle, curious questions instead of panicking or jumping straig