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For years, I’ve failed at this simple sleep habit. As a sleep coach, I know all the rules. I preach them every day: put away your phone, dim the lights, avoid caffeine late in the day. I coach around sleep hygiene, sleep anxiety, and being okay with wakefulness. I live it, breathe it, teach it. But here’s the confession: even though I know all the rules and teach them every day, I still sleep with my phone next to my bed. Humans, right? Why Sleeping With a Phone Is Harder Th

Whether it’s a holiday, a wedding, a vacation, or even just a long-awaited Shabbos, when the moment finally arrives… you still feel that buzz. That restless energy. That subtle sense of unease. That little voice whispering, you can’t relax yet. Even when everything is ready—the guests have arrived, the food is warming, the house is organized, the details are sorted, or if you’re traveling, you’ve reached your destination, you might notice: your sleep is off, your mind is raci

I was waiting at the bus stop with my daughter one morning when she was about to go to school, and I ran into my neighbor. She looked completely drained—exhausted, actually. She told me that this year, she had promised herself something different. She would take care of herself leading up to the holiday. She would sleep well. She would eat and drink well. She would sleep seven, eight hours at night. And, most importantly, she gave herself an hour before bedtime where she clos

Sara is 9 years old, the youngest in a house full of five older brothers, and bedtime has always been… complicated. Her mom is amazing, she reads to her, plays with her, and makes sure she has quiet, meaningful downtime with Sara each evening. But by the time the night rolls around and it’s finally time to leave the room, everything falls apart. Sara panics. Her fears and anxious thoughts appear, and the evenings that were meant to be calm and cozy quickly become a battle. Mo

She’s been living like this for years. Always tired in the morning, no matter what time she goes to bed. Nights are fine—falling asleep isn’t the problem, staying asleep isn’t the problem—but mornings? Mornings feel impossible. Her head is heavy, her thoughts sluggish, and her body refuses to cooperate. She drags herself out of bed, tries to get breakfast ready, get the kids out the door, and manage the household chaos. She pushes through, determined to get things done. But a

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to speak with Dalia Brunschwig from Fully In Balance—and I’m so happy we finally made this happen! This conversation had been on our to-do list since September, when Dalia first reached out. We both knew that nutrition and sleep go hand in hand, so we carved out some time for a casual, heartfelt chat that I can’t wait to share with you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CmK2s37Vg1-D2NcVzPJSBCWPmWTc0ziw/view?usp=sharing Let me introduce

Let’s be honest—many of us fall asleep like this: phone in hand, scrolling through a YouTube clip, checking someone’s status, or watching a movie. And yes, sometimes we actually do fall asleep. When I get asked this question, “Can I watch before bed?” My go-to question is always: “Why are you doing it?” The answer is almost always the same: “I just want to fall asleep.” Or, more truthfully: “I just want to shut my brain off. I just want it to stop thinking for a few hours.

Have you ever felt like life is just… on hold, like everything’s waiting for one big thing to finally click into place? One of my clients has been hoping for marriage for years, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t happened yet. She’s frustrated, lonely, and honestly, tired of waiting for life to hand her a neat little conclusion. I think many of us can relate, whether it’s love, a career goal, your kids, your finances, your health, or even just getting a decent night’s sleep.

If you’ve ever found yourself lying awake at night, wondering why you just can’t sleep, you might have asked yourself this exact question: Are my sleep issues coming from my mind or from my body? For one 19-year-old preschool teacher from Montreal, this question wasn’t just theoretical—it was her reality. She came to me at the beginning of September, completely overwhelmed, and couldn’t imagine going back to work for the first week of school. Every morning felt heavy, like t

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to live in a constant state of scanning for problems? What could go wrong. What might be missing. What people aren’t saying out loud. For years, I honestly thought this was one of my strengths. I could spot problems before they happened. I could see patterns fast. I could come up with solutions… almost automatically. People came to me all the time because they knew I’d offer ideas, solutions, and strategies. It made me efficient. Cap

This past weekend, I visited my elderly aunt, who has Parkinson’s. She’s managing fairly well, but she does need help a few times a day. As we sat together, Pesach came up. One of her sons had invited her, but she didn’t want to go to him — she’d already visited this winter. I asked a simple question: “Well, where are you going?” She answered honestly: “I don’t want to go to that son.” So I asked another question: “Well… what do you want?” Notice what’s important here: she di

I think sometimes the very rules we follow to sleep better…keep us awake. I saw it clearly today in session number eight with a client who’s been struggling with insomnia for two years. She had tried CBTI multiple times—different programs, different rounds—but despite all the effort, she was still trapped. Not trapped by lack of knowledge or lack of trying, but trapped by rigid thinking. Even though she had already made progress over our sessions—more flexibility in her thoug

Why Sleep is the Secret Ingredient to Great Ideas Have you ever gone to bed wrestling with a problem, only to wake up with the perfect solution? I experience this almost every week. Sometimes it’s a work challenge, other times a personal dilemma, and occasionally it’s even something as small as figuring out how to organize a busy family morning. But what’s fascinating is that this is not just luck—it’s science. A study covered by The Washington Post found that REM sleep may

Imagine this: It’s finally bedtime. You’ve worked all day, gotten the kids to school, managed appointments, juggled family responsibilities, shopped for groceries, prepared for Shabbos, thrown together dinner, served it, helped with homework, bathed the kids, and finally put them to bed. Oh and did I mention pesach is in 4 weeks??!! After 15 or 18 hours of non-stop doing, you collapse into bed like a sack of potatoes… a very tired, slightly overcooked potato. Your body is be

Are You a Woman in Your 40s Who Wakes Up at 4 a.m. Overheated? Are you finding yourself awake at 4 a.m., staring at the ceiling, feeling like you've just run a marathon? Are you a woman in your 40s feeling sweaty, maybe your feet in or maybe you can't seem to fall back asleep once you've woken up? Does your mind start racing with everything you have to do the next day? If any of these sound familiar, you're not alone. It’s no secret that sleep starts to shift as we hit our 40

Meet Tanya. She’s 40 years old. She’s had on-and-off insomnia since high school. And she’s done something remarkable: she figured out how to sleep better . Not the typical "lying awake in bed, mind racing" kind of insomnia. No, Tanya is a pro at calming herself down. She goes to sleep when she’s tired. She doesn’t hang around in bed. When she wakes up at 4 or 5 a.m., her mind is calm. It’s not a panic attack. It’s just... wakefulness. But why is she waking up at 4 a.m.? That’

She came to me after trying everything. The books, the sleep hygiene, the supplements, the strict routines, the tracking apps, the discipline. She is analytical, structured, a problem-solver by profession. In banking, she fixes complex mortgage situations all day long. Problem A. Problem B. Fix them both. Outcome solved. She approached her insomnia the same way — and she was exhausted. Not just from lack of sleep, but from trying so hard to fix it. When she started working wi

The Snow That Never Fell The 15 centimeters of snow never came. But the emotional reaction did. And that’s the part I want you to think about tonight. How many predicted sleep disasters never actually happened? How many nights you were sure would be awful turned out manageable? How much energy are you spending bracing for storms that may not come? Last night, something shocking happened. I live here in Montreal — and for once, we were not hit with the blizzard. Everyone else

This morning my two-year-old grandson staged a quiet rebellion. He was standing in the hallway, tiny boots in hand, coat half on, hat somewhere in the vicinity. He knows how to do it all. He’s done it before. Boots? Manageable. Coat? Fine. Hat? Slightly sideways, but acceptable. And then someone said it. “Let’s go! Hurry up! We’re going to miss the bus!” He slowly lowered himself to the floor. Not dramatic. Not screaming. Just… shutdown. Blank stare. System overload. It wasn’

She didn’t come to me because she couldn’t sleep. She came because she didn’t want to need alcohol anymore. Let’s call her Rachel. She’s in her 30s. A teacher. A mother of five. Living in Lakewood. The kind of woman who shows up. She manages carpools, Holidays, homework, simchas, repairs, grocery runs, and a classroom full of children. From the outside, she looks steady. Capable. Fine. At night, when the house finally quiets down, she pours a drink. Not to party. Not to escap