Articles on all things sleep & dreams

Fatigue and sleep readiness are controlled by different systems in the body and are not the same thing. It's entirely possible to be exhausted without being physically ready to sleep, because sleep readiness depends on sleep pressure, circadian timing, and nervous system arousal, not on how depleted you feel. Understanding the difference explains one of the most confusing and demoralizing experiences chronic poor sleepers describe: being wiped out all day and then wide awake

Nervous system regulation, for sleep, means your body's ability to shift out of an alert, activated state and into a settled state that allows sleep to happen, reliably and on cue. It doesn't mean staying calm all the time. When this shifting ability gets stuck, and your body defaults to activation even in safe, low-threat moments like lying in bed, no sleep habit or routine can fully override it. This is a documented pattern in insomnia research, and understanding the mechan

This article is part of my free series of sleep health educational content, Module 1: Sleep As a Nervous System Issue. See the rest of the library and courses by joining the free community. For the full video, see here. Sleep hygiene, meaning a dark room, no screens before bed, and a consistent wake time, works for people whose nervous system is already calm. For chronic insomnia, the problem usually isn't habits or environment. It's a nervous system stuck in an alert state,

A client of mine falls asleep in about ten minutes flat. Every night, no trouble at all. He just does it at four in the morning. For years he was sure he had insomnia. Tried melatonin. Blackout blinds. Magnesium. Three different apps, all with the same cheerful promise that this one would finally fix him. None of it worked. Because none of it had anything to do with what was actually going on. I get some version of this on a call almost every week. Someone arrives convinced t

Sunday, four in the afternoon. A client of mine, mid-scroll, mid-spreadsheet, mid something that felt urgent and turned out not to be. He'd told himself it was a rest day. By nine he was still at it. By midnight he was wired, not tired, staring at a ceiling that wouldn't cooperate. He called it a productive Sunday. His body called it something else. He was in bed at 4am. He's not unusual. Almost every client I work with can describe their own version of this night, in their o

Why having too much control over your sleep makes things worse