Lifestyle Sleep

05/12/2026

What if insomnia isn’t actually a sleep problem at all? In this article, I introduce the SLEEPY framework — a new way of understanding sleep difficulties as a mismatch in the inputs to the sleep-wake system, not a failure of the brain’s ability to sleep.

Introducing a new framework to understand the causes of sleep difficulties

02/05/2026

Have you ever worried about “sleep debt” after a short night? Or obsessed over how little sleep your wearable said you got? What if I told you all that stress is unnecessary? Here’s the good news: your brain is smarter than you think. It naturally recalibrates your sleep. Read my latest Substack post to learn more. Enjoy!

Why our brains know how much sleep we need, even when we don’t

11/07/2025

What if your body temperature became the next big health obsession? This satire shows how our fixation on sleep might be missing what really matters.

A Satirical Analogy for the Sleep Industry

11/05/2024

It’s Election Day and with all the excitement, uncertainty, anticipation and anxiety you may be wondering how you will ever get to sleep. Did you know that it is NORMAL for sleep to be shorter and lighter when our brains feel under threat, anxious, excited or trying to prepare for an upcoming event? This is your brain’s way of protecting you, processing, and preparing for the future. Sometimes in these circumstances the sleep can even be so light that you don’t feel asleep at all. Understanding and accepting these normal, stress-related changes of sleep is often liberating and allows you to prepare. Here are some of tips for how to cope, I hope they are helpful!
1. Write out your thoughts, feelings and worries before even trying to get into bed for the night. This is a strategy called “worry time” that has been shown to be helpful for insomnia in numerous research studies.
2. Don’t try to go to bed at your normal time. The sleep will be lighter and shorter so reducing your opportunity for sleep is usually helpful. A good guideline is to stay up at least 1-2 hours past your normal bedtime, then read a physical book in bed until you get sleepy. Don’t worry if you end up not getting sleepy until several hours past your normal bedtime. You can also use this time to do more writing.
3. Get up and start your day at a normal time, regardless of how you slept. Getting up at your regular time sets your clock for the day which will allow you to sleep better on subsequent nights.
4. Don’t turn to alcohol or sleeping pills if these are not something you already are using regularly. These substances may make you feel more relaxed about the night but they don’t produce natural sleep and may interfere with your brain’s ability to process whatever happened with the election.
5. In bed, focus on resting rather than sleeping. We cannot control how much sleep we get in any given night but we can try to get our brain and body in to a relaxed state. Just relaxing in bed during the night, whether you are awake or asleep, can have restorative properties. In addition, when our brain feels under threat it may preserve a bit of wakefulness, even while another part of it sleeps so you may feel that you are awake when actually a part of the brain is sleeping. To help yourself rest, try doing some deep breathing (such as 4-7-8 or box breathing) and think about happy moments from the past.
Hang in there, we will get all through this!

10/28/2024

Daylight Saving Time ends this coming weekend. Here's some advice for parents on how to make the transition as smooth as possible for your children.

As a sleep medicine physician and mother of two (currently ages 4 and 6), I’m keenly aware of the importance of good sleep to our overall…

06/28/2024

https://michelle-jonelis.medium.com/forget-about-sleep-the-night-is-a-time-for-r-e-s-t-8a185b49b70c

Ever found yourself staring at the ceiling in the dead of night, stressing about not being able to sleep? You’re not alone. In the US, we…

06/27/2024

https://michelle-jonelis.medium.com/to-fix-our-modern-sleep-we-should-look-to-the-past-432e1f03c9fa

A Critical Look at Hunter-Gatherer Sleep Challenges Our Modern Assumptions

06/13/2024

I’m loving the inspirational work that is doing to promote real life, independent interactions for children. As a sleep and lifestyle medicine physician I’m all too keenly aware of the importance of giving kids free time, ideally outdoors and with friends, to play, observe, create and be bored. How we sleep is a byproduct of everything else we do in our lives and to obtain healthy sleep both adults and children need to spend time outdoors, move our bodies and connect with others socially. One of the main problems with screen use for all of us is that replaces these other activities. What convinced me to keep my own children off screens as long as possible was when I saw how, as toddlers, watching a screen suppressed all body movements in a way no other activity was capable of doing. I also noticed that after they complained about being bored, or if they were tired after a long busy day, if I just held off on putting them on a screen they would eventually engage in self-focused, creative work instead. We are still mostly screen free at ages 9 and 11. I encourage everyone to Join the movement: anxiousgeneration.com

06/12/2024

I just finished listening to the recent Huberman Lab episode from 6/3 on menopause with Dr. Marie Claire Haver. Many great things were said, such as Dr. Haver emphasizing that alcohol use is a common contributor to sleep disruption in peri/post-menopause, and emphasizing that a healthy, very high fiber diet and regular exercise including resistance training are essential during this phase of our lives (and actually throughout all phases of life). What I whole-heartedly disagree with however, is the characterization of menopause as a pathologic hormone deficiency causing chaos to females that requires a medical therapy (ie: Hormone Replacement Therapy). The risks versus benefits of HRT have been reviewed many times by numerous medical organizations and the conclusion is almost always that the risks (in particular of breast cancer), outweigh the benefits. Yes, the modern re-interpreting of the Women’s Health Initiative data suggests that up to 5 years of HRT after menopause is safe and does not significantly increase the risk of breast cancer, but the long-term benefits of 5-10 years of HRT are unclear and anything the HRT was beneficial for (vasomotor symptoms, sleep disruption in people with vasomotor symptoms, bone density) returns to baseline once the HRT is stopped. Dr. Haver’s suggestion that HRT be continued indefinitely (“I’ll die with my estrogen patch on”) is dangerous as we know that combined HRT beyond 5 years absolutely DOES increase the risk of breast cancer and that risk continues to increase the longer you take combination HRT (please see this 2020 case control study from BMJ for one example https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33115755/).

At Lifestyle Sleep we believe that menopause is a normal phase of life that is to be celebrated, not demonized. Research clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle including copious plants and low in ultraprocessed foods and added sugars plus regular exercise will reduce adverse symptoms of menopause substantially and allow both women and men to age as well as possible. We also believe the significant body of evidence showing that cognitive behavioral therapy is effective for both vasomotor and sleep symptoms (for instance, see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27213646/).

I strongly urge you to read the recent Lancet series on Menopause (https://www.thelancet.com/series/menopause-2024) with describes “menopause as an ordinary, healthy phase of women's lives” and promotes “its demedicalisation”. I agree with the menopause series that ageism and industry are 2 major drivers of the recent push towards again using HRT in peri/post menopausal women. While I applaud the increased attention to menopause, I urge policy makers and public health workers to facilitate healthy lifestyle changes that will help all of us, men and women, to age as well as possible and, to quote the lancet series, “[a]ctively challeng[e] ageism and encourag[e] a more positive discourse”.