Blog - Sound Sleep Guru

The Sleep Blog

Refining My Webside Manner

In the age of COVID-19 I’ve become interested in optimizing my “webside manner,” the younger cousin of bedside manner. It’s definitely a thing I’m working on now that I have my own sleep telehealth practice. And now that we’re a year into the pandemic and I’ve been...

Book Recommendations on Sleep

I get asked all of the time for a book recommendation on sleep and for years I’ve had a hard time finding one I genuinely enjoyed reading and felt offered practical advice. There are some really great options geared towards insomnia. The wildly successful “Why We...

What is CPAP?

CPAP is an acronym for continuous positive airway pressure which is the gold standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. CPAP gets a bad rap IMHO. There aren’t many medical treatments with such a favorable benefit/risk ratio. As a neurologist, I’ve seen some...

What does learning to juggle have to do with learning to sleep better?

When I’m developing customized sleep plans for my patients a lot of times people are focused on an end result of sleeping eight hours per night. The evidence based solutions I utilize are a series of small steps which are implemented over time and then finely...

Sleep Training – Part 3 – Final Thoughts

In writing this series I realized I have lots of thoughts about sleep training, more than I can share in a few posts. So I’ve decided to finish with some quick tips. 1️⃣Sleep training is cultural, not everyone does it. 2️⃣Successful sleep training is contingent...

Sleep Training – Part 2

When I became a new mom people told me lots about their children. It’s a scientifically proven fact that most parents will “remember” that their children reached milestones sooner than they actually did. Please remember that when you’re tempted to compare. I...

Sleep Training – Part 1

👩🏻‍⚕️When I was in fellowship @stanfordsleepmedicine I worked with some of the world’s foremost experts in pediatric sleep medicine. I’ve also spent time co-staffing a pediatric sleep clinic at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital with Dr. Carol Rosen. The most...

Swaddles and Sleep Sacks

As a newer mother, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep in babies! I thought I’d take off my doctor hat and put on my mom hat and share some of my experiences! When we brought our daughter home from the hospital we thought we’d mastered the swaddle (two...

Product Review – The Oura Ring

A few years back my husband and I wore Fitbit devices but after a short time I stopped wearing mine because I didn’t like sleeping in it. My husband was into his device but forgot to charge one day and never wore it again. When I heard about the Oura Ring I was...

Dolphins and Sleep⁣

Sleep in dolphins is fascinating in that they have evolved to sleep with one cerebral hemisphere at a time. While asleep, the contralateral eye closes and the opposite hemisphere and eye, still partially awake continues to control breathing, scan for potential danger,...

Dim Light Melatonin Onset

Dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) is a useful marker for assessing the circadian pacemaker. It is also used to assess circadian rhythm disorders. One of the main reasons why DLMO is important is that it can determine when to expose or shield from light to delay...

Surfing to Sleep

I like to explain falling asleep like catching a wave 🏄🏻‍♀️. To catch a wave, you have to paddle out, pay attention to the timing of the sets, get in the line up, build some momentum and then drop. And if all goes as planned, magic 💫 When we talk about sleep...