I enjoy waking up in the morning and having the energy needed to do my day without grumpiness and fatigue.

If you are trying to improve sleep, the complicated aspect is that we are bombarded by sleep "fix" suggestions, making it hard to know what to do. Should a person find a good sleep meditation? Try an over-the-counter supplement? Get a prescription? Get a sleep study? Follow the directions from a smartwatch?

What I find that people don't necessarily realize is that sleep improvement is a not a one-size-fits all, straightforward solution.

The process of sleep improvement is more like finding the right shoe. You want to measure first, and you can't judge its fit based on one time of use. Sometimes, it takes a few times wearing the shoe in order to figure out if it's a good fit.

Keep in mind that the true test of a real improvement in sleep is if it works for 2 weeks or more, night after night (it's the measure used when working with sleep changes for cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, CBT-I). Be careful not to make assumptions about a "fix" based upon a few nights of sleep.

I also like to ask the question of whether or not you worry about getting enough sleep; if you are worrying about sleep, then there is definitely room for improvement in the techniques you are using.

The same applies if you have tried multiple "fixes," found that nothing lasts, and you still don't feel satisfied with sleep. It sounds like you still don't have the shoe that fits.

Before you try a new approach to sleep, it's a good idea to get an assessment of your sleep first (like you would measure your foot before you buy a shoe). This ultimately saves you time and energy.

A good place to start is to just have your family doctor help with assessing the situation, including discussing symptoms, diagnoses and options. I'm biased, but my hope is that CBT-I (behavioral interventions) might be discussed if you are someone who hasn't found the shoe that fits. While I do not believe that CBT-I and behavioral interventions are a fix for every sleep situation, CBT-I tends to be a viable option for more situations than people tend to assume.

​You can read more about our services.

Happy Sleeping,

Alissa S. Yamasaki, Ph.D.

“I'm sleeping better right now...so I don’t need to work on sleep."

Is it REALLY better? Or, are you scared to mess with it for fear of losing the good sleep you got for a few nights? If you’ve been through this cycle of good/bad/good sleep and are fearful, then you don’t fully understand the process of sleep.

Believe it or not, the underlying physiological and behavioral mechanisms of sleep work together in very predictable ways that everyone can learn. If you wrack up enough of a sleep deficit, then you will also inevitably have some good nights of sleep that follow it. If you don’t understand how to regulate your body’s sleep pattern, those precious good nights will also be followed by bad nights of sleep, too. That is just the way that the body works.

The typical cycle is that people will have some poor nights of sleep, fuel the difficulties in the following nights with worry about the lack of sleep and lying in bed awake, crash at some point during the week into some good nights of sleep, and then oversleep in order to “make up” for lost sleep. That “make up” night(s) results in not having enough of something called “sleep drive,” which is part of the essential pieces to have a good night of sleep after that “make up" sleep. Then, the cycle repeats.

Sound familiar? One solid step to reducing sleep problems is to reduce your “sleeping in” after a bad night of sleep. This sounds simple, but it’s pretty hard to do when you are cozy in bed. This is why I work with people on sleep; we use data, specific formulas, and eliminate the guesswork in sleep decisions. If you understand sleep, you know how to break the good sleep and bring it back again.

Want to know more? Read about our sleep trainings and CBT-I.

​You can read more about our services.

I have come to appreciate that sometimes people want a peek inside of what is happening while they are contemplating the idea of seeking to change sleep. The group members who are piloting our online program had some great questions/comments this week! See the highlights below:

-Navigating the time change. One member was surprised to discover that there was some remaining anxiety about ability to fall asleep, despite having sleep well for a while now and through a variety of circumstances. The first night with the time change set off the anxiety and uncertainty. However, this member worked from her existing knowledge to keep herself on track with her wake-up time. The second night, she had mild difficulty but again remembered to stick with what is recommended according to sleep physiology facts. By the third night, her circadian rhythm shifted (because of her knowledge of sleep physiology and associated choices), and sleep returned to easily falling asleep and getting restorative sleep during the night. She now feels even more confident in her ability to navigate sleep challenges.

-The importance of "grit." In the process of changing sleep, members have heard me emphasize the necessity of having grit. Members noted that they really learned to use their grit and that this left them with a feeling of having "earned" the good sleep that they are getting now. A feeling of empowerment was also identified, as they found that grit + knowledge to solve sleep problems = strength and efficacy in navigating sleep challenges as they arise.

-How to deal with thoughts about loss, grief, and tough news without it interfering with sleep. One member mentioned that losses and changes in relationships were at the forefront of her thoughts, even when she wants to sleep. We took time to acknowledge that there are so many areas where our thoughts can go and that they can interfere with sleep. We reviewed some strategies that related to what they have already been practicing for worry control, as well as just appreciated that it is a task in itself to accept life's changes as they happen.

-Sleeping in complete dark. Oops! I meant to bring this topic up from the April newsletter, but I actually totally forgot! We were having such a good time with other topics. At any rate, the gist of what I wanted to say from that article is that it is important to understand how the body's physiology works, and while you don't have to know all of the current research, knowing a little bit about light and how to use it to maximize your restful sleep is important and I do integrate that into the courses.

Wish to look at our online sleep programming? Remember that it's a work in progress and open to pilot participants only at this stage, but feel free to visit if you are just curious.

So, my start in sleep work isn't a glamourous start, but isn't that how lots of good endings start? As a psychologist in PA, we must complete a certain number of hours of education in order to renew our licenses. One year, having waited a little to the last minute to complete my hours, I was in need of a good number of hours of credits all at once, and the course that fit into my schedule was the one on sleep! I chuckle when I think of this. I had no idea that this was the start of a great new path for me.

What I learned and really opened my eyes from that first course on sleep was that sleep problems are rampant, and disconcertingly, there is a very well-documented body of research that repeatedly shows high rates of effectiveness for treating insomnia without medication that few people use or know to use.

I am a perfect example of someone who was missing important pieces of information about sleep, despite being involved in mind-body approaches since early adulthood and having a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

When I reflect on how sleep played a role in my own life, I wish that I had known more as a teenager.

At that time, I was chronically sleep-deprived, and somehow, I functioned enough to be a competitive gymnast. It makes me wonder what practices would have been like with a little more energy behind them. I remember dragging myself to practice and getting naps whenever I could. I really thought that I needed 10 hours of sleep to feel good. In hindsight, that was likely partly a result of the yo-yo-ing of the amount of sleep I was getting, some nights getting less than 6 and some nights getting 10 hours.

I felt like when I got to college, everything was easier. I wonder now if that was because I started getting enough sleep.

I'm not immune to sleep problems. Nobody is. In fact, it's normal to have a night here or there which gets disrupted.

A colleague once asked me if I have perfect sleep -- I laughed, as I do not have perfect sleep or sleep habits. I am human like everyone else. My particular mode of sleep disruption tends to be that I will doze at the tv before bed, which sets things up for not getting satisfying sleep at night. Then, I kind of drag the next day. When I'm staying fully awake until bedtime, I feel much better.

I really believe that knowledge is the key to good sleep. Because I understand the mechanisms of sleep, I never worry about sleep or fear when a night of bad sleep might come. That confidence comes from knowledge. I now fully recognize that sleep is essential in having a good life. It seems simple, but I missed that fact for a long time.

After that initial training on sleep, I was excited to learn more. I went on to receive training through a program at University of Pennsylvania, as well as to shadow the clinical work of Dr. Julio Mendoza in Hershey, PA. I am especially grateful for his influence, as his work opened my eyes to all of the nuances and pieces to understand in helping people sleep well. He modeled being passionate about his work and the importance of having expertise to take on the most difficult sleep situations. I couldn't believe the variety of sleep situations he worked with. I enjoy now being able to pass on that knowledge to others so that others can help themselves, too.

If you have some sleep struggles and want to hear more because you know that growing your sleep knowledge further will help you, let me know of your interest by signing up to hear about sleep services (located in the footer), as I send out once-weekly emails with science-based info. Or, check out our online self-help courses, including the free sleep self-assessment and tutorial, First Things First.

​You can read more about our services.

Happy sleeping!

Alissa S. Yamasaki, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

If you wish to hear more about sleep, be sure to sign up for our newsletter and mark the “sleep services” option. See below.

As some of you may remember from pre-pandemic times, I was starting to offer sleep training in group classes. These ended up being a lot of fun to do, as people shared their difficulties and successes and motivated each other. The intention had been to offer group courses regularly so that we can teach ways to sleep well and quiet the mind for sleep, but then the pandemic hit and getting everyone together in a small space was no longer possible.

The good news is that the pandemic has fast-forwarded options for putting everything online, which is exciting! My hope is to have a mixture of self-paced and live access.

At this point, we are well underway with transferring and translating our one-on-one material and previous in-person courses to an online, self-paced format! I've been testing out various platforms for courses and apps. We've chosen a version which will allow for a free self-assessment mini-course, which can help everyone interested in services screen themselves to decide which path to follow for getting help with sleep improvement. I’ll be opening up the free self-assessment available in the upcoming weeks, so be sure to have yourself tagged as wanting to hear more about our sleep services: sign up below for our newsletter and indicated sleep services. This will also allow you to take a peek at the main points and worksheet we’ll work through in the assessment when I send that out next month.

​You can read more about our services.

Happy sleeping!

Alissa S. Yamasaki, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

When I work with people on their sleep, there are principles which need to be followed in order to recalibrate their sleep, especially when sleep problems have started to interfere with daily life. We crunch numbers and work on finding a good sleep formula. But, you don't have to wait until sleep problems escalate to that level before implementing some of the tools we use. I always tell people that what you are doing in bed is affected by what you do during the day. If you have a mind which tends to run a bit too much when you get into bed, then you may find some helpful hints below.

1. Be sure to take some time to work through problems productively during your waking hours. We often have such busy schedules that we don't take time to reflect upon the day and tidy up things, which sets us up to reflect at the first time when we have a quiet moment. For many, that ends up happening when we get into bed. Whether it is figuring out what is for dinner tomorrow or a major work decision...you don't want to do that in bed, as you set yourself up to have less-than-restful sleep.

What I typically recommend: Schedule just a bit of time (15 minutes) to reflect, write down some things on your mind if that helps, and then mentally put it aside to return to on the next day.

2. Related to the above, but worth highlighting is that it is important to practice setting aside worries and problem-solving during the day. That ability to shift and pause the problem-solving is a healthy, essential skill for helping your nights.

What I typically recommend for a good starting place: Start with awareness. Encourage yourself to notice when you are worrying. From there, you can start to practice reminding yourself to set it aside if there is something more pressing to do or focus upon. That practice is harder at night, so you want to be good at it during daylight hours as a foundation.

3. Make sure you are doing a good wind down time prior to bed. Your body is easily conditioned to things with cues, just like your dog comes running when he hears the treat box rattle.

What I typically recommend: Your routine doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to be practiced on most days of the week regardless of the type of day you have had -- good or bad. It's easy to ditch it when you are very tired, but this is the best time to condition your body in the direction you want, so don't skip the opportunity.

4. Avoid blue light prior to bedtime. I’m sure you’ve heard this one before. I encourage not overlooking the details of timing.

What I typically recommend: Consistent with the body's physiology, is to start this from 2-3 hours prior to bedtime, and not less than that. Natural melatonin release in your body begins around that time and you don't want to interfere with the process.

This last one always receives a lot of skepticism, but at the risk of alienating all of you, I'm still going to say it…

5. Most people have a sense of when the mind is just too active to fall asleep, and you should get out of bed at those times. During the day, you can help yourself make that process easier by identifying something that is an incentive to get out of bed when you cannot sleep.

What I typically recommend: Find something mildly pleasant, but not overly interesting, like a magazine or book, and put on the couch in your living room. If you don't choose something during the day, when your impulse control is higher than at night, you risk just picking up your phone and scrolling. And given #4 above, that is not a good option. A smartphone is generally too stimulating and the light can lead to delaying your sleep even later into the night. At night, you should get out of bed if you can't fall asleep within about 20 minutes. This rule helps to keep your body well-trained to be asleep in bed. More on this rule to come in future posts!

​You can read more about our services.

Happy sleeping!

Alissa S. Yamasaki, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

If you wish to hear more about sleep and upcoming sleep courses, be sure to sign up for our newsletter and mark the “sleep services” option. See below.