This past year, I watched my daughter-in-law, Adriana, proceed through her second pregnancy, childbirth and the care of our family's lovely newborn, Eva. I watched her struggle with some of the most common challenges of motherhood, including of course, disrupted sleep. As Mother's Day draws near, I'm remembering the many...

Largely as a result of the untenable demands of modern lifestyle, far too many of us continue to struggle with insomnia. Let's face it, those bottomless to-do lists persistently trump our need for rest, recreation and, of course, sleep. Modern lifestyles also make it challenging to eat, exercise and manage...

Narcolepsy. Though many recognize the word, relatively few of us know what it really means. And why should we? As far as sleep disorders go, it's not nearly as common as insomnia or apnea. And let's face it, it doesn't sound very sexy either. (As one patient put it, "Combining...

This week we observe the 42th anniversary of Earth Day. Once again we conjure familiar images of smoggy skylines, toxic landfills and lethal oil spills along with the mounting evidence of global warming. And we also celebrate the heightened awareness and many major environmental initiatives promoted by Earth Day.

But,...

Given the acute distress often associated with sleeplessness, it's not surprising that so many of us respond to it with limited stop-gap, band-aid type solutions. In my practice I've found that so much of what we do to manage sleeplessness simply makes it worse.

I'd like to share a brief bedtime story -- actually, it's a story about a character in a bedtime story. It's about one of Dr. Seuss's enigmatic little creatures, the Chippendale Mupp, who is featured in his classic "Sleep Book." The Mupp is a sharp-toothed furry fellow with...

When it comes to conversations about insomnia, one might think we were at war. This isn't all that surprising, since we generally approach health problems as adversaries. We fight disease, combat infections, kill germs and go to battle with our symptoms.

These kinds of fighting words are integral to...

I believe that dreaming is among the most critical misunderstood and overlooked factors in our health, well-being and spiritual development. In contrast to waking, which is typically about an intentional, concrete and active relationship with the world around us, dreaming is more about a receptive, expansive and ethereal relationship with...

Ask insomniacs why they can't sleep and they'll likely tell you its because they're just not sleepy enough. But, how could this be? Given their chronic sleep loss and typical diligence about doing all the right things, surely they must be sleepy. But, they're not. In fact, they are even...

I believe the main reason we struggle with epidemic sleep disorders is our failure to examine fundamental misconceptions that inform our understanding of and approach to sleep. These misconceptions are rooted in a tendency to define sleep negatively -- that is, in terms of what it's not. Like our conception...