Nowadays, it’s typical to have a coach for just about anything. We all know football, soccer and tennis coaches, but there’s been a blossoming of executive coaches, life coaches, exercise and wellness coaches, even ADD coaches. Why would we need a coach for sleeping? Isn’t it something we just do? After all, 99.99% of human beings do it every night or every day. And the body’s designed to do it naturally without help. It’s almost like having a breathing coach when that’s something that just comes naturally.
It seems that modern life has caused a lot of interference with sleeping. 70% of us report having trouble sleeping of one kind or another at least 2-3 nights a week. That’s most of us having trouble with something that should be normal and natural, but apparently isn’t these days. That large percentage may be a temporary situation, but now think about this.
20-30% of Americans have chronic, ongoing sleep problems – the type that cause traffic accidents, poor work performance, and contribute directly to nuclear disasters and large oil spills. Did you know that the captain of the Exxon Valdez and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were later found to be seriously sleep-deprived? Though most of us will not have such an impact on the world because of our sleepiness, the personal consequences are bad enough. Why not have some help overcoming such an important problem?
Sleep coaching is a relatively new field in sleep medicine, along with testing and training for sleep apnea and sleep-related breathing disorders. Many of us have gotten to the chronic level of sleep problems by trying to create our own solutions to the sleep problems we have. We think of a “nightcap” as a help to our sleep, or the ever-popular “sleeping pill” as another quick fix. We beg our doctors to give us something that will help, if even temporarily, our anguish in going to sleep or staying asleep. Then when that is removed, because we can’t take sleeping pills to get good sleep forever, we’re right back where we started or even in a worse place than when we started.
A good sleep coach helps us assess and treat the variety of sleep issues and sleep-related issues that underlie a problem that has become chronic. By the time our problem is chronic, we’ve probably tried all the simple remedies recommended on the internet or by our friends. As with anything, it’s important to discuss sleep problems with your doctor to rule out underlying medical issues that may contribute to poor sleep – medications and chronic medical conditions that affect sleep, habits that foster sleep disruption and
early morning awakening. Then we need the help of someone trained to make the call of what’s ailing our sleep – a sleep coach.
Dr. Marcia Lindsey – sleep coach, psychologist, Texas sleeper – coaches by phone those with chronic sleep problems to better, more peaceful sleep. You can follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/sleepdiva or at her website www.thesleepdiva.com.
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