The Sleep Menu
Sleep hygiene was never supposed to be a checklist
If you found your way here from my piece in Time Magazine, welcome. The short version: most sleep advice arrives as a list of rules, and following rules about sleep to the letter is one of the more reliable ways to stop sleeping. The Sleep Menu is what I use instead, in my practice and in the training I run for other clinicians. Pick what fits. Skip what doesn't.
That's the whole idea.
Why a menu
Sleep hygiene began as a collection. This helped some people with this problem, that helped others with that one, and it all got written down in one place. Somewhere along the way the collection turned into a list, and the list turned into instructions. No caffeine after two. Same bedtime every night. Cool, dark room, screens off an hour before bed.
Every item on that list has research behind it. Handed over all at once, it turns sleep into a performance with a pass and a fail, and people start monitoring themselves at exactly the moment they need to stop. Researchers call this orthosomnia, the sleep problem you get from trying too hard to sleep well.
A sleep menu works differently. Same evidence, different structure. You get options and some sense of which ones tend to matter for a problem like yours. You experiment, see what works, and leave the rest on the table. For example, I watch TV in bed. It's on the menu.
I want to sleep better
I'm writing a book called The Sleep Menu, for people whose sleep is frustrating rather than clinically broken. Leave your email and I'll send you a sample chapter when it's ready, along with the occasional note when I've written something new.
What are you here for?
I'm a clinician
Sleep complaints show up constantly in general practice, and most of us were handed the same hygiene checklist and told to pass it along. I'm building a training program on the menu approach for clinicians who see sleep problems regularly and aren't planning to become sleep specialists. Leave your email and I'll let you know when it opens, including CE details.
About me
I'm Dr. Joshua Tal, a licensed psychologist in New York. I started out as a sleep technician, which is where I first noticed the gap between what the research actually says and what patients get told. I've presented to the NBA Referees Health and Wellness team, and I write about sleep for people who are tired of being told to try harder at it.
I also see patients for insomnia and sleep problems, in New York and by telehealth in over 40 states.