Adult 1:1 Personalized Sleep Coaching

Sleep coaches provide services that are tailored to help guide you toward better sleep. Sleep coaches can come from different backgrounds, but in most cases, they are not traditional health care providers like doctors or nurses.

When seeking a sleep coach, it can be helpful to consider how various factors, including a sleep coach’s experience and style of coaching, relate to your needs.

• Education and Training: Sleep coaches can have different levels and types of education, and you should think about how important a coach’s formal education is to you. Some sleep coaches have advanced degrees, including in fields related to health care, but others may have a more general educational background. 
• Prior Work Experience: Past experience in a sleep-related job is not required to become a sleep coach. However, some coaches may have previously worked in another health care profession, like social work or nursing. 
• Who They Work With: Sleep coaches may specialize in working with specific groups of people. For instance, some coaches only work with children or individuals with certain health conditions.
• Special Skills: Since the services of sleep coaches can vary, it can be useful to check if a coach is trained in any special services or holds certifications relevant to your sleep issue. You can also ask about their areas of focus and preferred techniques for helping their clients. 
• Insurance and Costs: The costs of services can vary among coaches, and many health insurance plans will not cover sleep coaching services. Make sure to ask about the total costs of sleep coaching to understand if a coach’s services will fit within your budget.
• Reputation and Results: As with any kind of service provider, you can try to find out about their track record. If any friends or family members have worked with a sleep coach, ask them for referrals. When talking with a sleep coach, ask how long they have been coaching and if they can provide any testimonials from past clients. 

Adults who are looking to improve their sleep hygiene may be able to get direct guidance from a sleep coach. Coaches may help create a long-term plan to promote better habits before bed. They may also offer suggestions about designing a better sleep environment.

Some sleep coaches might deliver services that help with certain sleep disorders, such as insomnia. However, adults that have a diagnosed sleep disorder should talk with their doctor about the best treatment and whether sleep coaching is right for them.

• Initial Consultation: A coach will usually set up an initial phone call to collect basic information about your medical history and ask questions about your sleep issues and sleep patterns, such as your chronotype.
• First Meeting: After the consultation, a sleep coach may then set up a one to two hour session to create a step-by-step sleep improvement plan based on information collected in the initial consultation. 
• Follow-Up Meetings: A coach will often schedule one or more follow-up meetings to assess whether the initial plan is helping you. This process might involve documenting your sleep patterns in a sleep journal.

When choosing a sleep coach, you can ask them about their specific process and how they typically work with people who have sleep difficulties that are similar to yours. You can ask for details about how many sessions are included and what steps are available if you find that your sleeping problems continue. 

If you have ongoing or significant sleeping problems, you should discuss them directly with your doctor. Examples of issues that you should raise with your health care provider include: 

• Extreme sleepiness during the day
• Frequently struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep when you want to
• Feeling tired or unrefreshed in the morning even after a full night of sleep
• Disruptive movements or behaviors during sleep
• Snoring or abnormal or disrupted breathing during sleep
• Your sleep problems arise alongside physical or mental health problems, such as pain or depression