Better Nights, Better Choices: Sleep Coaching for Adults

With one in three Americans struggling with insomnia on a regular basis, it’s no surprise that we’re finally waking up to the benefits of sleep coaching. But whereas the profession has traditionally focused on infants and children, adults are now the ones wanting to learn how to sleep like a baby. Ready to review your “sleep hygiene”? Don’t snooze on the potential of a sleep coach.

What is sleep coaching?

For all the comforts of contemporary life, one of the simplest pleasures of all still eludes so many of us: a good night’s sleep. While there’s an abundance of apps, supplements, gadgets and accessories to help ease us into slumber in the short term, a professional sleep coach can deliver a long-term solution.

In a nutshell, a sleep coach will help you restore sleep as a consistent part of your lifestyle. As with any kind of coach, therapist or wellness counsellor, sleep coaches consult on a one-on-one basis over an extended period of time, so it takes commitment.

In search of American dreams

What explains the sudden spike in searches for the term “sleep coach”, which hit peak popularity in December 2025, according to Google trends? According to certified adult sleep coach Kelly Murray, whose approach combines mindfulness, functional diagnostics, and science-backed coaching, one reason is modern lifestyles that are “basically designed to wreck our sleep.”

The other is our growing sense of empowerment when it comes to our personal health, led by figures such as neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and Professor Matthew Walker, the “Sleep Diplomat”. These experts have brought sleep science into the mainstream conversation to the point where people are no longer prepared to accept chronic sleep deprivation as part of life.

Why aren’t we sleeping?

The International Classification of Sleep Disorders defines six recurring causes of disturbed sleep:

• Insomnia disorders – trouble falling or staying asleep
• Sleep-related breathing disorders – such as sleep apnea
• Central disorders of hypersomnolence – narcolepsy being the most well-known example
• Circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders – when your biological rhythm and sleep schedule are out of sync
• Parasomnias – including nightmares, sleepwalking, sleep talking and more
• Sleep-related movement disorders – including restless legs syndrome and twitching

You’ll notice that although we tend to use “insomnia” as a catch-all term, it’s just one of six reasons why we can’t sleep. In fact, the barrier to sleep can be physical (needing to urinate during the night), psychological (anxiety or stress), or environmental (shift work, noise).

Whatever the cause, the consequences can be catastrophic for our health.

The health risks of not sleeping enough

If you’re regularly falling short of the recommended seven-hour daily minimum, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) warns of the following negative consequences:

• Reduced brain function, ranging from noticeable ‘brain fog’ to incremental decline that often goes unnoticed
• Increased risk of heart problems and weight gain due to hormone and insulin imbalances
• Weakened immune system
• Higher risk of depression
• Reduced lifespan. In general, people who sleep more live longer

The implication is clear. Instead of bragging about how little sleep we need so that we can spend more time “locking in” and maxing out on our hustle and grind, we should be treating seven hours rest as the minimum foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

What can an adult sleep coach do?

A professional sleep coach will focus beyond the window around waking and sleeping that apps and accessories target, in order to examine the full 24 hours. They may even dig deeper back into early childhood. Hidden somewhere in your past or daily lifestyle are the habits, stressors or mindset that are the root cause of disturbed sleep.

Over regular one-on-one sessions, a sleep coach will assess your:

• Bedtime routine, and whether it sets you up for sleep or fires your brain and digestion up for action.
• Sleep schedule, and how it changes at the weekend or during different seasons.
• Environment. Noise, light, temperature and comfort can all be measured and optimized.
• Physical habits. Exercise, diet, alcohol, coffee and tobacco all affect sleep.
• Emotional wellbeing. They’ll want to hear more about your waking world, and how work, relationships, and family all affect your mood.
• Medical history. From medications to inherited or acquired disorders, there might be some major medical barriers to sleep.

There’s no quick fix. Sleep coaching is about identifying the underlying causes and crafting a personalized, long-term routine to make sufficient sleep a habit. Sessions might include guided meditation, relaxation techniques, and mindset coaching to overcome the obstacles and excuses in our way.

Plans can also be tailored for specific requirements, as a custom program for new parents or shift workers, for example. Ultimately, the goal is to find your sweetest sleep spot, understanding that each of us has a different path to follow.

Overcoming some common sleep myths

The misconception that sleep coaching is only for babies might be losing its hold, but some myths still linger. We don’t actually need eight hours of sleep, for example. The AASM states that just seven will do for most of us. Neither will going to bed early fix the problem if the underlying pattern is disturbed.

According to Murray, the biggest myth, hands down, is: “If I just practice better sleep hygiene, I’ll fix my insomnia.” She has coached numerous people who came to her having cut caffeine, ditched screens, or tried meditation, monk mode, magnesium or melatonin, yet still found themselves awake at 3 a.m.

It’s not the mattress that matters, but the method. “Sleep hygiene is a great foundation,” she says, “but it will never fix chronic insomnia when there are underlying physiological issues driving it.”

For so many people, there are real, measurable, physiological reasons why sleep has gone off the rails. Our body might be dealing with hormonal shifts, inflammation, or nutrient deficiencies that no amount of chamomile tea is going to resolve.

Self-management isn’t the solution

We’ve never had so many gadgets, apps, tools and accessories fighting for our sleep. From cooling mattresses and weighted blankets to blackout curtains and blue light blockers, not to mention the trackers, apps and supplements. But not only might they be ineffective, they may even be doing us harm.

Prolonged melatonin use, for example, can increase the risk of heart problems according to a study by the American Heart Association. Meanwhile, the obsession with wearables and tracking can exacerbate our anxiety.

“I’ve worked with so many clients who have developed what’s called orthosomnia, essentially sleep anxiety driven by obsessing over their sleep data,” says Murray.

The solution is to treat the data as information, not a solution. “What people really need is someone to dig into the root cause—to run the right functional lab tests, look at their hormones, their gut, their neurotransmitters, their mineral status—and build a personalized protocol that actually addresses what’s going on in their body.”

How to find a sleep coach

If you are considering engaging the help of a sleep coach, be aware that there is no single regulatory body in the United States for certifying coaches, although sleep coaches do have to be certified. Two well-respected qualifications for adult sleep coaching are the Integrative Adult Sleep Coach Certification from the IPHI/International Parenting & Health Institute and the Sleep Science Coach Certification from the Spencer Institute. If your sleep coach has obtained these certifications, they’ve achieved the required standards within the industry.

Nevertheless, not all factions of the medical community are supportive about sleep coaching. The Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, for example, recommends working only with a licensed physician for sleep-related issues. This highlights the lack of agreement as to whether poor sleep is a medical condition to be treated or a lifestyle issue to be coached.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine helps clarify the holistic nature of sleep coaching with a reminder that coaches are not allowed to make a medical diagnosis or prescribe treatment. That caveat can be helpful, as is the excellent tool the academy provides for finding a sleep specialist in your area:

Find a Sleep Coach