Better sleep: habits, insomnia, sleep aids and sleep apnea — Reclaim Power Telehealth patient library

Better Sleep: Habits, Insomnia, Sleep Aids, and Sleep Apnea

Sleep, Stress & Nervous System
September 20, 2026
Reclaim Power TelehealthReclaim PowerTELEHEALTH

Nervous system · Recovery

Sleep is not a luxury you earn after everything else is done. It is what makes everything else work.

Written for my patients. If you are not one, read "call me" as "call your own clinician", and take the questions here to them.

Why it matters for your health

Short sleep turns up hunger. In pooled studies, people ate about 385 more calories the day after a short night. It also makes your body more insulin resistant, raises blood pressure, and makes cravings and stress eating louder. If weight or blood sugar is stuck, sleep is one of the first places I look.

The anchors

Same wake timeThe single most powerful habit. Get up at the same time every day, weekends included, even after a bad night. Bedtime follows.
Morning lightGet outside within an hour of waking, even for 10 minutes. It sets your body clock.
Caffeine cutoffIn one study, caffeine taken 6 hours before bed still cut sleep by more than an hour. Stop by noon or early afternoon.
AlcoholIt helps you fall asleep, then fragments the second half of the night. Night sweats and 3 AM waking get worse.
Your roomCool, dark, and quiet. Especially important with hot flashes.
Wind downThe last 30 to 60 minutes: dim lights, no work, no heavy meal. The light from screens may matter less than what is on them; stressful news and endless scrolling keep you up.

If you cannot sleep

For chronic insomnia, the first treatment recommended by U.S. physician and sleep medicine guidelines is not a pill. It is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), and it works as well as medication with effects that last after you stop.

  • Use the bed only for sleep and sex. No scrolling, working, or worrying in bed.
  • Cannot sleep after about 20 minutes? Get up, go to another room, do something boring in dim light, and come back when you are sleepy.
  • Do not try harder to sleep. Effort keeps you awake.
  • Keep naps short, under 30 minutes and before 3 PM, or skip them while you are rebuilding.
  • Try the free CBT-I Coach app from the VA, or ask me about a referral.

About sleep aids

Use with caution

MelatoninHelpful for jet lag and shift work. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine does not recommend it for chronic insomnia. Store products vary wildly: one analysis found actual content ranged from 83 percent less to 478 percent more than the label.
Over-the-counter aidsDiphenhydramine (Benadryl, the "PM" in Tylenol PM) causes next-day grogginess and is not recommended, especially after 65.
PrescriptionsCan help short-term, alongside CBT-I, not instead of it. We will talk through options if you need them.

Get checked for sleep apnea if

You snore loudly, someone has seen you stop breathing or gasp, you wake with headaches or a dry mouth, you are sleepy during the day even after a full night, or your blood pressure is hard to control. Sleep apnea is common, often missed in women, and very treatable. Weight loss helps, and Zepbound is now FDA-approved for sleep apnea in adults with obesity.

I wrote this for my patients, and it reads the same for everyone: general information, not a plan. If you would like your own numbers read against your own story, that is what a Lab Second Look is for. If you are not sure where to start, the free intro call is fifteen minutes.

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A note on how to use this. General information for my patients, not individualized advice.

  1. Qaseem A et al. Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults: ACP guideline. Ann Intern Med 2016;165(2):125–33.
  2. Edinger JD et al. Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia: AASM guideline. J Clin Sleep Med 2021;17(2):255–62.
  3. Sateia MJ et al. Pharmacologic treatment of chronic insomnia: AASM guideline. J Clin Sleep Med 2017;13(2):307–49.
  4. Al Khatib HK et al. The effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance: meta-analysis. Eur J Clin Nutr 2017;71(5):614–24.
  5. Drake C et al. Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed. J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(11):1195–200.
  6. Erland LAE, Saxena PK. Melatonin natural health products and supplements. J Clin Sleep Med 2017;13(2):275–81.

Trang Ca Laube, FNP-BC, FMACP · Reclaim Power Telehealth · Updated September 2026

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Trang Ca Laube, FNP-BC, FMACP

Board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Founder of Reclaim Power Telehealth, seeing adults in Indiana, Colorado, Utah, Washington and Arizona. Author of The Safety Switch. These handouts are general information written for my patients, not individualized advice.

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