How to Sleep During a Heat Wave Without AC
The July our apartment’s air conditioner died was the July the city set a string of 35-degree Celsius, 95-degree Fahrenheit days, and for about a week I learned, hour by hour, exac […]
Interactive Sleep Tools
Free online calculators and guides to help you sleep better.
Common Sleep Questions
Find answers to the questions sleep experts hear every day.
Why Can't I Sleep?
Before Bed & Routine
Caffeine, Alcohol & Substances
Environment & Bedroom
Read more
Sleeping with a Partner Who Tosses, Snores, Steals Covers
My partner and I once treated any suggestion of sleeping separately as a verdict on the relationship. Then came a winter during which she was finishing a graduate degree, reading u […]
How to Sleep with Noisy Neighbors in an Apartment
The week after the couple above me moved out and a new tenant moved in, I learned exactly how much my sleep had depended on their rugs. The new neighbor had hardwood floors, a late […]
Best Sleep Positions for Back Pain, Snoring, and Comfort
The first thing I did every morning for about a year was wince. Around age 35, after a decade at a desk and a gradually expanding waistline, I started waking with a dull ache in my […]
Pink Noise vs Brown Noise vs White Noise for Sleep
For months after we launched the white noise player, I assumed the four tracks were essentially the same idea with different weather labels. Rain, forest, ocean, static, they were […]
Sleeping with Pets: My Dog and Cat in Bed Experiment
Most nights, the question in my apartment is not whether a pet will be in the bedroom but how many and where. Lili, my small black dog with the two tan dots above her eyes that mak […]
Sleep Debt: What It Is and Why Weekend Catch-Up Fails
There was a two-week stretch last quarter that still stands as my personal benchmark for how bad a normal-looking schedule can feel. No single night was dramatic. I slept about six […]
How Much Sleep Do You Really Need? A Guide by Age
At a team lunch last spring, two of my coworkers got into a familiar argument. One claimed he ran perfectly well on six hours and had for years. The other said six hours was slow s […]
Sleep Stages Explained: What Really Happens in NREM and REM
The first time I wore a sleep tracker to bed, I woke up to a screen full of numbers I did not understand: 1 hour 38 minutes deep, 1 hour 51 minutes REM, 14 awakenings. I knew I had […]
10 Sleep Myths I Used to Believe (And the Truth)
I used to believe a lot of things about sleep that turned out to be wrong. These myths wasted my time, caused unnecessary guilt, and sometimes made my sleep worse. Once I replaced […]