Sleep coaches: can you be coached back to better sleep?

Key points

If you’re reading this, you likely have a sleep problem and are wondering whether a sleep coach can help. Maybe you feel like you’ve exhausted all other options, you’ve tried medication for sleep, different sleep aids, sleep hacks off the internet… yet nothing seems to have worked.

Perhaps it’s time to bring in the experts.

But what exactly is a sleep coach, what do they do and can they really help you get the sleep you’ve been longing for?

To put it simply, choosing a sleep coach is a similar process to choosing a sports coach but with a focus on sleep instead of sport. If you want to improve your game, you’re going to turn to someone who knows the sport inside out and has proven experience in helping others improve their skills. You want someone who knows exactly what steps you should be taking to get there and can encourage, guide and motivate you to make sure you reach your goals.

It’s exactly the same when it comes to your sleep.

In this article we’re going to cover everything you need to know about sleep coaches and how to make the right decision when it comes to choosing one for you. We’ll explore:

• how to find a reputable sleep coach you can rely on.
• what will a sleep coach do?
• can a sleep coach really help you sleep better?
• how much does a sleep coach cost?

What is a sleep coach?

A sleep coach is skilled in understanding where you’re starting from and mapping out a path to get you where you want to be. When it comes to sleep, this means helping you to rebuild your relationship with sleep, allowing you to sleep naturally and effortlessly once again.

When it comes to your own sleep problem, you might be able to pinpoint exactly when and why it first started, but the reason it continues could be something completely different. There could be all kinds of reasons why you can’t sleep and they aren’t always clear if you don’t have in-depth knowledge of sleep and its hidden complexities.

Even though everyone’s sleep problem is different, most can be fixed when you address your relationship and perspective on sleep. With a sleep coach by your side, they’ll help you to do just that.

Let me give you an example, Valerie went through our sleep transformation after battling with insomnia for over a decade said:

“It’s been really good to get such personalised support rather than generic advice on sleep hygiene. Having sleep coaches answer my questions based on my specific circumstances has been incredible. I feel really supported when I’ve been struggling with my sleep.”

It’s worth mentioning at this point that there’s no standardised training or qualification needed to become a sleep coach, so what’s offered can differ from one sleep coach to the next.¹ They’re not usually medically trained so the goal isn’t to diagnose or treat clinical conditions.² Instead, the aim of a sleep coach is to work with you to develop and deliver sleep improvement strategies so that you can identify and overcome your individual challenges to your sleep.

Sleep coaches usually use a combination of:

• sleep science
• guided support
• personally tailored advice

to break down the barriers that are coming between you and a good night’s sleep.

They can offer services either in-person, over the phone or online and the methods they use may vary from basic sleep hygiene advice to different types of therapy including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia (CBTi), the gold standard treatment for insomnia. Whatever their methods, most have the same goal: to guide you towards developing more helpful perspectives and practise healthier behaviours around sleep.

Who can a sleep coach help?

Sleep coaches can be an invaluable help to almost anybody with a sleep problem. With their expertise and understanding of sleep, they have the skills to help you no matter how long you’ve been experiencing issues with your sleep or how severe your problem.

They were originally introduced to help babies, infants and young children (and their parents or caregivers) to develop healthy bedtime and nighttime routines.

But it’s not just babies who find themselves unable to relax into a healthy sleep routine, is it? Sleep deprivation is now an issue the world over. This has led to a rise in people offering sleep support and solutions whatever your age, including:

• baby sleep coaching
• teen sleep coaching
• adult sleep coaching.

You can also find sleep coaches who specialise even further, with expertise in helping people with certain health conditions manage or improve their sleep.

As we mentioned earlier, it can be difficult to get to the bottom of your sleep problem on your own. That’s because sleep is more complex than many of us realise. There are a host of processes at play within your body, including your circadian rhythm and sleep homeostat that affect your sleep, as well as the intricate relationship between your sleep and mental health. This can mean you spend years taking a proactive approach to fixing your sleep, thinking you’re doing the right thing, but without the right guidance you never see the results.

A sleep coach can help you to understand how all of these processes in your mind and body are at play and set out the steps to take to repair your sleep naturally. It’s this holistic approach that can help deliver the results you’ve been looking for. Where other approaches including medication for sleep just mask the problem and treat the symptoms, a sleep coach can help you unearth the real cause of your poor sleep and resolve it once and for all.

Whether you have a severe sleep problem, you’re currently living with other health conditions and want to help manage them by sleeping better or you’re keen to prioritise your physical and mental health to stay feeling your best, a sleep coach can take the goals you have in mind and give you practical advice and guidance to help achieve them.

Should you see a sleep coach?

You may be all too familiar with the frustration and worry that can come with being unable to fall asleep or waking frequently night after night. It’s easy to spot the symptoms of a sleeping problem.

But understanding exactly why you’re sleeping badly? That can be so much harder.

Drawing on a sleep coach’s expertise, they’ll help you to spot patterns in behaviours and beliefs that aren’t always obvious to the untrained eye. They’ll uncover not just what’s caused your sleep problem in the first place but the thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that have perpetuated it for weeks, months or years.

This idea draws on the 3 Ps model of insomnia. In brief, the 3 Ps are three types of factors that contribute to sleeping problems. They are:

• predisposing factors — some of us are naturally more likely to experience sleep issues
• precipitating factors — events or situations that trigger your initial sleep disruption
• perpetuating factors — these are the reasons your sleep problems continue.

It’s natural to focus on the precipitating factors, the event or trigger that set your poor sleep in motion. But just take a moment and think about your sleep right now. It could be that that first trigger, say, losing your job, a new baby or a health condition, may not be an issue any longer. Yet you’re still sleeping badly.

That’s because perpetuating factors are now at play. These are often overlooked and much harder to understand but they’re most likely what’s keeping you from the finding relief you need.

A sleep coach can help dig below the surface and help you identify and resolve these perpetuating factors. But solving a sleep problem with a sleep coach is a collaborative effort. You have to be ready and willing to engage in the process and to commit to the changes your sleep coach suggests if you want to see lasting improvement.

If you’re ready to commit to those changes, a sleep coach can give you not just the understanding but the motivation, engagement and adaptive, tailored plan to help you reach your sleep goals.

Why you’ll benefit from sleep coaching

Many people think solving a sleep problem should be straightforward. You might have experienced this when you had your first few nights of bad sleep. You did your research, tried some different things for a few nights or weeks and they didn’t end up working. Despite your best efforts, you found yourself still at square one and stuck awake, worried about how you’ll manage to get through the next day on next to no sleep.

As we touched on in the introduction, working with a sleep coach can be compared to hiring a personal trainer but for your sleep. They work with you to understand exactly what you want to achieve and can set out a roadmap to make sure you get there and stay there using the lifelong knowledge and skills you’ve gained.

The biggest benefits come when you have a sleep coach who works within a certain plan, course or framework that is backed by science, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia. Working within the structure and guidelines set out by their chosen approach, they can then personalise the plan just for you so that you can make the most progress and see the best results.

And just like having a personal trainer, it’s not just the tailored plan they devise that makes them worth their weight in gold.

It’s having someone by your side every step of the way. Someone to keep you motivated, to cheer you on and keep you accountable. Studies of different CBTi delivery have found that a real person providing support, whether in-person or online, results in better outcomes.³ Knowing someone is keeping an eye on you, monitoring your progress and keeping you on track makes you much more likely to succeed.

This is why our own Sleep Transformation Programme is fully supported by sleep coaches throughout. We believe that it’s this human support that helps us to deliver outstanding results including over 80% of participants seeing significant improvement in their sleep as a direct result of the Sleepstation programme.

What can you expect from a sleep coach?

Different sleep coaches will offer different services. As mentioned above, because there’s no standardised practice guidelines for sleep coaches so it can be difficult to know what to expect.

Many people experience some level of worry about sleep and if you’re unsure of what you’re getting with a sleep coach, this can add to these worries. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what approach your sleep coach is going to take and whether it’s right for you.

As we’ve mentioned before, the methods and approaches different sleep coaches have can vary quite widely. Some will have developed their own approach or use a combination of different methods and techniques, others will have strategies founded in certain types of therapy such as CBTi.

With no set practices, the journey you’ll go on may differ from one coach to the next. Some might offer one-off consultations, a pre-set programme to follow or a personalised support plan over a series of weeks or a combination of these.

These differences can make it tricky to have confidence in your choice. To help with this, we’d recommend looking at a sleep coach’s reviews. You might be able to find them on Trustpilot or they may have testimonials on their website from people who’ve already used their service.

If you’re looking for a supported plan, you can generally expect the following:

• A consultation — Before setting out any plans, your sleep coach should get to know more about you and your sleep through assessment and analysis. This could be an initial chat or could be a lengthier review and could include questionnaires, sleep diaries and in-depth discussions about your sleep habits, behaviour and lifestyle.
• A personalised plan — Using all the information your sleep coach has gathered, they should develop a personalised plan tailored to your specific needs and goals. Depending on the sleep coach’s approach this could include relaxation techniques, sleep hygiene practices or methods specific to the type of therapy they use.
• Progress monitoring — Once you have a plan in place, your sleep coach should stay in touch so that they can track your progress and offer any advice should you hit any bumps in the road. You might track your progress by keeping a sleep diary or journal, so that you can discuss what is or isn’t working well with your plan. Your sleep coach should help you to adapt your plan as you start to see improvements or if you struggle to make the progress you expect, so that you can get the very most out of your plan and achieve the best results.

When choosing the right sleep coach for you, you should make sure to ask about their process so that you’re aware of and comfortable with what your sleep coach will ask you to do.

You might also want to consider finding out:

• the number of sessions they’ll include
• how you’re able to communicate with them and how often
• if there’s any follow-up support once you’ve completed your sessions.

These aren’t the only things you should bear in mind when finding the right sleep coach for you. Let’s explore this further so that you have everything you need to make the right decision for you.

Choosing the right sleep coach for you

If you’ve decided a sleep coach is the right step for you, the next question is which sleep coach do you choose?

This is an important decision to make and there are plenty of considerations including:

• location
• cost
• their background, skills and experience
• who they work with
• if they come recommended
• availability.

Let’s take a look at some of these considerations in more detail now.

Finding a sleep coach near you

As mentioned earlier, sleep coaches may offer face-to-face appointments or they may only make telephone or virtual appointments. There can be pros and cons to both and it’s worth weighing up your own preferences based on things like budget, preferred coaching styles and waiting lists.

If you’re looking for local sleep coaches in your area, it’s worth discussing this with your healthcare provider and seeing if they have any recommendations.

While some people prefer having a face-to-face appointment and receiving in-person support, this can often end up being more costly and you may find yourself on a waiting list before you can be seen by the sleep coach of your choice.

Online support, such as our Sleep Transformation Programme, bypasses any waiting lists and you can receive support at a time and place of your choosing. And this convenience doesn’t mean you have to forfeit any level of support. Studies have shown that the results of internet-based insomnia treatments can be as effective as those in face-to-face settings.⁴

It’s important to remember that not all online sleep programmes guarantee support from a sleep coach or specialist, so be sure to check this before signing up. At Sleepstation, you’ll have a sleep coach on hand at every step, and that plays an important part in why our service has been found to be three times more engaging than other digital CBTi programmes.⁵

How much does a sleep coach cost?

The cost of a sleep coach varies widely and depends on a range of factors including whether they’re offering in-person support, how long they offer support for and the amount of engagement they offer throughout. Costs can range from under £100 for a one-off email to over £3500 for a three-month package.

Depending on your personal situation, this may not be affordable, even completely out of reach.

We believe everyone deserves a great night’s sleep and that cost shouldn’t be a barrier to getting the sleep you deserve. That’s why we offer our full Sleep Transformation Programme as well as access to our sleep coaches within our Sleep Hub. By giving you different access options, we’ve developed a way for you to access exceptional support at an affordable price.

Do you need a sleep coach certification to practise?

In short, no. As we said earlier, there’s no one official qualification you need to become a sleep coach. There are various organisations that offer training and certifications, but none that are nationally or internationally recognised as an official standard.

So if there’s no official qualification you can check, how do you find a reliable sleep coach?

Well, there are certain checks you can do before signing up to make sure the coach you choose suits your needs.

• Experience and education. Sleep coaches will all have different levels of education and experience. Although there’s no standard sleep coaching qualification, your sleep coach may have a background in social care, psychology, healthcare or education, giving them wider experience they can bring to the role.
• Specialisms. Some sleep coaches might have specialised skills or focusses that make them more or less likely to meet your needs. This could include expertise in particular sleep problems, certain age ranges or preferred methods and therapies.
• Reputation. Before signing up with a sleep coach, it’s worth checking out their track record with people they’ve helped in the past. You can ask to see any testimonials, check for online reviews and ask for recommendations from friends or family if any have experience of working with a sleep coach.

With so many criteria to consider when choosing a sleep coach, it can feel like quite an overwhelming decision. So what’s the most important thing to keep in mind when making your choice?

The results and outcomes achieved.

Whatever your preferences when it comes to location or whether the support is in-person or online, none of this matters if you don’t get the results you want.

That’s why we’re incredibly proud of our service at Sleepstation and we have the success stories and reviews to back this up. With expert support every step of the way from our highly-trained sleep coaches, we help people achieve these results and outcomes every single day.

Each of our sleep coaches completes CBTi training and continue to develop their understanding and skills with regular training from our CBTi therapists and sleep doctors, as well as ongoing supervised support.

Their expert knowledge lies in our Sleep Transformation Programme and they’re skilled in optimising your success through encouragement and troubleshooting. This means that you can rest assured you’ll be gaining the most up-to-date knowledge and effective guidance, overseen by a multi-disciplinary team of sleep experts, doctors and therapists.

Sleepstation’s Sleep Hub gives you the expert access you need

At Sleepstation we’ve been helping people just like you to take back control of your sleep for well over a decade.

Over this time, we’ve discovered that what really sets us apart is our team of highly-trained sleep coaches. We don’t rely on AI or chatbots. We offer personalised advice and guidance throughout your journey and it’s this support that makes you even more likely to succeed.⁶

We also recognise that not everybody needs the same level of support but most would benefit from being able to draw on the insights and expertise of a sleep coach. That’s why we’ve introduced our Sleep Hub.

Giving you direct access to our expert sleep team, you’ll find everything you need to know to get set on the right track to effortless sleep, without the commitment of a fully structured programme. Just sign up and you can be discussing your sleep issues and goals with our sleep coaches within one day, through our secure messaging system.

So if you’ve decided that you want the tailored support of a sleep coach and want to take the guesswork out of finding someone you can trust, sign up today and get started on your path to better sleep.

Summary

Sleep coaches are professionals who can offer you the knowledge, understanding and personalised strategies to take back control of your sleep. But there’s a lot to consider when choosing the right sleep coach for you.

• Sleep coaches usually use a blend of sleep science, guided support and tailored advice to get your sleep back on track.
• There’s no nationally recognised qualification to practise as a sleep coach.
• Different sleep coaches have different methods, skills and specialisms.
• The cost and level of support offered by sleep coaches is hugely varied.
• If you want direct access to highly-trained sleep coaches you can trust, sign up to our Sleep Hub.