Talia Shapero Adult Sleep Coaching Services

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Talia Shapero Adult Sleep Coaching Services

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As a sleep coach, I help identify the imbalances that are impacting your quality of sleep and put together a plan to get your sleep on-track for lifelong improvement.

12/31/2025

2025 almost wrapped up.

The end of the year is always a good time to reflect. What went well. What didn’t. What can be changed for next year.

January represents a time for new beginnings and change.

So what does this have to do with sleep?

Part of my job is to help people implement small, impactful changes over time that will have a compounding positive effect on their sleep and overall well-being. After I complete an initial assessment, I have a back end laundry list of things that my clients can change but I don’t give them this info all at once. Why? Because humans aren’t great at making big changes in one go. Think about the classic post new years resolution of hitting the gym several times a week after an indulgent holiday season. The first week you’ll go 3-4 times and feel great. The next week you’ll make it twice (things got busy at work!) then maybe once the following week and on week 4 you’re feeling unmotivated and disappointed that you couldn’t reach your stretch goal.

That’s why when I set targets with my clients, I make them achievable, practical and realistic, and individualized. This makes them feel good and motivates them towards continued small scale change that pays back increasing dividends.

So if you’re someone who is looking to improve their sleep but is worried about having to transform their life and habits to do so? Fear no more, that’s not my style! Give me a call and I’d be happy to chat to you about making positive changes for your sleep in 2025.

12/26/2025

Why is it that the most wonderfully perceived time of year when we’re together with family is also considered the most stressful time of year?

The answer is complex and differs for many (simple answer, it all goes back to our childhood?!) but the reality is, for many, the holiday period brings stress that can stop people from sleeping.

To fall asleep and stay asleep, your body needs to be in a calm, relaxed zone. The rest and digest response of your nervous system (ie the parasympathetic) needs to be activated. Stress and anxiety however, activate the fight or flight response, making it more difficult to sleep well.

One of the best ways to switch off the stress response (ie sympathetic branch of our nervous system) and activate the rest and digest response is through deep, diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Now breathing won’t solve all your problems but it will nudge your body from a physiological standpoint to get better prepped and relaxed for sleep.

I love the box breathing technique because it’s simple and can be done at any time, anywhere.

While this breathing technique can be practiced any time throughout the day, I often encourage my clients to integrate breath work into their pre-bedtime wind down routine to help induce a relaxation response for their mind and body. If you haven’t done breathwork before though, you may want to practice it first in the daytime, when the stakes are lower.

INSTRUCTIONS
Start breathing in and out in your regular state for a few rounds and notice how it feels and where your breath is coming from. Focus on taking breaths further down in your diaphragm, so that your belly is expanding when breathing in and contracting (moving up and in towards the rib cage) when you’re breathing out. You can place a hand on your belly for feedback assistance. Start breathing in through your nose and out through the mouth.
Inhale through the nose for a count of 4.
Hold your breath for a count of 4.
Exhale through your mouth for a count of 4.
Hold your breath for a count of 4.
Repeat 3 more times (or for as long as you’d like).

12/22/2025

For optimal sleep, turn your sleep environment into a cave - it should be cool, dark and quiet.

A couple tips:
-keep your room temperature cool at night, between 18-21 degrees C (your core body temp needs to be cool in order to fall asleep)
-consider using multiple thin layers of bedding so that you can fine tune your temperature throughout the night
-Use black out blinds or eye shades to block out any light coming in (also helps keep those melatonin levels high!)
-place your phone in another room and/or if you have an alarm clock, turn it away from you
-use earplugs or white noise to block out any disrupting sounds that might wake you up
-reserve your bed and bedroom for sleep and s*x only (if possible) to help stengthen the mental connection between bed and sleep

12/18/2025

Dec 18th
The alcohol-sleep paradox
As the holidays are coming up, I’d like to dispel the myth that alcohol puts you to sleep. While it does make you more relaxed and feel sleepy, it does not put you into a natural state of sleep as we know it. It rather sedates you like anesthesia does.

So what? What’s the difference? Why should you care?

The problem with an alcohol-fueled sleep is many-fold:
It fragments your sleep
It shortens your sleep
It robs you of deep, restorative sleep stages
It causes airway restriction (think snoring)
It dehydrates you
It leaves you feeling unrefreshed the next day, irritable, foggy-brained, the list goes on…

BUT…sometimes it’s worth it. And that’s ok. Part of my job as a sleep coach is to meet my clients where they are and look at their sleep habits and life from a top down, holistic perspective. While I know what alcohol can do to my sleep, I also recognize the benefits of going out with friends and having a few drinks and how that fills my cup in other ways that contributes to my overall well-being. So be kind to yourself this season but if you find that you’re using alcohol on an ongoing basis as a crutch for sleep, you may want to recalibrate in the new year.

12/14/2025

As we’re midway through the darkest month of the year, it’s more important than ever to ensure we’re getting enough bright light during the day, which helps strengthen our circadian rhythm and thus our sleep/wake cycle (and also improves our mood and energy levels). Light cues from the environment help our brain and body recognize when it is day and night and with the presence OR absence of light, our body releases alerting OR sleep hormones, such as melatonin and cortisol.

Consider doing the following to help ensure you’re getting enough light AND at the right time to regulate your sleep system:
◾get bright light exposure in the morning - natural sunlight is best within the first couple of hours of waking. 15-30 minutes is ideal with NO sunglasses but if that’s not possible, turn on bright lights in the home immediately upon waking and keep light levels high throughout the day.
◾get another boost of sunshine throughout the day. Midday is best but even popping outside for a few minutes at a time will send those signals to your brain that it is still daytime.
◾a few hours before bedtime, dim the lights in your home or use lamps instead of bright overhead lights.
◾an hour before bed, turn off devices that emit blue light (eg TVs, phone, computers). Blue light can suppress the production of melatonin, which is necessary for sleep.
◾keep your bedroom dark - turn your alarm clock away from you, install room darkening blinds or curtains or use eye shades if you are sensitive to light

12/10/2025

Sleep is a time when our mind and body repairs and restores itself and included in that restoration is the repair and rejuvenation of our skin. During the night, our body enters recovery mode and it clears away toxins and other things that we don’t need and creates new cells that help heal our skin from any damage done during the day.

So get your beauty sleep.

12/06/2025

Women have a 40% higher chance of insomnia and are more than twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of restless legs syndrome than men. Women also tend to have higher rates of persistent, chronic insomnia and exhibit more symptoms that impact their day-to-day lives, such as excessive daytime sleepiness, mood disturbances, and trouble concentrating.

Why do women have more sleep disturbances than men?
◾hormonal differences
◾higher rates of anxiety and depression
◾shorter circadian rhythms
◾gender expectations

12/02/2025

Is your busy brain keeping you up at night?

Anxiety and ruminating thoughts at night is one of the most common complaints I hear from my clients. Our minds need to be in a relaxed state in order to fall asleep and stressors from our days that get pushed aside often bubble up at night, right at the time we want to get to sleep.

A practice I recommend for clients to try out is called “Constructive Worry Time,” developed by Dr. Coleen Carney. The idea behind it is that you pick a dedicated time of day to write down your thoughts, worries, to-do lists etc and then those thoughts are parked for the day, leaving your brain in a clearer space to welcome sleep. There’s something that happens when you physically put pen to paper - your subconscious has dealt with the issue, clearing your mind until the next day and allowing your body to let go.

If anxiety is keeping you up at night, feel free to get in touch with me for a complimentary, no obligation 20 min call to find out how sleep coaching services might benefit you.

11/28/2025

I had such a great time presenting to community members at De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre's annual Diabetes and Well-Being Symposium!

There is an important interconnected relationship between diabetes and sleep that many are not aware of. Poor sleep potentially increases the risk of developing diabetes, and diabetes itself can impact sleep quality. Specifically, sleep disorders like sleep apnea are more common in individuals with diabetes, and sleep problems can make existing conditions like insulin resistance worse. But there is good news! And that's because sleep is a modifiable behaviour, it means that by improving your sleep, you may also be able to improve diabetic outcomes.

11/22/2025

Last post, I talked about my morning routine but I want to shift your attention to the night.

Creating a bedtime routine is super helpful - if you’re doing a consistent set of purposeful and relaxing activities each night before bed, that is going to send signals to your brain and body that you’re safe, you can relax and anticipate sleep. There are so many ways to recharge and restore yourself and it doesn’t have to be this whole long drawn out thing, it can be 20-60 min.

Choose activities that are relaxing, enjoyable but not overly stimulating -Maybe it’s reading or listening to music, or tidying or folding laundry or deep breathing or journaling, stretching, a sound bath, a yoga nidra practice or watching an old rerun of your favourite TV show. Whatever you do, try and make this a habit.

And if you are someone who scrolls on socials right before bed and wants to break this habit, start with a small goal. For a week, try cutting out device use 10 min before lights are turned out and plan to do something else during that time. After a week, see if you can do 20 min and so on.

11/18/2025

I always tell people that so much of what we do — or don’t do — during the day can have a real impact on our alertness levels and quality of sleep. Of course, your sleep environment matters: keeping your space dark, quiet, and cool, and having a comfortable mattress is important but daytime habits play a huge role in setting you up for better rest.

One of the best ways to support that is by creating an intentional morning routine. Starting the day with a positive mindset can give you a sense of peace and a boost of energy that carries through the rest of your day. That could look like journaling a few things you’re grateful for, doing some light breathwork, enjoying a warm drink, chatting with a loved one, spending a few quiet minutes outside or stretching or moving your body. And if there’s one thing to avoid first thing in the morning — it’s reaching for your phone. Scrolling can spike stress or stimulation before your body’s even awake. We’re all so plugged in throughout the day, so being kind to yourself by delaying that screen time, even by just 10 to 30 minutes, can make a big difference.

11/16/2025

An Endy survey came out this fall showing that the vast majority of young Canadians feels overscreened and underslept.

As a sleep coach, my stance is that not all screens are created equal - for some, it may interfere with sleep but for others, watching an old rerun of your favourite TV show before bed is actually very relaxing and may promote sleep initiation.

Would I recommend doomscrolling the news or going down a TikTok rabbit hole? Probably not because these things tend to activate our brains (think increased dopamine and cortisol production) at a time where we want to be winding down. But sometimes it takes a little bit of experimentation to see what works or doesn’t work for you.

In general, when it comes to screens, I offer the following advice:
◾try to avoid reaching right for your phone as soon as you wake up
◾aim to put away devices at least 30 min before bed
◾try to avoid any “productive” screen activities at night right before bed - eg. online shopping, work
◾try to avoid any over-stimulating screen-based activities right before bed - doomscrolling, social media

BUT - it’s not always so clear cut. I do a lot of experimentation with my clients to figure out which devices are helpful or harmful for their sleep. Is it the activation component of what they’re doing? It is purely a time-displacement issue - eg. they are getting less sleep because they are hooked on their phones? Is it an issue with blue light? (probably not - new research has shown that the blue light from our home devices may not be impacting our melatonin levels as much as we once thought). It’s complex and multi-factorial. Do I think that we should all be off our phones less in general? That is a resounding YES! But that's a whole other issue….

If you’re having trouble sleeping and feel like it may be related to your screen use, book a complimentary call with me and we can talk about how I can help.

Address

822 Richmond Street West Suite 102
Toronto, ON

Website

http://www.taliashapero.com/

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