We're excited to welcome Dr. Keira Moore, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, to The Blissy Experience Podcast! Fresh our conversation with her on Episode 9, Dr. Moore shared invaluable insights into managing sleep challenges for both children and adults. Missed the episode? Click here for a recap and where to listen.
Dr. Moore specializes in creating tailored sleep treatment plans, starting with thorough assessments and detailed sleep histories. Her structured approach has helped countless clients achieve better sleep in just a few weeks.
In this blog post, she dives deeper into her methods, offering practical advice for those struggling with irregular sleep schedules or on-call work demands.
Read on to discover Dr. Moore's expert tips on maintaining a healthy sleep routine, managing technology use at night, and adapting your lifestyle for better rest.
Can you share a success story of a particularly challenging case for one of your sleep clients (anonymously, of course) and how you navigated it?
Dr. Moore: I can’t share any details of prior cases due to client confidentiality, but my process is the same for all clients.
We always start with a thorough assessment interview that lasts around 2 hours where I take a full sleep history and dive deep into details of the client’s nighttime routine, what happens in the middle of the night, and their morning routine.
From there, we collect 7-10 days of baseline data on sleep. With all that information in hand, I write a personalized and very detailed sleep treatment plan, then meet with the client to review and refine the plan.
We focus on those 4 main aspects of sleep: the bedtime routine, the sleep schedule, sleep dependencies, and interfering behavior, and do a comprehensive treatment plan that covers all of those things.
I won’t sugar coat it—my sleep treatment programs are intense! But, at the same time they are very doable and lead to remarkably fast changes in sleep. Most clients need very little additional support from me once they get rolling and we usually having things in good shape within about 2 weeks.
I always joke that I have the worst business model in the world—clients come to me for a very short time, then I never hear from them again, and don’t get repeat business from them because once they’re on the right track and the sleep problems are fixed, they tend to stay fixed. Great for clients, less great for a sustainable business plan 🙂.
I’m always happy though when clients report they don’t need my help any more because they are sleeping better!
For adults struggling with sleep, which component of your 4-step treatment do you find most often overlooked or underestimated, and why?
I think the hardest thing for adults is often sticking to a regular sleep and wake schedule. Because so many adults are sleep deprived, they often want to “catch up” on their weekends/days off by sleeping in, which unfortunately wreaks havoc on your sleep for the next few days.
Also, for adults who have inconsistent schedules or do shift work, sticking to a regular schedule can be impossible. We also live in a world where we are trying to pack as much into our day as possible, so often people push bedtime later and later in an effort to either stay up and finish things they didn’t get to that day, or just to have some much needed time to relax and unwind (how many of us are guilty of staying up too late to binge-watch something on Netflix!?!).
We often need some downtime to relax and decompress before we are ready to go to bed, but often our schedules are so jam-packed we just don’t have that time, and instead sacrifice sleep instead.
What advice do you have for people whose jobs or other responsibilities don't align with their natural sleep schedules?
Dr. Moore: That’s always a hard one. If you are lucky/priviledged enough to be in a position to change that (e.g. if there’s some flexibility in your job/responsibilities or you are willing and able to make a big change in your life), my first recommendation is to do whatever you can to change your lifestyle to suit your body.
Sometimes a little creativity and rearranging our schedules is all that’s needed, sometimes it’s worth having a chat with your employer to see whether there is any possibility of flexibility.
When we’ve exhausted those options and there isn’t a way to move things around then we have to do our best to help our body adapt to a schedule that doesn’t quite fit. In these cases, keeping a regular sleep schedule, exposing your body to bright light (sunlight if possible) in the morning, limiting exposure to light in the evening, and managing your eating and exercise schedule can go a long way toward helping your body adapt.
Sometimes short use of melatonin can help people push their circadian rhythm to a more desirable time.
Looking back on your career, what's the most surprising thing you've learned about how people behave and sleep?
Dr. Moore: I’m always astonished by how long people let sleep problems go and how long people put them on the back burner or just suffer with sleep problems.
Sleep is a huge contributor to your physical, mental, and emotional health and one of the most important things you can manage to take care of yourself. Often fixing sleep problems fixes all sorts of other problems too, and it’s easier to change sleep than most people think!
I can’t imagine going through life chronically sleep deprived and not making it a priority.
What advice would you give for managing your access to your cell phone if you need to reachable due to being on-call for work or family emergencies?
Dr. Moore: Technology has advanced a TON recently and pretty much every phone has features where you can put your phone in “sleep” or “do not disturb” mode, but set a rule for when to allow calls through.
For example, on my Samsung Galaxy phone, I have it automatically set to “do not disturb” from 10p-7a every day, but if the same number calls me twice in a row within 5 minutes it will allow the second call through.
My friends and family know that I have this setup, and they know if there’s an emergency during those hours they just need to call twice. Most phones have this or similar technology, and it’s just a simple Google search away!
