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Summary
Better sleep after 40 comes from building the right daily rhythms, not from trying harder at bedtime. Mollie McGlocklin, creator of Sleep Is a Skill, makes the case that sleep is a learnable skill, and that forcing it or chasing a perfect score on your tracker usually makes it worse.
Mollie went through acute insomnia while traveling overseas and left doctor after doctor with sleeping pills and no real guidance. In this episode she explains what sleep latency and sleep efficiency tell you, why falling asleep the second your head hits the pillow can be a red flag, which tracker numbers you can trust (and why deep sleep and REM aren’t among them), when a nap helps and when it hurts, what to do when good sleep habits aren’t enough, and why sleep really begins in the morning.
Links
- Sleep Is a Skill (newsletter, podcast, and coaching): https://sleepisaskill.com
- The Wellness Roadmap: https://amzn.to/3U1xEdn
Key Takeaways
Why does trying harder to sleep make it worse?
Because effort creates alertness, and alertness is the opposite of what sleep needs. Mollie calls it the sleep paradox: the more you push, the more sleep runs away, and a bad night can turn into a whole day of worrying about the next one. The fix is to build the conditions for sleep and then let it happen.
Is falling asleep the minute your head hits the pillow a good sign?
Not necessarily. Mollie puts a healthy sleep latency at roughly 10 to 15 minutes, so dropping off instantly can point to sleep deprivation or an undiagnosed sleep disorder. Taking much longer than that is the other end of the same flag and worth a closer look.
How much should you trust your sleep tracker’s deep sleep and REM numbers?
Not much. Mollie says sleep staging is the least accurate data that ring and wrist trackers produce, and a single algorithm update once cut her own deep sleep reading roughly in half overnight. Heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and total sleep time are more reliable, so watch trends within one device instead of comparing gadgets.
Should you take naps if you have insomnia?
Usually not for a while. Naps release the adenosine, or sleep pressure, that helps you fall and stay asleep at night, so someone struggling with insomnia is often better off skipping them for a stretch. For everyone else, Mollie’s rule of thumb is earlier and shorter, with a 20 minute power nap (sometimes after a little caffeine) as the common approach.
When does good sleep actually start?
In the morning. Mollie argues that a consistent wake-up time, morning sunlight, and handling stress during the day shape your night more than any supplement or gadget at bedtime. If you wait until night to fix your sleep, you’re already too late.
“Because really, sleep begins in the morning. It starts from what time did you wake up? Was it your consistent wake-up time? Did you get out and get sunlight?”
Mollie McGlocklin
Episode
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 764
Published: 2026-09-29
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest: Mollie McGlocklin, creator of Sleep Is a Skill and host of the Sleep Is a Skill podcast
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)
