My dog saw the bra. Chaos ensued.
Some days I feel like the start of the pandemic was decades ago, and other days like it was yesterday. As we mark the five-year anniversary, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much has changed in my life.
For starters, I was working outside the house—and for someone else. I used to wake up, shower, do a full face of makeup, and work my Rent the Runway subscription like it was my job. Fast forward to now: I run my own business, from my own home, on my own schedule, with a much larger collection of elastic waistband pants. I’ve gotten extraordinarily good at doing the bare minimum to look presentable on Zoom. (A messy top knot and tinted sunscreen can go far with the right lighting.)
A few weeks ago, I noticed my dog was losing his shit when I put on a bra. Dogs are very good at noticing patterns. When my dad worked from home, my parents’ dog used to head into his office around 2 pm every day because she knew that by 4 pm, he’d swap out his computer readers for his regular glasses—and that meant one thing: park time. She’d run out of the office and alert the entire house that it was time to party.
Well, apparently my dog has tapped into that same gift for observation. He’s realized that I put on a bra so infrequently that when it happens, it must mean something epic is about to go down.
Around that same time, I realized I wasn’t feeling great. I’m an Angeleno living through 2025—humaning is hard right now. Honestly, if I felt amazing, I’d be a little concerned about my humanity.
That same discerning poodle doesn’t really do mornings, by the way. We’re lucky if we get him outside to pee before 10 am. He’s a spoiled only child, and I’m happy to let him dictate the household schedule. So I was waking up, still in the same sweats I’d slept in, locked behind my blackout curtains, just… meandering into my day.
But the bra epiphany got me thinking: maybe it’s time to shake things up. So I decided to start getting dressed in the morning, regardless of my schedule. I started stepping outside earlier. Getting sunlight. And, shocker—I started to feel better.
Science backs this up. When sunlight hits your eyeballs and zips down your optic nerve, it basically flips the switch on your body’s master clock—your circadian rhythm. This isn’t woo-woo. It’s biology. And your circadian rhythm? She’s the boss.
From the moment you wake up, your body is riding waves—subtle, elegant, and completely non-negotiable. Your temperature shifts, your blood pressure fluctuates, hormones do their little dance, and your brain either sharpens like a tack or turns into mashed potatoes, depending on the hour.
Energy, appetite, creativity, coordination, mood, memory—even your ability to heal and sleep—it all runs on a schedule. One you didn’t consciously create, but your body sure did.
And here’s the kicker: your best night of sleep doesn’t start at bedtime. It starts in the morning—with sunlight. Getting bright light early in the day helps set the timing of your entire rhythm, signaling to your body, “Hey, this is daytime,” so it knows when to start winding down later.
That signal travels to your brain’s pineal gland—your “third eye,” for our woo-woo friends. As darkness falls, the pineal gland starts pumping out the sleepytime hormone melatonin, letting your body know it’s time to wrap it up and head to bed.
But for a lot of us, that rhythm’s been knocked totally out of sync. Artificial light, endless screen time, inconsistent sleep-wake schedules, and a serious lack of morning sunlight—all common in modern life—can throw off your body’s natural circadian signals and lead to sleep struggles.
You see, for thousands of years, we had this beautiful natural rhythm—our bodies synced with the sun, a cosmic playlist of sorts. We rose with the light, we rested in the dark. It was predictable, primal, poetic.
And then Thomas Edison had to come in and eff the whole thing up.
With the flick of a switch—literally—he rewired our relationship with sleep. Suddenly, we weren’t bound to the sun anymore; we were tethered to artificial light and the rise of productivity culture. Edison himself was apparently thrilled to be sleeping less than four hours a night, even referring to sleep as a “bad habit.” (Woof.) The man who brought us the lightbulb also predicted a future where sleep would be obsolete.
And look, I’m sitting here under the glow of a soft lamp, typing on a laptop. I’m grateful for innovation—but this one came with some intense biological side effects. Because when we lost our connection to the sun, we didn’t just gain a few extra hours to hustle. We lost something deeper—an internal rhythm that had kept us grounded, healthy, and, frankly, sane.
So here we are, 100+ years later, still trying to shake off Edison’s influence and unlearn the idea that sleep is optional or lazy.
While I can’t undo 146 years of electric-fueled hustle culture in one email newsletter, I can tell you that getting outside in the morning is a good first step toward prioritizing your sleep.
Quick note: while morning sunlight will make most of us feel a bit better, if you have a sleep disorder, not even the Ludovico Technique apparatus from A Clockwork Orange could pump enough light into your eyes to “fix” your sleep. As a lady who collects diagnoses like other people collect cool sneakers (I have not one, but two sleep disorders), I promise to talk more about that in a future newsletter.
I think sleep is fascinating, and my ADHD brain wants to shower you with every exciting tidbit all at once. But first impressions—whether it’s the first day of a new job or meeting your partner’s parents—can be tricky for me. How much do I share to keep you intrigued without overwhelming you to the point where you never want to come back?
It’s like dating. You don’t unload your childhood baggage until at least date four. (My mom, who is probably reading this, is awesome—but she was known for saying she hoped I’d have enough content to keep things interesting for my therapist.)
That said, stick around—because in the weeks ahead, we’ll dive into:
Finding your ideal wake-up time
Why naps are “sleep snacks”
Insomnia and why you should treat your nighttime brain like a snow globe
Perimenopause/menopause and sleep
How to spot a sleep disorder and actually get treatment
And—very importantly—why you should immediately Google, “Do penguins have knees?” when it’s the only thing standing between you and your rest.
I hope each short read blows your brain just a little—and gets you excited about your own personal journey with sleep. Because whether you’re struggling or waking up each day feeling refreshed, there’s always something to gain by rethinking sleep as a powerful, foundational tool for improving your health, productivity, and overall well-being.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
