Houston, we have a (sleep) problem | 3 min read

Hey dreamer,

Hope your Sunday's been the soft-landing kind. Mine almost wasn't — but stick with me, there's an astronaut involved.

The story

It's 3 am. My eyes are wide open. My brain has decided this is the ideal time to replay a conversation from 2019.

You know the one, and your brain has its own version from what actually happened.

Embarrassingly, for years, I never had a nighttime routine.

I'd just collapse into bed whenever my body finally tapped out. Phone in hand, brain in overdrive, maybe even midnight snacking like a raccoon raiding a campsite.

I was basically self-parenting my sleep schedule and doing a terrible job of it.

I'd complain about being exhausted.

I’d try to discipline myself into sleeping better, like I was punishing a teenager.

Then ignore my own rules five minutes later. A strict parent and a rebellious kid, same body, losing the same argument every night.

It made sense, in a grim way. I was a digital strategist glued to screens from sunrise to whenever I passed out, raised on that "less sleep, more productivity" hustle.

I believed it for years, until it dawned on me that being an always-on corporate junkie was quietly wrecking my nervous system.

Let's decode the 3 am brain

Turns out it wasn't a willpower problem. It was biology battling me every night.

Blue light from our phones tells the body to stop producing melatonin, the hormone that says, "Hey, it's bedtime." 

Even a short scroll before bed can delay that release and push your actual sleep later. So all those "just one more scroll" nights were stealing my rest, one notification at a time.

Once I understood that, I stopped beating myself up and got curious instead. I started experimenting: chamomile tea, breathwork, sound baths, counting down slow breaths to drop into calm.

And, lo and behold, my sleep improved.

And so did my mood, because when you wake up rested, you're just a nicer person to be around.

Then I met an astronaut

One night, I pictured a little boy in a space helmet, floating past the stars, completely unbothered by deadlines or doomscrolling.

I named him Ollie. He’s curious and brave in that wide-eyed way only a four-year-old can be. Free to roam the whole universe with absolutely nowhere he had to be.

Ollie is the version of me I'd been missing. The one who wanted wonder and permission to be carefree, even just for eight minutes before falling asleep.

That daydream became The Sleepy Ollie Show, a sleep-time story podcast where you drift off into space instead of into a doomscroll.

Audio only, on purpose. No screens, no blue light.

Just a calm voice, a sleepy little astronaut, and a soft landing into your own imagination.

The Pebble

And hey, since we're talking about better bedtimes, The Sleepy Ollie Show is exactly that 3 am rescue mission. Made for grown-ups who need to switch off and kids who never want the adventure to end. Fresh releases every Sunday morning.

The challenge
Tonight, swap one scroll for one soothing ritual. Doesn't need to be fancy. A bath. A few stretches. A story instead of social media. Just one small, soft thing that tells your brain: I'm done for today. I get to rest now.

P.S. What would your perfect nighttime routine look like if you actually gave yourself permission to have one?