As a double board-certified doctor in Sleep Medicine and Psychiatry, I thought I understood sleep completely. Then I experienced pregnancy and postpartum myself and realized how little attention we actually pay to women's unique sleep needs.

Women routinely receive generic sleep advice that ignores how hormones, menstrual cycles, and major life transitions affect sleep. Despite clear research linking women's hormones to sleep quality, most women never learn these connections.

Too often the sleep challenges go untreated and women are told their insomnia is "just stress," that restless nights during pregnancy are "a part of being pregnant," or that frequent night wakings are "normal aging" when there are specific, treatable causes.

I'm building Sleep for Women because women deserve to understand why and how sleep is disrupted during different life phases and what actually works to address those challenges. Every woman deserves sleep solutions that work for her body and stage of life!

Professional background:

Dr. Oehlke completed her undergraduate training at Cornell University in Biology with magna cum laude honors and finished her medical school training at Albany Medical College. She subsequently pursued a psychiatry residency at the University of Vermont Medical Center where she served as Chief Resident and discovered a passion for the intricate connection between sleep and mental health. She completed her Sleep Medicine Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Oehlke has written a book chapter on insomnia and is published in the insomnia literature and taught at University of Vermont and Dartmouth University. She has presented at sleep conferences on sleep and mental health. In her free time, Dr. Oehlke enjoys spending time with her family and dogs as well as being outdoors. She is an avid runner and has completed five Boston Marathons.