Portrait of Rachel Stanton, JavaSleep contributor
JavaSleep Contributor

Rachel Stanton

47 pieces published
A close-up photorealistic shot of a printed sleep study report resting on a dark…
Sleep Apnea June 2026 · 6 min

Sleep Apnea Severity Is a Number — and the Number Is Stranger Than It Looks

There is a number on your sleep study, and it probably has a decimal point. Maybe it says 27.4. Maybe 8.1, or 62.0.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
Close-up photograph of a person lying in bed at dawn, viewed from above, with…
CPAP June 2026 · 9 min

Your CPAP Still Shows Apneas. That Doesn't Mean Your Sleep Apnea Treatment Failed

There is a small ritual that almost every CPAP user develops in the first week. You wake up, you pull the mask off, and before you've fully decided to be awake, your thumb is on the phone, opening the…

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A close-up still life of a single glass of warm milk resting on a…
Melatonin May 2026 · 10 min

Sleep Nutrition: What the Food-and-Sleep Evidence Actually Supports

A glass of warm milk before bed is supposed to work because milk contains tryptophan, the amino acid your body turns into the sleep hormone melatonin.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A photorealistic close-up of a small home sleep apnea test kit laid out on…
Sleep Apnea May 2026 · 9 min

I Did Both: A Home Test and a Sleep Lab for the Same Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

The advice you'll hear, from forums and increasingly from physicians themselves, is sensible: start with a home test.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
Close-up still life photograph of a home sleep apnea test kit arranged on a…
CPAP May 2026 · 4 min

After a Sleep Apnea Diagnosis: What the First Month Actually Looks Like

The home sleep test arrived in a padded envelope: a finger probe, a chest strap, a small recorder with a nasal cannula coiled like a question mark. I wore it for one night.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A dimly lit bedroom at 4 a.m., a middle-aged man lying awake on his…
Sleep Apnea May 2026 · 10 min

Depression and Sleep: The Case for Checking Your Breathing First

A meaningful fraction of what gets diagnosed as treatment-resistant depression isn't depression in the clean clinical sense. It's a breathing problem wearing depression's clothes.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A close-up photorealistic photograph of a single glass vaccine vial standing upright on a…
Me/cfs May 2026 · 5 min

Does Vaccination Help With Long-COVID? A First-Person Trial of the Evidence

A friend with eighteen months of post-viral fatigue told me, the week before my fourth dose, that I was making a mistake.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A photorealistic overhead shot of a person lying awake in bed at 2 a.m…
CBT-I May 2026 · 6 min

Fear and Sleep: Why Your Nervous System Won't Let You Rest, and What Actually Helps

The advice you've been given is some version of: relax, breathe, put your phone down, keep the bedroom cool. It is not wrong. It is just thin.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →
A dimly lit bedroom photographed at 3 a.m., a person lying on their left…
Gerd May 2026 · 9 min

GERD and Sleep: What the Left-Side Rule Actually Gets Right

You have probably read, somewhere reputable-sounding, that sleeping on your left side cuts nighttime acid reflux by something like a third.

By Rachel Stanton · Read →