Singer Jewel Meets SleepBetter's Dr. Lisa Shives

Longtime visitors to SleepBetter will recall that in the summer of 2009 we worked on a great project in the town of Stephenville, Texas.  The project, called Sleep Better, Dream Bigger, charted the hopes and dreams of an entire small town.  Singer and songwriter Jewel, whose hometown is Stephenville, worked with us on the project.

Fast-forward more than two years, and we’re working with Jewel again … and we couldn’t be happier.  This past July, our friend gave birth to her first child, Kase.  As all parents know, having a baby changes your life.  In particular, it makes it hard to get a full night’s sleep.  We decided to put Jewel on the phone with our sleep expert, Dr. Lisa Shives (The Sleep M.D.) to see if we could help.

Jewel and Kase

The conversation centered on how Jewel’s life has changed, from being on tour nearly all the time to being at home more and caring for her baby.  Jewel says she’s naturally a light sleeper who has trouble settling in for sleep because her mind is frequently working overtime.  She said, in fact, that she frequently needed sleep aids to settle down and rest while living on a tour bus.

Today, however, Jewel’s life couldn’t be much different.  She is still a light sleeper, but what is waking her now is not the roar of a tour bus engine, but the cry of a beautiful baby.  We found during the conversation that Jewel is a wealth of practical first-hand knowledge about how to get the most amount of sleep while parenting an infant.  She even worked with Dr. Shives to put together a list of tips for new mothers (view Jewel’s Sleep Better Tips for New Moms here).

Jewel says the ironic thing is that becoming a mother has in some ways helped her sleep better than in her pre-motherhood days.  She’s at home in her own bed more, and that’s the best place to rest for the night.  None of this means she’s done making music, however.  Her latest project, “The Merry Goes Round,” is a follow up album to her first in the musical series, Lullaby. This new album is full of fun story songs for both kids and adults.