The Sleeping Pill That Sent My Mom to Rehab Was Prescribed to Me! | Lauren Sudeyko

21 Oct 2026 · 1 h 04 min

Episode The Sleeping Pill That Sent My Mom to Rehab Was Prescribed to Me! | Lauren Sudeyko

0:00 1:03:50

You do everything right. The blackout curtains, the tracker, the supplements, the cold room. And you still wake up exhausted, check your sleep score, and somehow feel even worse.

I know, because I started performing sleep instead of actually sleeping. Nobody tells you that part.

I found Lauren Sudellko because a cherry-red box that looked like a pack of cigarettes stopped me mid-scroll. It turned out to be a sleep aid. I took it on a red-eye to Paris, it worked, and Gary and I wrote a check that same afternoon. Full transparency, we're now proud investors in Sleep or Die.

But the reason I wanted her on Not Alone has nothing to do with the box. Lauren grew up watching her mom rely on prescription sleeping pills, which turned into an addiction and a few painful rehab stays. In her mid-20s, after a concussion, her own doctor handed her the very same pill. She looked at it and saw her future.

Here's what I actually think. Women aren't sleeping, and the things we reach for to fix it are quietly making it worse. Every woman Lauren asked was taking something. One had been on Advil PM every night for two years.

Sleep is the only thing you can't white-knuckle your way through. Which is wild, because white-knuckling is the one thing most of us are really good at.

We got into sleepmaxxing and why optimizing your sleep can be the thing that ruins it, the melatonin myth, and whether we've made being tired a personality trait. There's also a strip club story. I did not make the rules.

And then Lauren got emotional, which neither of us saw coming. We talked about chasing her parents' approval all the way to Google, feeling empty once she got there, and the LinkedIn post that ended her corporate self.

This one is for the woman who hasn't slept properly in years and quietly ran out of things to try. And for anyone with an idea she can't stop thinking about.

If this is you, tell me in the comments. And if it helped, subscribe, that's what tells the algorithm to bring more women like you here.

Follow Lauren & Sleep or Die:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haveyouslept/

Substack (Sleep or Die Diaries): https://laurensudeyko.substack.com/

Shop Sleep or Die: https://sleep-or-die.com/

Follow Valeria:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetsky/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valeria.lipovetsky

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerialipovetskyblog

Follow Not Alone:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notalonepod/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notalone.pod

Podcast: https://www.notalonepod.com/

Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/valerialipovetsky

What we talked about:

0:00 – Trailer

1:33 – Meet Lauren Sudeyko

3:05 – What is sleepmaxxing?

4:12 – How Valeria found Sleep or Die

6:13 – Lauren's mom and sleeping pill addiction

7:36 – Prescribed the same pill 20 years later

8:36 – Growing up with an exhausted mom

10:17 – Building a gentler sleep aid

12:07 – 1 in 3 adults can't sleep

12:51 – Why women struggle with sleep more

14:21 – Performing sleep instead of sleeping

16:41 – The melatonin myth

18:39 – What the sleep aisle gets wrong

25:05 – A world of well-rested women

27:02 – Is being tired a personality trait?

32:32 – Motherhood and sleep

36:06 – Making sleep sexy

37:26 – Sending husbands to the strip club

38:47 – Raising $1M+ as a founder

41:10 – Fear vs. gut instinct

44:35 – The Jay Shetty story

47:03 – Letting go of approval

50:23 – Raising money is like dating

55:54 – The LinkedIn post that changed everything

59:08 – Rapid fire

1:00:23 – What women aren't saying out loud

Disclosure: Valeria and Gary Lipovetsky are investors in Sleep or Die. Some links in this description are sponsor or affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a credit or commission at no additional cost to you.

#NotAlonePodcast #ValeriaLipovetsky #Sleepmaxxing #WomensHealth #SleepOrDie

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