Dr. Val Cacho (a.k.a. Dr. Val) knows the critical role sleep plays during menopause transition. A board-certified internal and sleep medicine doctor, she started her sleep consulting practice, Sleephoria, in 2021 after seeing an increase in menopausal women struggling with sleep coming to her clinical practice.
“As women, our hormones can affect everything such as our mood, energy levels, and yes, even our sleep; but what I want women to know is that there are ways to improve this.”
What began as a mere passion project of time for Dr. Val has grown into an online educational program available to women all across the globe.
Her mission is to empower women in and around menopause to get a natural, peaceful night’s sleep. She leverages her extensive professional background in internal, sleep, and integrative medicine to help her clients improve their sleep, so they wake up feeling rested, restored, and renewed with energy.
The sleep/menopause connection
Due to hormonal fluctuations, namely a decrease in estrogen, insomnia and sleep problems are common occurrences during menopause transition. The drop in estrogen and factors like anxiety and night sweats contribute to sleep disturbance.
Through Dr. Val’s programs, clients learn about sleep from both a scientific and psychological standpoint and how the lack of sleep and poor sleep quality can severely impact our everyday lives when combined with fluctuating hormones.
“I believe the best way to see improvement is through action and accountability. I offer my clients a range of research-based tools to help keep them on track with their sleep goals.”
While she only received two hours of lecture about sleep in medical school, over the years, Dr. Val has cultivated the credentials and a depth of experience to help and support women reclaim the quality sleep they need – and deserve.
After graduating from medical school at Loma Linda University in CA in 2009, she completed a three-year internal medicine residency. She later participated in a one-year sleep fellowship and went on to complete a two-year online program for integrative medicine through the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.
“In 2017, I was running a sleep lab in Hawaii. I wasn’t focused specifically on treating menopausal women. Still, it was apparent that the women coming to my clinic for difficulty with sleep were managing a lot of stress. Many were also dealing with anxiety.”
Dr. Val knows that cultural norms can also prevent women from seeking (or expecting) optimal care and treatment for their health concerns.
Filipina-American, Dr. Val was born and raised in California. She didn’t grow up hearing or learning about women’s reproductive health – whether about getting her period and what to expect, her mother’s hysterectomy when Dr. Val was in high school, or her aunt constantly fanning herself as she got older. Culturally, her family just didn’t talk openly about their health concerns.
She says that in Hawaii, due to psychosocial factors and cultural norms that emphasize multigenerational living and support, women often take care of their kids and their parents while working outside the home and experiencing their own health issues. So it was no surprise to Dr. Val that many women coming to her clinical practice were also of perimenopausal age or in the early years of post-menopause.
As a result, she started to get more in tune with women going through this period of transition in their lives. She became focused on what she could do to help women going through perimenopause and those who were postmenopausal.
The end of exhaustion through better sleep
Dr. Val is currently based in California and licensed to practice medicine in Hawaii and California. She runs an integrative sleep medicine practice where she treats a range of patients (not just menopausal women) struggling with sleep problems. Trained in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and clinical hypnotherapy, she says there are three main sleep conditions in which she specializes: obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and hypersomnia or “narcolepsy”.
In addition to running an integrative sleep practice, she launched Sleephoria last year so that she could help more people beyond the limitations of her clinical practice. Through this virtual practice, she works with women one-on-one, providing education, resources, exercises, and techniques designed to shift their behaviors, practices, and mindsets related to sleep. She’s also able to channel her growing passion for helping women around the world “be less exhausted”. And she works against the common myth that it’s just about “good sleep hygiene”.
“By the time you go see a specialist about your sleep, you’ve likely learned all about sleep hygiene practices. So honestly, it’s not about sleep hygiene when patients see me. They already know they’ve got to turn their phones off. They know they need to exercise.”
She says that reframing our thoughts about sleep is necessary to successfully master good, consistent sleep practices over time.
“A lot of what I do is to help them repair the broken relationship they have with their sleep. Many people can lose confidence in their ability to sleep and believe that quality sleep is impossible for them. I let them know that sleep is an inborn process. I help nurture that natural process and reinforce that sleep is innate and we can reprogram our minds. I like to use a lot of computer analogies, so it’s like there’s sleep software built within you that’s fostered as you’re growing up. And then, BOOM, you’re an adult, and life happens…I call that life malware.”
According to Dr. Val, forty to sixty percent of women going through perimenopause have difficulty with sleep.
“Women have higher rates of obstructive sleep apnea as we lose estrogen and progesterone. That’s a very, very common reason, I think, why a lot of women have difficulty sleeping. It’s under diagnosed. Some research shows up to 90% of women probably have it and just haven’t been screened.”
She adds that as we age, we can develop conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, which can disrupt our sleep, as can the medications we take for these conditions.
“So, a woman can go to their doctor, say that they’re tired, and they’ll be sent to a therapist and have their thyroid checked, versus a man will go in, and we’ll get a sleep study. There’s that sort of bias that’s going on too.”
A global vision for better sleep
In addition to one-on-one coaching, later this month she’ll launch the Serene Sleep Solution Program, a 4-week program designed to help us understand how our sleep is disrupted by hormonal fluctuations and life dynamics that are typical during menopause transition. There are three options for the program:
1) independent study of the online modules on the Sleephoria website;
2) weekly hour-long group coaching in addition
to the online modules; or
3) 1:1 coaching in addition to the modules.
Dr. Val also does wellness consulting for leading brands and recently completed a stint as an official sleep guide for AthletaWell, Atheta’s online community for women’s health and wellness.
A young company, most of Sleephoria’s clients are based in the US. Still, Dr. Val is actively working to build an international following. She works as a sleep advisor for UK-based Perimenopause Hub and has made contacts in India and Australia. Through these connections, Dr. Val knows there are women all across the globe who could benefit from learning how to optimize their sleep during this time of transition. She wants to help women in menopause transition worldwide end their exhaustion by getting better sleep.
Through her clinical practice, the Sleephoria platform, and her consulting and speaking engagements, Dr. Val has a personal and professional BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) to reach 5 million women with educational information about improving their sleep.
“Now, that would make an impact,” she says.
Are you ready to experience that perfect (for you) night of sleep? Let Dr. Val be your guide to better sleep. Sign up for the Serene Sleep Solution Program, including 1:1 counseling, at www.sleephoria.health. You can also follow Dr. Val on Instagram @sleephoria.health.
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