Peloton has long been known as more than just a cycling platform, but its latest series is dedicated to an often-overlooked facet of health: sleep. Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts, a yoga and meditation instructor at Peloton, has created “7 Days to Better Sleep,” a series dedicated to improving sleep through mindfulness. Athletech News spoke to Dr. Roberts about the series, best practices for mindfulness and how Peloton evolves its offerings according to user needs.
“I’m a former school teacher, and so I taught third grade,” Roberts told ATN. “Sleep has been essential and also a challenge throughout my life and the roles that I’ve played. I started practicing yoga in my first year of teaching school, right after graduating from Spelman College. I was really challenged—it was hard. I worked in a Title I school where the majority of the community lived below the poverty line, which presented a lot of challenges day to day. I remember having an extremely hard time going to sleep and then having to wake up early, feeling really depleted.”
Dr. Roberts’ issues with sleep led her to explore yoga and meditation for stress relief. After realizing their profound impact on her well-being, she began to integrate mindfulness into the classroom. She eventually pursued a Ph.D. at Emory University, focusing on how yoga impacts learning and cognitive processing in teenage girls. Today, Roberts is bringing these insights to Peloton’s global community.
“As a new mother of a two-year-old, seeing my son experience things for the first time reminds me that I can still experience things for the first time,” she said. “That’s the lens I use when I talk about yoga and meditation. For the adult who thinks that life doesn’t get exciting anymore, step into yoga and meditation and I guarantee you’re going to have a completely different journey because it heightens our awareness just about life in general.”
Peloton’s Sleep Series meditation program extends the platform’s holistic approach to fitness and wellness. “Sleep meditation is a unique entry point for the yoga and meditation instructors to share how this can add to and enhance your workouts,” Roberts said.
When designing the Sleep Series, Roberts focused on mindfulness techniques that would keep people present. “Oftentimes, that’s the hardest thing about a meditation practice. The number one thing people say is, ‘I can’t turn my mind off.’ Well, fair, because we’re not robots,” she said. “Instead, I encourage people to be with their thoughts and understand their responses when those thoughts come up. Breathwork, visualization and body scans—these techniques offer something for the practitioner to hold onto. It can be scary when you’re left with your thoughts. I may have been doing this for decades, but I will always remember the first time I meditated and I was a little scared.”
For those struggling to establish a meditation practice, Roberts advised starting small. “What I love about our series is that these are 10-minute increments. It’s not a heavy lift. It’s not like this huge time commitment. And honestly, you’ll probably drift off to sleep before you get to the end of the 10 minutes,” she said. “I tell people, start small—maybe you build up to that 30-minute sleep meditation, but you’ll probably go to sleep sooner than that.”
Consistency and self-compassion can also go a long way. “Let go of perfection,” Roberts encouraged. “My meditation may look like closing my eyes, plugging my airplane mode on and doing a daily meditation on the subway. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be practiced.”
For fitness-focused individuals who may overlook the importance of meditation and mindfulness, Roberts encourages an open-minded approach. “Get creative, get curious, get excited,” She added. “We also have walking meditations. Maybe you’re like, ‘No, I need to move, I can’t be in complete quiet.’ Start with a walking meditation. Start with a soft gaze. You don’t have to completely close your eyes. Meditation isn’t something that should only happen when you’re on vacation in Bali. Why not create those moments of retreat, those moments of self-care, throughout your day?”
Roberts sees meditation as an essential tool for longevity and well-being. “Aging used to be something that I was afraid of, or it was just so unknown,” She said. “Now I’m excited about it, especially because I’m learning more about the tools that support me in that process. And I cannot stress enough how essential rest and recovery can be in our process of aging. The sooner we start to integrate those healthy habits when it comes to our sleep hygiene, the more complete we will be in how we show up in the world.”
