Today we’d like to introduce you to Funke Afolabi-Brown.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was a high-achieving physician, Penn-trained, board-certified in three specialties, building what looked from the outside like a dream academic career, and by every traditional standard, I had “made it.”
But at home, I was exhausted. As a woman in midlife and a mom of two, juggling the demands of life and academia, I started experiencing the kind of bone-deep fatigue that most often gets attributed to stress but is related to perimenopause changes.
I knew enough about sleep science to recognize what was happening in my own body, and that knowledge helped me realize how poorly our healthcare system was set up to help women like me.
Women’s sleep issues are chronically underdiagnosed. Our symptoms present differently. Our hormonal shifts during perimenopause and menopause profoundly disrupt sleep, and we are told to push through.
I knew I needed to build something different, and I made a scary decision to leave academic medicine and open The Restful Sleep Place in Horsham, PA. It is a comprehensive sleep medicine practice built around the kind of unhurried, personalized care I wished existed when I needed it most. At my practice, there is no waitlist, no rushed appointments, and a physician who actually listens.
Today I see children and adults, with a special focus on women navigating midlife, specifically perimenopause and menopause.
I’m also a bestselling author of Beyond Tired and a national speaker, because I believe the conversation about women and sleep needs to be louder, in doctors’ offices, boardrooms, and living rooms alike.
I built the practice I needed. And every day, I get to offer it to someone else who needs it too. This has given me so much joy, and I wake up daily to serve with so much gratitude
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been smooth, but has it been worth it? Absolutely.
Leaving a prestigious academic position with a guaranteed salary, institutional support, and a built-in referral network to launch a cash-pay private practice from scratch with two kids at home is not something anyone prepares you for in medical school. Or fellowship. Or anywhere, really.
Physicians are trained to be clinicians. Nobody teaches us how to be CEOs or business owners.
I have had several struggles, starting with Imposter syndrome, which does not disappear when you have three board certifications and a Penn degree. I have had to learn to separate my identity from my institution. That took longer than I expected.
Building a patient base without the safety net of a hospital referral stream, learning marketing and putting myself “out there”, operations, and business finances were things I had never been trained in.
I have had to learn how to communicate the value of cash-pay medicine to patients who had spent their entire lives navigating insurance-based care.
There is also the constant question of whether this will work, which I deal with daily.
Every time someone walked out of my office with a real answer and a real plan, I remembered exactly why I chose this path, and it is all so worth it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Restful Sleep Place ?
The Restful Sleep Place is a concierge sleep medicine practice in Horsham, PA, and it is unlike anything most people have experienced in a doctor’s office.
I see both children and adults, but my deepest passion is women in midlife. Perimenopause and menopause are among the most disruptive seasons of a woman’s sleep life, and yet they remain among the most underdiscussed in mainstream medicine. I built this practice specifically to be the place where women finally get answers instead of dismissals.
What we do differently
Most sleep medicine practices have waitlists lasting weeks or months. We are a direct care practice, which means we can see patients very quickly because I believe that when you’re exhausted and struggling, you shouldn’t have to wait. Our visits are never rushed through a fifteen-minute appointment. We make sure people feel seen. Every patient has my full attention, unhurried visits, and a care plan built around their actual life, not a billing code.
We offer comprehensive diagnostic and treatment services for the full spectrum of sleep disorders for children and adults, including insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs, circadian rhythm disorders, and complex sleep disruptions. We provide home sleep studies with results in under two weeks
What I’m known for:
I am triple board-certified, which means I bring that depth of clinical expertise into every patient encounter. But I’m equally known for something that can’t be credentialed, which is to make people feel genuinely heard. This has always been my superpower.
I’m also the bestselling author of *Beyond Tired*, a book I wrote because the conversation about sleep in children. I speak nationally and internationally on sleep health, women’s wellness, and the science behind it, because I believe education is its own form of medicine. I have my own YouTube channel where I share evidence-based information on sleep!
What I’m most proud of:
Honestly? The trust. When someone chooses my practice, they are making a significant investment, financially and emotionally. They are betting that this will be different, and I take that seriously every single day. The messages I receive from patients who finally slept through the night after years of struggling, the mothers who tell me their child is thriving in school now that their sleep is addressed, and the women in their forties and fifties who say they feel like themselves again are what I am most proud of.
What I want readers to know:
You don’t have to keep pushing through. You don’t have to settle for “that’s just part of getting older” or “have you tried melatonin?” There is real science behind what you’re experiencing, and there are real solutions. The Restful Sleep Place exists because I needed it, and because so many of you do too.
We are located in Horsham, PA, and we see patients in person and virtually.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Courage to trust the quiet voice.
There is a loud voice that often tells you to stay in the lane you were assigned. Don’t disrupt what’s working, and for a long time, I listened to that voice. It took me far.
But it was the quieter voice that said *this isn’t enough, there’s something more aligned with who you are*, that took me further.
Be able to bet on yourself even when it feels hard.
Raising two children while building a business also teaches you to solve problems with whatever you have, to find patience when you’re depleted, and to keep showing up even when the outcomes are uncertain.
My children have made me a better physician and a better entrepreneur than any training program ever could.
But if I had to distill it to one thing: I don’t quit on ideas that matter. And rest, real, restorative rest matters more than most people realize.
https://www.therestfulsleepplace.com/
Pricing:
- $500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.therestfulsleepplace.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restfulsleepmd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funke.afolabibrown/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drfunkebrown/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@restfulsleepmd?si=JcJlmTJDlqCwXbRn
