About Yolanda

Yolanda Achebe-Forster came to What’s The Best Report from Sleep Foundation, where she spent four years writing about consumer sleep technology, circadian rhythm research, and the line between “this device measured something” and “this device measured what you think it measured.” That distinction — measurement versus inference — is the one she enforces on every sleep-tech verdict that goes out under our masthead.

She holds an MA in Health Communication from Johns Hopkins’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, completed a Certified Sleep Science Coach program in 2019, and has personally pulled apart the firmware-side claims of every consumer sleep device sold in the United States in the last four years. If a sleep tracker says it measures sleep stages, she has read the validation paper. If there is no validation paper, she will tell you that.

Credentials in detail

• MA, Health Communication — Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health (2017)
• BA, Communications — Howard University (2014)
• CSSC (Certified Sleep Science Coach), Spencer Institute, 2019
• Associate Member: American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Pre-publication work

Sleep Foundation, 2021–2025: writer (2021–2023), senior writer (2023–2025). Yolanda’s beat covered consumer sleep tracking, circadian-rhythm research for shift workers and travelers, sleep-aid pharmacology, and the regulatory landscape around sleep claims in consumer devices.

Editorial focus

Yolanda writes and signs off on every sleep, meditation, and stress-management verdict on the site. She also reviews any other article that touches sleep or recovery — for instance, the smartwatch-for-runners verdict, where the wearable’s sleep claim has to be defensible. She has rejected three drafts since joining for over-claiming what a consumer sleep device can measure; that’s the gating function.

Conflicts of interest

Yolanda maintains no affiliate accounts. She has accepted no payment, equipment, or sponsorship from any sleep-device manufacturer or wellness-app company in the past three years. She has occasionally received unsolicited review units, which she returns or donates without writing about.

Recent work

Authored

• What's the Best Meditation App? · Mar 7, 2026
• What's the Best Sleep Tracker for Shift Workers? · Sep 21, 2025