Chatting With Cobie Smulders on Clean Living and Quality Sleep

When Cobie Smulders talks about health, she isn’t selling a routine. A cancer diagnosis in her twenties changed everything for the How I Met Your Mother and MARVEL star, forcing her to slow down and listen to her body in a new way. Smulders has since become an advocate for “becoming aware of our bodies and how we tend to them,” as she put it. It’s that perspective that shapes the choices she makes for her health and her home, and it’s that perspective that led her to Naturepedic.

Note: This blog may contain links to Naturepedic products and promotional content where relevant to the topic discussed.

A: Being diagnosed with cancer at such a young age shifted how I view health and wellness on a foundational level. 

In my twenties I was figuring out how to cobble together living on my own, pretending to be a grown-up, not thinking long term about my body’s health. Being faced with such a physical challenge early on suddenly forced me to address how I cared for my body. For the first time, I wondered, “How are the things I am doing every day affecting my long-term health? Are there changes I can make to my everyday lifestyle that will make me healthier not just now but for years to come?” That shift in awareness has guided so many choices since then.

A: My mother was always very health conscious. She fed us whole foods and tried to limit excess sugars and chemicals in our diets, so I was always generally aware of the foundations of a healthy lifestyle. And so much of my life as a kid in Vancouver was spent in nature and in the parks and waters that surround the city. Our day-to-day mindset was guided by taking care of the Earth and lightening our negative impact on the planet. What I’m getting at is that perhaps I grew up with an “organic” approach to life without even knowing it? 

As the world has modernized, even throughout my own life, production of everyday items has increased dramatically and become more about quantity rather than quality, which often results in harmful chemicals being added to items we use on our bodies and in our homes as cheap shortcuts to quality materials. 

Today, so many of the things we use – from food to cleaning supplies – have changed in ways we don’t always notice. Unless you’re purposefully paying attention, it’s so easy to overlook that a product you use every day might now include plastics or preservatives that were never part of the original recipe.

I try to make small, everyday changes that aren’t a huge financial lift and feel like something my family and I can sustain. What items are we using every day over and over again? What matters most? It’s not about one big massive organic health sweep to every corner of our lives, but rather becoming aware and making changes where and when we can.

A: I think it’s best to look at your life, and start by changing the things you come into close contact with daily. What touches your skin every day? What do you eat regularly? What do you wash your clothes or dishes with?

My advice would be to go to a local farmers market where you can purchase organically grown, affordable produce that supports your community. And since we spend a massive portion of our lives in bed, ensuring that space is fully organic is another change you can make that impacts you positively every day.

A: I learned the importance of sleep when I had my first child. It was all I wanted to do, and it’s what my body desperately needed. I think women are recommended to get 10 hours of sleep a night. A girl can dream!

Getting the restorative rest your body needs is vital to good health. Finding the time to sleep is one thing, but convincing your body to wind down is another. Restlessness and convincing my brain to calm is always a struggle. Especially traveling for work and being in new places quite often, it can be unsteadying. 

My best recipe to getting a good night’s sleep involves not eating too closely to bedtime, avoiding electronics and the blue light of screens, and trying to read before bed to calm my nervous system. We do so much to take care of our bodies. Exercise. Eat healthily. Breathe deeply. Try to live organically. But sleep is the most powerful throughline.

A: When you start to assess what is organic and what isn’t, it opens your eyes to how many of our everyday products are filled with insane levels of chemicals. 

So many products that we use every day are packaged so beautifully and look so safe, but when you start looking into things, harmful chemicals are often a foundational ingredient. 

There are great apps that help you assess what level of “clean” or “dirty” a product is. I love using scales like this to assess why something isn’t “clean” and if it’s worth making a change, as it’s a much more approachable way to cleaning up your lifestyle. It’s all about making affordable, sustainable changes.

A: I learned about Naturpedic when I was researching organic mattress options for our home. I was having a hard time finding fully organic bedding options. Naturpedic’s dedication to making not only 100% organic mattresses but also organic bedding and pillows was our perfect one stop shop.

Committing to fully organic bedding and mattresses was a priority for my family. Like I said earlier, we spend so much of our lives in bed. That’s so much time that our bodies are consistently exposed to our mattresses and bedding. Committing to making the space fully organic was an easy choice. 

Plus, everyone in our family has very different mattress requests, not too soft, not too firm – it's very Goldilocks! Because everyone needs something different for their body, Naturepedic’s customizable options were amazing. 

A: Awareness is everything. Once you start noticing what you put in and around your body, you can’t unsee it – and that’s a good thing. I try to approach it with curiosity, not guilt. We all do what we can, when we can.

At the end of the day, it’s about being kind to your body and the planet. And small, mindful choices add up.

For Smulders, living well is less about rigid rules and more about intentional choices. It’s about being curious, staying grounded, and finding peace – peace in quiet moments, in conscious swaps, in nights of restorative rest. 

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Our organic mattresses and bedding help Smulders and her family rest easier.

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