Jamie Lynn Sigler's 'Old Woman' Taste in Morning Music and the Sweet Way She Wakes Up Her Kids (Exclusive)

Eileen FinanWed, July 1, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC

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Jamie Lynn Sigler in MayCredit: Gary Gershoff/Getty

Key Takeaways

Jamie Lynn Sigler says being the mom of two — and living with multiple sclerosis — means she needs to carve out time for a quiet, calm morning ritual

The Sopranos actress, whose new memoir And So It Is... is out now, moved with her family from L.A. to Austin, Texas, in 2021

Sigler shares her AM routine for PEOPLE's My Good Morning series

In 2021 Jamie Lynn Sigler moved with her family from L.A. to Austin, Texas, for a quieter life out of the spotlight.

Despite no longer being a full-time L.A. resident, Sigler has stayed busy in Hollywood with a recent guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy as a urologist who, like Sigler herself, lives with multiple sclerosis. She'll also be joining season three of the Netflix sitcom Tires, premiering Aug. 13.The Sopranosactress, whose new book And So It Is...: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope is out now, says she cherishes the everyday routine she has at home in Austin with sons Beau, 12, and Jack, 8, and husband Cutter Dykstra. She shares her morning ritual with PEOPLE for our My Good Morning series.

My inner body clock gets me up naturally at 6.  I don't have to get kids up and ready for school until 6:30. My husband is not a morning person. It takes him a long time to get up and moving. So that's kind of my time.

Sigler with husband Cutter Dykstra and sons Beau and Jack in 2023Credit: courtesy Jamie Lynn Sigler

I immediately reach for my phone for an app I have called “A Course in Miracles." It just sort of sets my mind right and gives me an intention for the day of how to view the world. I'll close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths and center myself.

I have to consider my multiple sclerosis every minute of my day [Sigler, 45, was diagnosed with MS when she was 20], so taking that time is good for my body. When my nervous system is in a calm state, I move better, my body functions better.

The first thing I do every morning is tongue scrape and brush my teeth! I hate the feeling of not having a fresh mouth. I used a copper tongue scraper and Boka toothpaste. It has all-natural ingredients.

Copper tongue scraper

I used to be a person that would put the TV on. But that's a hard way to wake up now. Nobody wants what's happening in the world now to enter their life. Since moving to Austin and since COVID, I’ve needed to take a step back from the noise. We started having music on all the time as opposed to the TV.

I’m like an old woman at heart. I love the Blend station on Sirius XM. It's basically yacht rock. Give me some Michael McDonald or Lionel Richie in the morning! “Dancing on the Ceiling” gets me into the groove.  I think growing up in the '80s and early '90s, this is the music of my youth and a music of a simpler time for me.

Lionel Richie's 1986 hit "Dancing on the Ceiling"

I have a warm glass of water with lemon. TMI, but I have found that's helped me stay very regular! It gets the digestion going.  The only mug I use has a picture of my beloved grandmother, Mima, on it. She lived till 103, and she always used to love how, on the Today show, they would do the Smucker's thing where they'd say, "Happy birthday, you're a hundred' 'You're 101.' " When I was a guest on the show once when Mima was still alive — I think she was turning 102 — they made her a Smucker's picture on a mug, and so that's my Mima mug.

Sigler with her grandmother in 2023

We have a Jura coffee maker. I got it for my husband for Christmas a few years ago because he is a coffee snob. It's fresh beans, grinds it right there. I make a cup of coffee with warm whole milk and maple syrup.

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I will usually open my laptop then and read emails because I'm a person that puts my phone down at 7:30, 8 p.m., and doesn't look at it again until the morning. I'm two hours ahead of L.A., so I check if there are any emails I've missed or any texts, anything I need to address before I get distracted.

At 6:30 I'm waking up Jack. I have to always enter through his bathroom and put the light on there because he doesn't like to be startled when he wakes up. He's like his dad. Mornings are not his friend. I'll pick out his clothes and lay them out on the floor because I've learned the hard way, if I don't do that, we're always late.

My kids both have fruit before their breakfast - peach, banana, strawberries, whatever. He tells me the fruit he wants. I'll go cut it up, put it on Jack's little place mat and then I'll start making everyone's lunches and snacks for the day. I usually give Jack whatever is left over from dinner the night before for lunch. He prefers pasta. And for a snack I'll usually throw a couple of bell peppers and maybe a little mandarin orange and then give him a Clif bar, a granola bar, whatever. Beau is a creature of habit and wants a turkey sandwich every day with some kind of fruit.

I started leaving this little bowl on my kitchen counter of books like Dogman and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jack will pick them up and read while eating his breakfast. If I suggested reading, it would be a hard no, but he picked up that habit, which has been wonderful.

Then I wake up Beau. I just open his window and he takes a minute. He’s a shower-in-the morning type of guy. He's almost 13 so he's self-sufficient. He wears the same four things. I don't even know why I buy him clothing. He wears the T-shirt of his baseball team and black or red shorts to go with it every day.By that point, Cutter is awake and he's had his black coffee and drives Jack to school. Cutter and I really don't speak until later in the day. We have different energies in the morning. I'm like ‘Go!’ and he is slow. In the mornings it’s a total tag team. Nighttime is our time to catch up.

Beau likes dinner food for breakfast. They love it when I just make ground beef and white rice, so he'll literally eat that. I also sometimes get this frozen bread delivery from a company called Wild Grain. They have these croissants, you put in the oven for 20 minutes and they taste like you're at a French bakery.

I have to work out in the morning. If I don't, I just won't do it. With MS, working out for me is not the same as for everybody else. It means going to the little gym we've created in our house, getting a good stretch in, doing my PT exercises. Every Monday, my two best friends who also live in Austin with me, the three of us meet at my little home gym and we have a trainer and we work out every Monday morning at 9 a.m., which is just like girl time, catch-up time, but also kicking the week off, making sure that we're paying attention to our bodies.

I put so much product on my face at night, so in the morning, I'll just put some moisturizer on. I love the YSE Molly Sims brand. She has a primer with SPF that’s a tinted moisturizer and makes your skin glowy and beautiful and sun protected, which is great in Texas where the sun is strong.

I’m not a breakfast person but post-workout I'll either make my own meal, or I live right next door to a SunLife Organics so I'll get a $37 “Million Dollar” smoothie. They take all of my money, but it's so good. Their smoothies are like meals. It's filled with so much good stuff and you can customize it how you like it.

If I don't get a smoothie, I have this weird little salad morning thing I'll make. I'll cut up apple, bell pepper, cucumber, and feta cheese, and then I'll make a little dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. On the side I'll have cottage cheese, cut up tomatoes, olive oil. My girlfriend Anastasia's has a company called Fancy Peasant and she has an oregano mountain sea salt that I'll put on that. I feel like I'm getting some fresh fruits and vegetables, some good healthy fats, protein.

I treasure my time in the morning, especially being awake before the rest of my house. I really find that if I don't get my 30 minutes of alone time, I'm just a little less patient, maybe I have a little more anxiety throughout the day, And I highly recommend a morning practice for anyone. It doesn't have to be complicated. I close my eyes and say, "Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say, and to whom?" It reminds me of how I like to walk through the world and helps me enter into the day feeling like I'm contributing goodness into the world. It makes me feel very alive and connected in ways that I didn't for so many years of my life.

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