Member Article

The better your sleep - the better your business will be.

How is your sleep? Do you sleep well or wake up feeling like you need at least another hour. Do you work shifts and struggle to get into a good sleep pattern? Almost 1 in 5 people in the UK aren’t getting enough sleep and visit the doctor for help. However, most GP’s will tell you they are not trained in the specifics of sleep. Many turn to sleep therapists to support their patients.

A lack of sleep can either be the cause or effect of poor mental health and stress triggers. For example many of us are feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis. Statistics say that 25% of adults in the UK cite money worries as negatively impacting their sleep. Sleep Expert Kerry Davies AKA The Sleep Fixer works with children and adults from 1 year old to 100 years old. However, a large part of the former nurses work is working with business owners and professionals to regulate their sleep or help them to find patterns that work for them. “I work with global companies who have executives working in a different time zone to the one they live in. For one particular case the person had to start work at 2pm GMT and again at 8pm GMT. Their sleep pattern was unique in that it was purposefully broken. We worked at ways to ensure the sleep they did get either side was quality sleep. I also work with companies who bring me into deal with any wellbeing or stress issues their employees might be facing. I am seeing more cases than ever before with adults struggling with sleep due to stress and mental health problems. “

As a nurse Kerry worked specifically in the mental health sector and through her caseload began to see the pattern between poor sleep and poor mental health. “I knew that it was an area I could make a difference in mainly because I had also struggled with sleep when my relationship broke down. As a nurse I started reading up on sleep and decided to learn more.” Kerry then set up her company “The Sleep Fixer”. Sleep therapists are expensive to access in many cases and Kerry is determined that she offer an affordable service. Kerry says that often those families or people that really need it are the ones least able to afford private sleep therapy. She even has free resources with tips we can all follow if we are struggling with sleep.

“Sleep impacts every single area of your life. For example it can affect our moods and the ability to do our job, it can affect our parenting, our driving, decision making and our speech amongst other things. Statistics have risen. 13 years ago 23% of people said they suffered from poor sleep now that figure stands at 40%. I believe it is an epidemic and needs to be addressed. I think if we can raise awareness of the very real link between poor sleep and poor mental health perhaps we could take the pressure off the NHS.”

Kerry has these tips for better sleep if you are stressed:

• Keep waking up times the same each day. 
• Make sure you exposure yourself to natural daylight. So sit by a sunny window, get out in the garden. This will boost mood and surpress the sleep hormone melatonin during the day.
• Take some form of exercise each day - even if it is just a walk.
• Take regular breaks at work.
• Keep regular meal times, this helps to stabilise the circadian rhythm.
• Try to avoid work at least 2 hours before sleep 
• Do something that you find relaxing in the hour before bed 
• Darken your environment an hour before the time in which you fall to sleep to increase melatonin production, making sleep come more easily 
• Gray scale is a really simple hack you can use on your phone making it black and white and less appealing!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Hood .