HOW TO REST EASY

Founder of Neom and wellness expert Nicola Elliott shares the golden rules for making sure you get a great night’s sleep that will allow you to feel your best for the working day ahead

We all know what a big impact sleep (too much or too little) can have on us. Sleep disturbances can affect our health – increasing the risk of cancer, depression and heart problems – and when it comes to work, sleep deprivation can be a strong inhibitor of job performance, primarily by deteriorating mood and affect.

Good sleep conversely leads to improved memory, knowledge acquisition and earning. We did a survey at the end of last year with our database of over 1 million people to get a better understanding of sleep habits and the results were pretty grim; 90 per cent of respondents said they wished for better sleep as poor sleep is the absolute enemy of a good day ahead.

Not surprising then that a lack of sleep can have a knock-on effect on career progression and can increase absenteeism, work-related accidents and behaviours. The good news is that while the majority of people think they are just innately “good” or “bad” sleepers, this simply isn’t true; we have a material charge over our sleep.