Els van der Helm Sleep Consulting

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Nederland
Amsterdam
Els van der Helm Sleep Consulting

Sleep consultancy Many of us live by the slogan of “work hard, play hard”. There I combined my passion for leadership development and sleep management.

Despite the fact that science has uncovered the many ways in which sleep boosts our brain, body and spirit, most of us do not get enough sleep and our lives are suffering because of it. Our lives would be so much more effective, fulfilling, healthy and fun if our slogan instead would be “work hard, play hard, sleep hard”. It’s my personal mission to spread the message on the power of sleep and ensure sleep will be back on top of our priority list. Our sleep consultancy serves global clients (both businesses and leaders) who we help improve their performance through advice on sleep management. Our corporate programs provide personalized assessments, sleep education through tailored workshops, individual and group sleep consultations and policy recommendations to achieve improved health, leadership, effectiveness and engagement. Prior to founding Els van der Helm Consulting I worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company for over 2.5 years. I developed and facilitated training programs for both McKinsey consultants and clients. My research was published in the McKinsey Quarterly and Harvard Business Review. I extensively researched sleep prior to joining McKinsey: during my Master’s in Neurosciences I studied the effect of sleep on memory (Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences) and emotional processing (Harvard Medical School). As a Fulbright scholar I studied the effects of sleep on the brain during my PhD in Psychology (University of California Berkeley) resulting in peer-reviewed articles in Current Biology, PLoS One, Psychological Bulletin, SLEEP, PNAS and several book chapters.

25/12/2023

One thing is very wrong about my favorite Christmas movie “Home Alone”
It’s something I never thought much about until I had kids:

𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝟴 𝙖𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥.

No way!

In the movie the alarm clock doesn’t go off in the morning because of a power outage. Supposedly 4 adults and 11 children ALL sleep past 8am?

So, why is this so unlikely?

Because of the biological clocks of little children:
• They tend to be morning types.
• They wake up naturally before 8am, even more so if they’re excited about the next day.

Of course, many parents 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 their kids would sleep in on a day off! 😉

❓Anyone else wish their young children would sleep past 8am?

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💥 I’m Dr. Els van der Helm
🎤 Keynotes, training, video content, and consultancy

I write about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
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12/11/2023

Went for a morning run in pretty terrible (cold and wet) weather but have been so glad I did the rest of the day!

30/10/2023

🥁 Drumroll please… 👏🏽
🙌🏽 So excited to announce the release of our sleep rave music track!! 🎵

The first of its kind!
📻 A unique collaboration between and myself to create a sleep rave track to help people relax and get better sleep.

Where is it 🎶?
👉🏽 You can get the track by clicking on the Spotify link in the comments 👇🏽

So how should you use this track?
👇🏽 Below a step-by-step instruction.

Please note: some of this is unrelated to the track - but general sleep advice from me 😉

Step 0️⃣: Decide right now what you want your bedtime to be tonight and set an alarm ⏰ ~30 minutes beforehand to start your wind-down routine.

Step 1️⃣: Also already set your alarm ⏰ for the next morning as usual (if you need one)

Step 2️⃣: Dim the lights 🛋️ ~2-3 hours before your bedtime

Step 3️⃣: Get ready for bed with your usual wind-down routine: PJs, brushing your teeth 🪥, etc.

Step 4️⃣: The track 🎼 is 1.5 hours and I suggest you set your player to stop playing then, as the track nicely fades out.

Step 5️⃣: Once you’re ready: Press “Play” ▶️

👉🏽 If you’d like you can 🕺🏽a bit and get your groove on as it kicks off with usual sound of DJs Mr. Belt and Wezol. ⚠️ Think slow movements thought, let’s keep that heart rate down 😉

Step 6️⃣: Notice the track slowing down, and slow down your movements.

Step 7️⃣: Move to your bed 🛌🏿 and lie down, close your eyes and let yourself get carried to a relaxing place by the music. Enjoy and sleep well!

Try it out and let me know in the comments what you think of it!!

Any feedback is welcome :)

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💥 I’m Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
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🙏🏽 Thank you once more for the excellent organization and the entire team: .elektronics

23/10/2023

As much as I like to poke fun at the 5am club, there can be a time and a place for it 😉

For instance, when;
👉🏼 your jet lag helps you go to bed and wake up insanely early ⏰
👉🏼 the sun comes up at 5:15am local time ☀️
👉🏼 getting super early morning light exposure is just what you need before you fly East in a couple of days

AND, when:
👉🏼 you don’t have kids to take care of first 😅

🙋🏽‍♀️ When is waking up at 5am a good thing for you if ever?

And, maybe it’s never 🥳🥳🥳

——————————————
💥 I’m Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: 🔗 in bio

✔️

18/10/2023

Not all nights of sleep are perfect or even okay… not even for me 😅

This was me yesterday afternoon, after just 5 hours of sleep 🥱, due to a very late client event and a strong body clock that wakes me up between 6-6:30 am every day.

So what do I do on a suboptimal day like this? 👇🏽

1️⃣ Remember that all the essential stuff will be fine: I had to record some short videos and even though I was tired, it was all fine. Especially short bursts of energy can get us through almost anything on a day like this.

2️⃣ Don’t overcompensate with caffeine: Yes it’s tempting to resort to caffeine, but I know I have an early morning again tomorrow, so I want to protect my sleep quality. This is me and my decaf cappuccino. Even though I know it’s decaf, I associate the smell and taste of it with caffeine, and I enjoy this little placebo effect 😉. Maybe also time for a decaf Red Bull for the young folks??

3️⃣ Do all the simple tasks I’ve been procrastinating: These are actually perfect for a day like this, especially booking travel, paying bills, rescheduling, sending emails and short responses to questions. ⚠️Do triple-check things like dates and account numbers on a day like this 😉

👉🏽 The best thing though? A nap!

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible in my schedule, but it’s normally hands down my favorite solution.

What do you do on a suboptimal day?

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💥 I’m Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: 🔗 in bio 🔝

10/10/2023

It's World Mental Health Day! And I'm launching a science-based method to improve your mental health right now👇🏽

👉🏽 An Insta gratitude exercise!

❔What?
Share below one thing (can be small!) that you're grateful for today!

❔Why?
This might sound a bit woowoo and out there, but it's a very cost-effective way to reduce depression and improve sleep and well-being.

For a long time studies on gratitude weren't done in the best ways (no active control groups for instance), which made it hard to figure out whether it was "just" placebo, or whether more was going on.

Mind you though: a placebo effect might still be very welcome to some 😉

A 2020 meta-analysis found that sleep 💤 was improved in 5 out of 8 gratitude studies.

❔How?
Recent data suggests that this effect is mediated by lowered depression: People who practice more gratitude are less depressed, which leads to fewer presleep worries, resulting in better sleep quality 😴

I'd like to see more studies, but this cost-effective method of boosting mental health should be promoted more if you ask me!

I've noticed that doing an exercise with people where everyone shares one little thing they're grateful for, helps them (and me!) immediately feel better.

Plus: 😃 Seeing other people's responses is also very uplifting.

So…

👏🏼 Let's do it right here, right now!

Share below in the comments section! 👇🏽

I'll go first 😉

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

26/07/2023

OOO: OUT OF THE OFFICE
⛱️ I’m off on vacation!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

🌳Looking forward to some rest and relaxation and most of all quality time with our family, friends, nature and a little bit with myself 😊

📵 Always fun to see what unplugging does to my , , , and 🧠 (and nerdy me: to my sleep data)

💪🏽 That said, I can hardly to wait for the second half of 2023 to start with so many cool projects!

🙏🏼 Thank you all for your support here on LI and see you after the break!

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my sleep tips newsletter: link in bio

21/07/2023

☹️ Being a leader or entrepreneur can be lonely.
💻 Working from home can make it even more so.

🙏🏼 Which is why I am SO thankful I got to meet this amazing group of leaders/entrepreneurs at a business retreat hosted by .amsterdam

✍️ I’ll post about the topic of the retreat another time, but first wanted to call out what stood out most to me personally:

👉🏼 I loved being with so many likeminded power houses who inspired me, but also made me see how similar we all are❗️

❓How were we similar?
🧍🏽‍♂️🧍🏻‍♀️Whether it’s dealing with loneliness, uncertainty, difficult life events, difficult work situations, everyone is dealing with SOMETHING and likely we always will.

🤗 That’s also the beauty of life isn’t it?

🧡 Yet everyone was incredibly supportive, really listening and coaching each other through complex questions.

💪🏽 After this empowering learning experience I can only say: seek out like minded people who can inspire you ⭐️

🙌🏽 You’ll notice you have a new form of energy and feel a lot less lonely⚡️

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

15/07/2023

🎉🎉 Happy birthday ! 🥳🥳

👉🏼 One of the instigators for me to leave in 2016 and start my own sleep, performance, and leadership consultancy was reading your book Thrive.

📖 Reading Thrive in late 2014 was so impactful because it was exactly in line with what I felt was missing in the business world (and my personal life): a balance between performance, joy, and recovery.

🙏🏼 Obviously I was super honored when YOU later reached out to ME!?! 😍

🗣️ It’s been amazing to meet, discuss, collaborate, and follow your & inspiring work.

🙌🏽 Keep up the amazing trailblazing you do on so many fronts:

* 💪🏽 Fighting the macho culture that glorifies sleep deprivation
* ❤️‍🩹 Ensuring the topic of well-being is high on the CEO & board’s agenda
* 👩‍🦳 Showing how there is no age limit to being an inspiring and successful businesswoman

🎊 Enjoy a wonderful day with hopefully lots of friends, family, and relaxation! 🥳

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

18/06/2023

Happy Father’s Day to my inspiring and supportive dad! ❤️

So grateful 🙏🏼 for this amazing role model, who absolutely loves ❤️ what he does (so much that he is still happily working at age 69 😀).

👨🏻 My dad is a furniture designer ✍️ and aside from both being entrepreneurs, our professional paths never crossed.

Not even remotely.

But they didn’t need to.

Parents can be 💯% supportive without being familiar with the intricacies of your specific career path.

⭐️ But then recently, our paths DID cross!

I was featured in THE furniture business magazine he has been reading for the last 30+ years 🤩 (because of my partnership with ).

🌍 🌎 It was an unexpected moment of our worlds colliding and we both couldn’t be more proud!

Thank you Dad (& Mom!) ❤️ for all the support you’ve provided me over the years 🙏🏼

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

15/06/2023

🤩 WOW! 🤩 What a “dream stage” yesterday!

🎤 Such a pleasure to address 800+ leaders at the HR Day at business school in Gent, Belgium.

I covered: 👇🏽

1️⃣ The importance of sleep for organizations
2️⃣ What I see in organizations with poor sleep
3️⃣ The ROI of sleep programs

😍 Definitely one of the most beautiful stages I’ve ever been on! 💛

Loved listening to these interesting fellow speakers:
decock

🙏🏼 Thank you for making this happen Jana Machtelinckx 🙏🏼

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

14/06/2023

Yesterday was such a FUN day! 🎉
I had a blast spending time with triple Olympic swim champion !

❓What did we do❓
1️⃣ We hosted an interactive livestream for Pieter’s

500+ employees from , , and other companies joined! 🎥

2️⃣ We talked in depth about the importance of sleep for athletic performance (Pieter is the “Chef the mission” for the Dutch Olympic team). 🎬

3️⃣ Pieter shared fascinating stories from his Olympic days 🏊 on how he used to sleep as a legal performance enhancer.

💪🏽 Importantly, his focus on sleep never disappeared, as of course, it’s also a cognitive and emotional performance booster 😃

🎦 More exciting things to come from this special day here on IG so stay tuned! 🙌🏽

❓When is sleep your performance booster❓

Thank you and for helping to make this happen! 🙏🏼

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

11/06/2023

One thing health/wellbeing/sports influencers don’t share? 🏃🏽‍♀️
👉🏼Their sweaty and red post-workout face 😂

But you know what?

I have it at the end of every spinning class or run, and I’m freakin’ proud of it! 💪🏽

It’s not all “Instagram proof” when you live your life 😃

Happy Sunday!

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

08/06/2023

❓Do you have any close friends at work?
🇨🇭I moved to Switzerland 2 years ago and quickly realized:

👉🏼It’s lonely moving to another country!

😕 My team isn’t here with me and I often wish that was different.

Despite a lot of factors that I thought would make it easy 👇🏼

1️⃣ I love it here and haven’t come across a better place to live 😉
2️⃣ I’ve done it before - 3 US moves and back to the Netherlands after 5 years away
3️⃣ For the first time I moved with other people! Three in fact (my husband + 2 kids)!
4️⃣ We have friends and family in this country (albeit not in the town we live in)

😕 But none of these factors prevented loneliness, particularly during my work days.

⛔️ In fact, moving with family might be worse: as a single 20-something year old I was much better at quickly finding new social circles.

A few things I do to battle this “loneliness at work” 👇🏼

1️⃣ Make an effort to meet up with close friends and colleagues like Lucas Miller (in the picture) when they’re in the country
2️⃣ Make an effort to meet up my team whenever I can
3️⃣ Whenever I’m on video calls with my team we discuss personal things first, because that’s just how we work, but research also shows it’s important to stay connected that way and we don’t have that time over lunch or coffee on a normal day

… Admittedly it’s still a work in progress!

❓What about you?

☕️ Do your “office days” full up your need for social connections at work?

❓Or do you also need to make more of an effort?

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

03/06/2023

❓The best thing about conferences❓
👉🏼 Becoming inspired & connecting with incredible people 💛

I ❤️ talking about sleep on just about ANY stage, but for me personally, the people are what makes them worth the trip, time and energy 🧳

🌎 I am very selective about where I go as I want to mindful of the planet - not everything NEEDS to happen in person.

🤝 But when you ARE in one space with over 7,000 people across 2 days, it’s the connections you make that matter.

🙏🏼 Thankful for meeting these (& more!) amazing people, who have shared so many deep insights and lessons with me!

John Murphy eagle Mumford Abraham covey Eyal sincero rao clifton Ariely Neil Strauss

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

02/06/2023

What a week! 🙌🏽
✅ The in Copenhagen is a wrap!!

🎤 I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on stage to so many business leaders at once! 🙏🏼

What did we do?

1️⃣ I spoke about the importance of sleep for the brain, performance and creativity
2️⃣ Everyone calculated their personal sleep debt
3️⃣ We all meditated together to experience just how quickly you can get sleepy
4️⃣ I shared my top tips on how to quickly improve your sleep quality

❓Perhaps the biggest challenge❓
My slot was at 8:20am on the 2nd day after an amazing concert the previous night 😅

But… all these people made it! 🎉

⏰ Ironically, most had even set their alarm to make it to my talk about sleep

👉🏼 But: they now know why to never snooze again and how to avoid the alarm altogether 😀

Looking forward to returning to this conference again in the future!

Thank you again for inviting me back on this stage! 🙏🏼

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
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16/05/2023

This week is and tomorrow it's So… let's talk about the impact of light on our mental health! 👇🏼

💡 You might be familiar with bright light therapy being used for seasonal affective disorder
Yup, the one with the fitting abbreviation: "SAD" 😟

❓ How does it work though❓
🧠 Shifts in the circadian rhythm andalterations in serotonin reuptake have been implicated

THE GOOD NEWS

👉🏽 It's increasingly clear that bright light therapy is also effective in other mental health disorders with known or suspected alterations in the circadian system, such as:
- Unipolar depression
- Bipolar depression
- Eating disorders
- ADHD

BUT

Beyond mental health disorders, we should also think about the (mental) health of the "average person"

👉🏽 Think about this: 👉🏽 The average person spends ~90% most of the time indoors (!)
☀️ Most people don't get enough bright light during the day, not even in the summer

❓ How does a lack of light impact us❓
Our circadian rhythm becomes weaker, leading to worse sleep, mood, productivity, and overall health

This means we should:
🅰️ Spend more time outdoors (but let's be honest, hard to implement for a lot of people)
🅱️ Improve indoor lightning to better support our circadian health

❓ Want to learn more❓
🗣️ There is an open webinar on indoor lighting!

⌚ Today at 16:00-17:30 CEST // 12pm noon EST
🔗 Link: in comments

Organized by the Daylight Academy, in collaboration with the &

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

14/05/2023

The best gift you can give a mother on Mother's Day? 👇🏼
😴 SLEEP!!! 😴

And in a way, it's a gift the entire family benefits from 😊

👉🏽 It's been shown better sleep will lead to:
* More energy and less fatigue 🔋
* A lower chance of depression and anxiety 😃
* More positive emotions - Happy wife happy life 😉
* Better cognitive function 🧠
* It's even been to increase sexual desire and arousal 💋

It's badly needed! Some facts 👇🏼

👉🏽 Mothers' sleep is heavily impacted once they have children (on average much more so than for fathers)

AND

👉🏽 It's impacted for up to 6 years (!!) after giving birth - for both parents actually!

💝 So, not just today, but really any day, think of ways that you can support the moms in your life by giving them a break!

Or even better:
🛌 Give them an empty (or at least quiet) house in the early afternoon for a nice long nap!

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💥 I'm Dr. Els van der Helm
😴 Support on sleep and performance
🎤 Providing training, video content, consultancy, and keynotes

I post about leadership, productivity, and my favorite topic: sleep. Want to read more?
🔝 Follow me
👉🏽 Sign up for my newsletter: link in bio

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Amsterdam
1017CB

Website

http://www.elsvanderhelm.com/

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