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.
