DR. ELS VAN DER HELM
SLEEP EXPERT & CO-FOUNDER OF SHLEEP
“I dream of making a measurable contribution to a more harmonious society with energetic people who feel good about themselves. I see sleep as the best way to achieve that. ”
"most badass female tech entrepreneurs to watch in 2018"
"top experts teaching the world to make sleep a priority"
press
My Publications
SHLEEP
WE HELP THE WORLD SLEEP BETTER
Shleep was co-founded by myself and Jöran Albers in 2016 with dreams of revolutionizing the way people manage their sleep. At Shleep, our team works hard to deliver programs, workshops, and digital tools that will change how your company's employees manage their sleep.
Meet our clients
Corporate Sleep programs that deliver results
Snoozing
Sleep Improvement
Sleep Debt during our program (hrs)
SLEEPING IS SO IMPORTANT
SOMETHING EVERY LEADER SHOULD THINK ABOUT
My research shows that sleep is highly linked with high performance, safety, and health.
Performance
be a better decision-maker
effectively lead and engage a team
- have good memory
Safety
decrease the risk of errors by 70%
more stable attention faster response time
Health
- be happy and empathetic
- exercise rigorously
- prevent heart attack, weight gain, acne, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's
bIography
How I became a sleep fanatic
I’ve always been fascinated by sleep and I realized this in school. During my Master’s in Neurosciences, I studied the effect of sleep on memory (Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences) and emotional processing (Harvard Medical School). Then 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 other books.
The academia and science in these years was incredibly informative, but I felt I wanted to make a bigger impact than doing more research. From there, I worked as a management consultant at McKinsey where I combined my passion for leadership development and sleep management. I developed and facilitated training programs for both McKinsey consultants and clients. Some research I did on leadership and sleep was published in Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly.
All of this made me realize how badly the world’s leaders and companies needed better sleep education and guidance, hence the founding of Shleep. We're so excited to be making a real difference.
Education & experiencE
PARTNER LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
2013 - 2016
PhD, PSYCHOLOGY, FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR
2008-2013
STUDENT RESEARCH, EMOTIONAL PROCESSING
2007
MSc, CUM LAUDE, CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
2005 - 2008
MSc, NEUROSCIENCES
2005 - 2008
BSc, HONORS DISTINCTION, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
2005 - 2008
RESEARCH
Current Biology
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
THE MCKINSEY QUARTERLY
PLoS One
Psychological Bulletin
SLEEP
PNAS
MEDIA
WALL STREET JOURNAL
HUFFINGTON POST
INC.
BBC
COSMOPOLITAN
SCIENCE DIRECT
THE ECONOMIST
TED X
THE TELEGRAPH