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.
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"
The last part of our brain to evolve was the neocortex, responsible for functions such as sensory perception, motor commands, and language...
We all know caffeinated and careworn executives who, after hours of wakeful slumber, struggle to recall simple facts, seem disengaged and uninspired, lack patience with others, and can’t think through problems or reach clear-cut decisions.
Your brain prefers uninterrupted sleep and waking up naturally. Snoozing is the exact opposite of those two things.
Practitioners of the always-on, 12-latte-a-day work style are doing themselves and their organizations a disservice, McKinsey & Co.’s Nick van Dam and Els van der Helm write.
Nowadays, many of us live by the slogan of “Work hard, play hard!” in this hyperconnected, 24/7 world. However, the new life maxim I would like to propose to live by is “Work hard, play hard, sleep hard.” A maxim not only much-needed for individuals, but also critical for organizations.
If you’re one of the lucky ones working at one of these front-running sleep friendly companies: What’s the best way to make the most out of your nap? And what if you’re not so lucky and need to squeeze your nap into your weekend?
Do you often go to bed too late during the week and do you think you can make it up in the weekend? Sleep expert and founder of Shleep explains the concept of sleep debt.
Els van der Helm recommends sleeping well every night. She says about this: "The effects will naturally increase if you have not slept enough for a longer period of time, but after a night too little sleep there is a direct impact."
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.
My research shows that sleep is highly linked with high performance, safety, and health.
be a better decision-maker
effectively lead and engage a team
decrease the risk of errors by 70%
more stable attention faster response time
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.
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