"Sleep on it." Dr Els Van Der Helm

Loading player...
This is an excerpt of a previously published full length episode.

I have lucked out on my fair share of sleep in my lifetime. I've also had my sleep cycles interrupted far too many times.

Having a young child with epilepsy means I never really switch off, simply because a seizure can happen without warning.

Dr. Els van der Helm is a sleep neuroscientist and joins me on this episode from her home office in Switzerland. Els is focused on helping us improve our day to day performance by improving the sleep of business leaders and their teams. Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global named Dr. van der Helm one of the top 5 sleep experts in the world.
13 Sep 2023 English South Africa Self-Improvement · Relationships

Other recent episodes

 bonus  

From 14% to Full Breath: Remembering Tanya Bothma's Double Lung Transplant Journey

What does it feel like to breathe freely for the first time at 40 years old? Tanya Bothma has struggled with every breath since birth. After a meconium aspiration as a newborn and repeated severe viral infections during childhood, she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, a progressive narrowing of the…
17 Mar 20 min

"I will not become what I witnessed."

In this episode of Something Shifted, True Crime South Africa host Nicole Engelbrecht reflects on how childhood trauma shaped both her identity and her work, telling some of the country’s darkest stories. Nicole Engelbrecht grew up in a world where some stories were never meant to leave the house. Violence,…
10 Mar 34 min
 trailer  

What is Something Shifted about?

Something Shifted is a South African podcast about identity after interruption, those unpredictable lifequakes that divide our lives into before and after. Before the diagnosis. Before the loss. Before the moment everything changed. Hosted by award-winning broadcaster Sean Loots, Something Shifted explores identity, resilience, reinvention, and personal growth in the…
24 Feb 2022 1 min

"Harder to kill."

Conn Bertish, a high-performing creative director, faced a rare brain cancer diagnosis at 36. Emergency surgery revealed a medulloblastoma, usually only found in children under five. In a matter of hours, Conn’s life fractured, forcing him to confront who he was; and who he would become. In this episode of…
24 Feb 33 min

If Chickens Can Do It

A case for optimism. In the prelude to the new season of Something Shifted, Sean Loots speaks to astrophysicist-turned-journalist and author of "The Bright Side" Sumit Paul-Choudhury, about the science and psychology of optimism. Drawing on stories from Ernest Shackleton's 1915 Arctic expedition, to Sean's "Joy Jar", and the research…
6 Jan 20 min