The Sleep Geek, aka James Wilson, talks about how to utilise a sleep expert.
It is Sleep Month. Every brand is talking about sleep. Every brand now has an expert. Some use that expert well. Some use them as a badge. A face on a website. A quote on a post. That is not enough.
If you bring a sleep expert into your business then use them. Build them into the way you work. Let them help you shape what you say and how you say it.
The first mistake is simple. Do not reduce them to top ten tips. Sleep is not a listicle. If your social team is pushing out daily content then your expert must see it. They must guide it. They must challenge it.
A few weeks ago, I had to message a well-known brand. They had mixed up REM sleep and deep sleep on Instagram. REM is linked to mental recovery. Deep sleep is linked to physical recovery. It was wrong. The brand employs a respected sleep expert. But there is no way the expert had seen the post.
This is what happens when marketing runs ahead of knowledge.
Sleep advice online is chaotic. Even public bodies give rigid advice that does not fit real people. One size rarely fits all in sleep. If you let your social team speak without expert oversight you will look careless. In this market careless means untrustworthy.
Second point. Ask your expert to check product claims. Manufacturers make bold promises. Cooling all night. Zero motion transfer. Perfect spinal alignment. An expert who works with poor sleepers knows what matters in the real world. They know the gap between lab language and lived experience. Let them test the story against reality.
If a mattress claims to keep someone cool all night, then ask how. Ask what happens at three in the morning when core temperature shifts. Ask what happens to a woman in menopause with night sweats. If the product cannot do what the label says then do not sell the fantasy. Long term trust beats short term hype.
Third point. Make sure your expert is an expert. A nutritionist is not a sleep specialist. A GP without further training in sleep is not a sleep specialist. A sports coach who mentions recovery is not a sleep specialist. Sleep is its own field. It takes years of study and years of practice with poor sleepers. Check their background. Ask who they have helped. Ask what training they have completed.
Fourth point. Listen to what they hear in sessions and on calls. Patterns will emerge. Temperature issues. Sensory sensitivity. Anxiety at night. Early waking. Not every problem is solved by a product. But some problems can be eased by better design and better guidance. Build ranges around real needs. Signpost clearly. Help customers find the product that fits their issue.
Finally bring the expert into your shops. Retail is about experience. There is power in a short talk on children and sleep. Or a clinic evening for shift workers. When someone solves a sleep problem inside your shop, they will not forget it. Nor will their family.
Sleep Month will pass. Hype will fade. What remains is trust. If you invest in expertise then embed it. Let it help you shape product. Content. Training. Events. Do that and your expert becomes an asset not an ornament.
About the Sleep Geek
James Wilson (AKA The Sleep Geek) is a Sleep Educator & Coach and founder of Sleepunity, a social enterprise committed to Better Sleep for All. He appears regularly on ITV’s This Morning and BBC Breakfast and has worked with the likes of Zurich, Budweiser, Under Armour and West Ham United helping their people sleep better. He offers training and certification for retailers, and a certification scheme for sleep products. Find out more www.sleepunity.org.
