“God damn Mike!”

That was a fair comment considering my email reply to a job offer went as follows:

“Hej CJ ! Thanks for considering my negotiations. On second thoughts, I've actually been approached by another sleep company based across Australasia. I'm sorry to say that I had no choice and they forced me into a situation of signing a long-term, full-time contract with them, otherwise they threatened to drop me in the middle of the ocean and encircle me for several hours until all my fear hormones were excreted from my body, and then tear me apart with their razor-sharp jaws, first starting with the 5 external limbs of my body, leaving me as a bloodied bobbing loaf of flesh, finally devouring me head-first - thus my last vision on this earth would be looking out of this monster shark's gills - and into the swirling ocean that my blood and excrement filled. As you can see, this was such a terrible threat that I could not say no, and if something were to happen to me, or you found that I suddenly fell off the face of the earth, I implore you to stay clear of this monster shark, and I hope you know by now that I am not serious, and indeed find it extremely hard to be serious, and of course I'd love to work at sleep cycle and help to make it into the biggest and most beautiful blue whale that all sharks would fear and steer clear of.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I like to joke around.

I don’t know if my job acceptance was dumb, ballsy, ignorant, arrogant, foolish, fun, or a combo of the above.

But I got the (dream) job!

Keep Your Doors Open …

In May 2021 I was maxed out in life - carrying the weight of a Professorial position at a University that paid well, but for which I worked way too many unpaid hours in my own time. Plus throw in my ‘hobby’ known as WINK, and then time for family and friends.

I made a pact not to take on any more work.

But then I got an email that was too hard to resist.

It was from a guy called Carl Johan who said he was the CEO of an app company called Sleep Cycle.

There was no email signature. No details containing job titles, location, contact details, confidentiality clauses or a company logo.

Indeed, the entire email was only 2 sentences. But there was one part of a sentence that caught my eye …

“… Sleep Cycle, the leading sleep tracking app with over 50m downloads.”

I knew of Sleep Cycle, as they were one of the first sleep tracking apps to hit the market (in 2009).

And if I’ve learned anything during my sleep career, it is this - if you get in early with something (as I have with ResearchGate, LinkedIn, and my sleep research) - then you can make you mark.

And that’s what Sleep Cycle had achieved.

So I did a bit of research into Sleep Cycle. This is what I learned …

Push and Pull

Whenever one is considering a Sea Change, there are Push and Pull factors.

Push factors are things that are pushing you away from where you work - and Pull factors are things that attract you to a new position (eg, Kirkwood, 2009).

Since the infamous ‘Restructure’ at Flinders University in mid-2017, the Push Factors for many staff were piling up.

For me, the Restructure was a ‘direct hit’ on a Baby Sleep App that was being developed from my research. This was the first of many ‘hits’ - and the hits just kept on coming.

No matter which way I tried to evolve my novel sleep interventions so they could be used digitally across the world, there was a brick wall - with each brick stamped with ‘FU’.

So imagine the possibility of being able to help millions of people improve their sleep? That’s a big and satisfying Pull.

And millions of customers means - from a research perspective - Big Data!

With the strong enthusiasm and skills of stellar researchers like Dr Michal Kahn and Dr Liisa Kuula, we’ve been able to publish studies using Big Data from companies like Nanit and Polar Electro Oy.

And I enjoyed these projects. These companies weren’t trying to get us to do projects that were pushing their product. Like us, they were seeing their product as a tool - to help answer questions - like whether exercise just before bed affects sleep - or what happened to babies’ sleep during those initial months of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Imagine the questions that can be answered using the sleep data of millions of people?

Well, the Pull hits just kept on coming …

The Multi-Disciplinary Swedes

Don’t get me wrong - my previous Psychology Department was another family to me. They always will be. And within that, my sleep team will always be family (after all, some of them call me their ‘Research Dad’).

So it wasn’t all bad at Flinders. It’s just that the new blood coming in at the middle and top executive levels were … well, not Flinders. They did not understand what it meant to proudly represent Flinders Uni.

The people who I worked with everyday were the biggest reason why I persisted at Flinders. They made each day great.

Yet, I began meeting other people in Sleep Cycle. And they were fun. And really really nice. Something felt like ‘home’.

Broadly speaking, there was also something very different - and in a really good way.

As a psychologist, you get to work alongside multiple disciplines, like medicine, nursing, and social work.

Yet Sleep Cycle was comprised of a whole new set of disciplines.

Take for instance, Sandra. Who previously worked at Spotify, but yearned to apply her Product Management skills for a ‘flat organisation’ (ie, where there is little separation between, low-, middle-, and upper-management).

Or Andreas. Someone who worked on the original Battlefield video game. Someone who you could listen to for hours as he waxed the lyrical. A perfect voice for Sleep Cycle as the Head of Content.

And then there’s Data Scientists and Machine Learning experts like Mikael, Maria and Daniel. An incredible artist in Filip who produces beautiful and calming work. Others skilled in Marketing and Business, like Kristine, Emilie and Malin. And a companion Sleep Expert in Dr Li Åsland.

When you work in a position for long enough, sometimes the work feels like rinse-and-repeat. Sometimes your academic brain itches for something fresh and new.

Sleep Cycle would be a fresh, clean slate.

Ascending the Rollercoaster Ride

Over the last half of 2021, I had a number of Zoom meetings with the CEO of Sleep Cycle, Carl Johan - aka, CJ. We got to know each other, and we got to test the waters with a few odd jobs here and there.

Side note: for the executives at Flinders reading this, yes, I should have arranged an agreement to allow me to do this consulting.

But understand this - you’re a snail in a race with cheetahs. You move way too slow.

For example, it shouldn’t take 6 months to pay my postdoc. She went without pay for 6 months. Imagine if that happened to you?

And a lot can get done in 6 months.

For instance, Sleep Cycle floated on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, received a Google award alongside apps like Calm, announced a new sleep story spoken by Alexander Skarsgård, and were being integrated into Samsung Health and the Apple Watch.

The Push-and-Pull factors were strengthening.

I saw so many things on the rise with this sleep tech company. Even their stats were changing since CJ’s first email - and they continue to do so …

December 2021

The Flinders I had been with since 1992 has deteriorated since 2017.

I was that frog happily swimming in cool water - oblivious to the fact that someone turned the heat way up, and I was boiling.

I can tell you that seconds after the decision that Flinders and I would part ways - that there was a wonderful feeling of freedom.

I turned from those feelings of burnout - to a sudden strange burst of energy. Almost like I just came back from a holiday.

In December 2021, I left Flinders, and threw myself into WINK - and WINK had its best month ever.

I also spoke to a number of people in various organisations. One of them was CJ.

The rest isn’t just history - it’s an incredible future.

Conclusions?

People are more aware of Push and Pull factors when life is out of balance. Whether it’s the rising need to change jobs - or whether to move overseas or stay at ‘home’.

My exiting Flinders surprised a lot of people.

And I’ve spoken to a lot of like-minded Professors from around the world since. My experiences are not unique. Universities are changing into businesses, with overpaid and underperforming executives.

So for anyone reading this, who feels like they are not acknowledged for their world-leading achievements, all I can say is - I understand how you feel, and where you are. I can only hope you start to put down on paper, your own Push and Pull factors. Make a small plan to cover yourself financially for couple to a few months. Then take action when the time is right.

Please know that there are wonderful people out there to work with. People who are collaborative - who acknowledge your work. That there is a fit for you out there. A place that has goals and a philosophy that is aligned to yours.

I could not be any happier that I am now the Head of Sleep Science at Sleep Cycle.

Seriously, I’ve tried to think if I could be happier. I cannot see it. CJ is an amazing ‘boss’ (who would never call himself a boss). The Sleep Cycle team are so creative, friendly, humorous, talented, and eclectic. And I’ve never stood in the same room with any of them … yet!

There’s a ton that I cannot say about what lies ahead for me and Sleep Cycle. But eventually you will learn about it. From where I’m standing, the Sleep Cycle in the years to come is going to look very different.

Heck, what am I saying “From where I’m standing …” - I’m not standing like a slow snail.

I’m running like a cheetah.

And WINK only stands to benefit from this.

• Prof MG
  

Acknowledgement: Artwork by Filip Obbel, Sleep Cycle.