Whenever I’m asked during an interview “Why is sleep important?” I often respond by saying:

“Try going without it for a while and you’ll soon find out!"

This answer means two things. Yes, sleep is important. And - people are different (in terms of how they respond to sleep loss).

This is what makes working in the sleep business so rewarding and challenging.

Take - for example - this email I received from a client this week:

“My son has been doing really well - he sleeps all night (still wakes at 5am-ish) but it’s sooo much better than it was before we saw you. So I wanted to say thank you so much for giving my family the time and education to get through such a tough time, no words can describe my gratitude.”

Although I was ultimately responsible for this mum’s situation, the crucial session - where sleep training was taught to the parents - was delivered by a student I have been supervising this semester.

And keep in mind that this family had tried almost every strategy before seeing us - including sleep training with a former consultant.

Supervision

I’ve been supervising 6-month-long clinical placements for postgraduate students since 2009. And even after they graduate and become a psychologist, I supervise them for a further year - meaning that they go from becoming a ‘psychologist’ to a ‘clinical psychologist’.

Those who have started working in ‘The Space’ of helping others know how crucial it is to have a mentor to turn to during their learning.

The same happens during research.

One needs to bounce ideas off a mentor.

And research and clinical practice are inter-twined.

Introducing the WINK Members Area

I’ve always wanted to do more for our subscribers.

Finally, we’re able to offer a Member’s Area.

And one of the benefits I’ve added for Members are Live Q&As.

The first Live Q&A will be ‘Clinical Supervision’.

It’s dedicated to learning more about how to treat sleep problems.

This means I’ll demonstrate how I arrive at a set of techniques that can help a client.

And you’ll also get to ask about your own clients.

Even if you don’t have clients - this will still be a space for learning. You’ll get the rare opportunity to be a fly on the wall - and learn how experts arrive at a diagnosis - and more importantly - what to do about it.

Who knows - if you sometimes have sleep issues, you might learn some techniques that help you!

And later on we’ll have a Live Q&A dedicated to evaluating the efficacy of treatments.

But these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Here’s a quick glimpse behind the curtain to see the landing page of the Membership area (click on the image to play the 27-second video):

In case you missed it, here’s another glimpse of what the Membership Area provides:

• Your Free Gift

• Interactive Live Q&As.

• The Survey Vault.

• #mybedsidetable

• Discounted Gifts

• Your Invitation

• Online Short Courses

• The WINK Conference

So I’m gonna quickly run through each of these - and while I do - keep in mind that membership is USD$16/month:

• FREE GIFTS - every quarter, we’re going to provide members with a Free Gift. The first gift is worth $9. Future gifts will be up to $30. (Knock that value off the $16/mo membership)

• INTERACTIVE LIVE Q&As - as flagged above, these will be 1-hour Live Q&As. A place to learn ‘about all things sleep’. They’ll be once a month, and the first one will be Clinical Supervision. (As a window into my working life - the supervision rate on our WINK website is $150/hr minimum - and lately I’ve been doing live group webinars that garner up to $500 for the hour. As we say in Australia these Q&As are going to be ‘gold’.)

• SURVEY VAULT - a place to freely download surveys you need to assess and treat sleep problems. And we’ll be adding the interview schedules we use in our own sleep clinic (I guess you put the dollar value on the worth of these tools that have been used in our clinical sleep studies).

• #MYBEDSIDETABLE - this is the heart of the WINK Member’s Area. Our community where we have a little fun, creativity, and support. A place where we promote you and your service. And in early 2021, a place to bounce ideas off like-minded peers when we’re in-between Live Q&As. (Again, you place a dollar value on this promotion and support).

• DISCOUNTED GIFTS - Members receive 25% off every WINK and BLINK in our store. Some have you have noticed that we’ve added ‘How-To’ videos to the PDFs of some of our WINKs and BLINKs. These self-guided tools really do work. (And 25% off can save you anywhere between $25-$60).

• YOUR INVITATION - We love doing things with friends and family. It enhances the experience. So each new Member receives one invitation to invite a family or friend to join the WINK Member’s Area. And when your friend/family pay for their first month, then we reimburse your 1st month’s membership (a saving of $16). And yes, your friend or family member gets their own invitation to pass on. After 3 consecutive month’s of paid membership, you’ll receive another invite to pass on.

• SHORT COURSES - We’re developing a series of Online Short Courses in 2021. These will be 3-hr classes - once a week - for 4 weeks (some will only go for 2 weeks). Our first one kicks off in February - and it will treat you like one of our students. Where our final goal is to educate you to the point of being able to assess and treat sleep problems. But remember, we’ve been educators for decades. So there will be a need to assess your learning. And once passed - yes, you will receive a Certificate of Completion. And at this stage, we will probably seek accreditation in 2021 - even though we have a great idea of the minimum quality we expect in those who should help others. These Short Courses will be available to anyone - not just Members. But Members will pay a tenth of the price! (a saving of $540 for a 4 week Course … in other words, a 4-week Course would cost Members $60 instead of $600).

• THE WINK CONFERENCE - We’re sleep scientists who collectively have published more than 120 scientific papers. In 2020, we published more than 10 scientific papers. And there’s plenty that have not been published yet. In 2021, we will be hosting our own conference and presenting hot-off-the-press sleep research. And unlike all the big sleep conferences, we’re keeping our focus on information that matters; information that can easily be translated to help people sleep better. And we’re not charging a fortune like conferences do these days. Members who have at least 3 consecutive months of membership get a free ticket to the WINK conference (a saving of $100).

The Math

I started summing the savings I’ve outlined above, and I stopped half-way. And that’s because:

If you were a member for the first 12 months; used all your invites; took all the free gifts; attended the Live Q&As; did one short course; got 25% off a WINK product; and attended the WINK conference - you would have spent $144 in membership fees in 2021, yet received an extra $2,400 in value.

It’s a no-brainer.

So if you wanna make 2021 an incredible year of learning - check out our Login page - or if the dot points above convinced you enough (eg, use your invite to get your first month free), then click on the ‘Unlock Member’s Area’ below.

• Prof Michael Gradisar