#18 - We've Been Digitally Ready Since 2005: We Got This Covid
Heads up! We’ve got a great thing going for you at WINK this week.
But first …
I had a light bulb moment today - “I’ve been preparing to go digital since 2005”.
Looking over my CV, I saw that I’ve been trying to do a lot of sleep research and sleep services digitally. And because people like dot points (because they’re easier to read/scan), here’s one listing some key events:
2005: we became pathfinders by using not only an online sleep questionnaire in schools, but also getting students to perform memory tests online. This was many years before I knew ‘Bling’ was a thing!
2007: we developed what might be the first online sleep diary. We used it in 2 studies at the same time - one in Adelaide; one in Sydney. Despite that memorable day when the server went down, both studies got successfully published. One of them was destined to go digital one day …
2014: we developed Youtube videos for parents of teenagers to educate them about sleep.
2016: one of our research studies received 200+ media reports. It was so popular that I had an idea to turn the concept of the study to an app. That way, we could offer our treatment to millions of mums and dads around the world.
the decade up to 2020: Because our school-based sleep education programs we delivered proved a hit with teachers, we thought of training the teachers to deliver the programs. But they kept telling us they were too busy to learn a new curriculum. They wanted someone else to deliver it. That someone they wanted was the experts.
But we did not want to limit our sleep education program to just schools in Adelaide. So many schools across Australia - even the world - could benefit from the only sleep education program to increase sleep in teens.
Our university tried to locate a partner organisation. But we were eventually told this was a dead end.
We persisted. Still tried to find some resource in the University to make this happen. We met dead ends.
If you want something done - sometimes you’ve got to do it yourself.
So this year, we’re going to release SCHOOL WINK. A flexible delivery option for schools who wish to insert a proven sleep education program for teenagers. And with the ‘wellbeing’ and ‘wellness’ waves, and sleep as one of the big mentions in virtually all wellbeing programs, SCHOOL WINK is perfectly suited to fit in a Wellbeing Day or a Wellbeing Series.
But it’s not just schools who benefit from our work
We’ve been providing 1-on-1 sleep treatments for individuals who are experiencing sleep problems.
Sleep problems like insomnia and circadian rhythms disorders (eg, delayed sleep timing).
With the current situation challenging everyone’s resilience, we’ve decided this is a major time to help.
So we’re offering 10 WINK subscribers a free 1-on-1 sleep education consult (capped at 20 min).
You’ll have 5 or so minutes to answer our questions, and then 10 or so min to write down as much info that we can teach you. It’s a bit like ‘sleep-education speed-dating’!
The offer will pop-up on our website this coming week - for 24 hours only !
So if you need some personalised education about your sleep - or know someone else who could benefit, let them know about this offer.
Just remember it’s only available to WINK subscribers.
In the meantime, have a look around our website …