Chimera Communications' MC and Brighton Chamber Vice-President
Jill Woolf recently caught up with Brighton Summit workshop leader Alison Prangnell of
Anderida Coaching. Alison is a Master NLP Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist, with a passion
for health and mindset in life and business. Her workshop is called Sleep
Like a Baby, Live Like a Superhero.
Here we learn more
about Alison and why she wanted to be part of the Summit.
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| Alison Prangnell |
Jill: When, how and why
did you become a Stress Management Consultant and Performance Coach
Alison: I started my
own business two years ago after coaching part-time around my old day job. I
was inspired to work in stress management because of my own journey.
Like many people I
worked in environments with a lot of stress, either because of culture and
management style, volume of work, or the way I handled it. I got burnout and
became pretty ill.
When I had burnout, it
was before everyone started talking about it. I went to the GP and all I got
was a shrug of the shoulders. It’s better now, I know, but I had to learn from
the ground up how to make myself well again.
So, I combined this
knowledge with my experience of management in fast-growing SMEs with coaching
skills like NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to help businesses and their
people become more resilient and create a culture that doesn’t fuel stress,
burnout and illness.
The result is happier,
more motivated people and a more profitable business.
Jill: What type of
people come to you for help and what are the main causes of their issues?
Alison: I work with
senior execs through to anyone experiencing stress in their day-to-day lives.
People believe the
major factor in their stress is work, which can’t be denied but what many
people don’t have a clear sight of is how many other factors contribute to
their stress experience. If you take control and do something positive, you can
significantly reduce your stress symptoms by managing all the other factors and
become more resilient, physically and mentally.
We can’t eliminate
stress, it’s a programmed response to a situation. What we need to get better
at is recognising and managing our response to those situations, which is
easier than many people think.
Jill: Do you advocate
the old adage that we need eight hours’ sleep?
Alison: The sleep you
have and when you need it will vary from person to person and their circadian
rhythm. Science supports the idea that most people need between 6-8 hours’
sleep. As most people will have experienced, if you aren’t getting enough sleep
your ability to think and make decisions, along with your emotions and energy,
will all quickly get out of kilter.
People believe they are
still performing but the less sleep you get, the more mistakes you make (as
confirmed by a study by The Lancet). There will be other factors that affect
your personal sleep requirement including circadian rhythm, metabolism, the
level of physical or mental stress you are under, your overall health etc.
There are those who say,
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, feel they are superhuman and don’t need much sleep.
It’s a fallacy. Science shows they are shortening their lifespan by restricting
their sleep and pushing themselves at maximum for the rest of the time.
Our systems simply
aren’t built for it and we start to get ill. It is safer to go by the benchmark
of 6-8 hours and adapt according to your lifestyle and physiological needs. It
really is that simple.
Putting it even
simpler, we teach our children they need sleep. If they don’t get it, let’s
face it, they melt down and all hell breaks loose, then we’re desperate to make
sure they get the right amount of sleep the next night! Yet as adults we
suddenly believe we are now different. We aren’t. Our brains and bodies need to
recharge.
Jill: If you’re someone
who sleeps badly, can you ever ‘catch up’?
Alison: No, not really.
There isn’t a sleep bank you can draw on. If you’re tired, you need to allow
your body to sleep. The best advice is if you’ve had a week, say at a
conference where you’re burning the candle at both ends, get back into your
proper sleep routine with full sleep cycles as quickly as possible. That way
your body can get you back on track quicker.
Jill: It’s easy to
believe that lack of sleep is a phenomenon which has materialised over the last
20 or 30 years, but has it always been so and we just haven’t talked about it
or is it more to do with the increasing use of technology, which was meant to
make life easier for us?!
Alison: People have
always found it hard to sleep at some time or another, we’re human after all. Particularly
in times of stress our sleep can suffer, they can be intrinsically linked. Having
said that, some people who are stressed sleep for England. I always did!
Technology is a big
contributing factor, it has insinuated itself into our every waking minute and
our bedrooms. It’s designed to be addictive, keeping your brains awake even
when your sleep cycle needs your brain to start slowing down to get that sleep you
crave. Playing on your mobile phone all evening won’t help you sleep better.
Period.
But there are so many
other factors and that’s why you can’t look at sleep in isolation, it is modern
life overall. We have busier lives where we are on the go all the time,
desperately trying to balance families and work, invading our personal lives
through technology, and we feel like we have too little time for relaxation.
Factor in the explosion
in the volume of sugar and caffeine (and alcohol) we have been consuming - all
of which are sleep disruptors; even our exercise regimes. We run out of time
and try and do a workout late at night which again disrupts our ability to
sleep properly.
If we want better sleep
and less stress then making small incremental changes (which we can manage when
things feel fraught and we don’t want yet another task on the to-do list) will
start making big differences. All of this is manageable even though it might
not seem like it at first glance.
Jill: In your opinion,
does it follow that the higher up you are in an organisation, the less sleep
you get – or need?
Alison: Well if you are
an exec who wants to make the best decisions make sure you get some sleep!
But no, however high up
in the organisation you are, you’re still a human that needs sleep. It
shouldn’t be dependent on the organisation and your rank as to how much sleep
you get but if work is giving you sleepless nights, it needs to be addressed.
This applies to
everyone though, at every level in the organisation, front line or backstage.
Everyone has pressures that apply to them individually. What is certain is that
lack of sleep will affect your team’s productivity, engagement and
effectiveness. The idea that you should just keep pushing yourself or your
employees harder is self-defeating for your business performance, whether you
are an exec or an employee.
Jill: Tell me about
your workshop for the Summit. Great title, by the way.
Alison: The workshop at
the event is a taster of the longer one I offer businesses and individuals. So
many people don’t understand all the factors they could change, even just a
tiny bit, to get better sleep and a better quality of life.
Improve the quality of
your sleep (it’s not always about quantity) and your health, relationships and
performance in work, sport or flying the world with your superhero cape can
only improve.
Jill: What will
attendees get out of the session?
Alison: They’ll understand
sleep better and how important it is overall, not just relieving them from
feeling frazzled. They’ll go away with quick wins – practical ideas to help
them start improving their sleep cycles and energy after the session. Most of
all, they’ll learn how they can get greater control over what’s happening
rather than feeling at the mercy of the ticking clock by the bedside.
Jill: How do you sleep?
Alison: Very well! I
love my sleep. I know I need eight hours’ sleep and I try and manage my days to
ensure I get it. If I have an early morning, I go to bed earlier making sure I
get full sleep cycles. If I get disrupted sleep, I know there’s something else
I need to work on during the day.
Jill: How can we book
on to your half or full-day sleep workshops and where do they take place? (I
might well see you there soon 😊)
Alison: I offer
in-house workshops for businesses and public sessions throughout the year
people can book on individually. I advocate the full-day events as you can
really start getting down to the details and put a personalised plan together
as well as learn some self-hypnosis techniques.
Businesses can contact
me directly regarding internal workshops on alison@anderidacoaching.co.uk and sessions are posted on www.anderidacoaching.co.uk New dates are being scheduled at the moment!
