How to Sleep Better: Why Consistency Beats Duration

Wondering how to sleep better without another list of ten sleep hygiene rules you'll forget by Thursday? This week's guest, behavioural scientist Dr Jemma King, says most of us are focused on the wrong number entirely. It's not about clocking eight hours. It's about getting them at the same time.

Jemma spent years working with Olympians, special forces soldiers, and burnt-out executives before she landed on sleep as the single biggest lever for how we think, feel, and perform. In this episode, she walks through what's actually happening in each stage of your sleep cycle — light sleep, deep sleep, REM — and why chasing a number on your tracker misses the point if the timing's off. She unpacks a study showing irregular sleepers face a significantly higher all-cause mortality risk than consistent sleepers, explains “social jet lag”, and shares a strange but genuinely effective way to direct your subconscious to solve problems while you sleep.

We also get into the practical stuff — bedroom temperature, light exposure, food timing, and what to do when you and your partner sleep completely differently.

This one's for anyone who's tired of feeling tired, and ready to stop treating sleep as the thing you get to once everything else is sorted. Grab a cup of tea and settle in — you'll want to try this week's habit tonight.