Is the UK Too Tired, for it's Own Good?

This week instead of the Sleep Hygiene advice I normally share, I’d like you to consider a wider problem, poor sleep across the UK. 

This week, a news story caught my eye. It was about a sleep trial in South Yorkshire where over 300 NHS staff took part in a programme to improve their sleep.

The NHS Sleep Trial: Why a New Pillow Isn't Enough to Fix a Tired Nation

The headline statistic was both shocking and completely unsurprising: at the start of the trial, a staggering 85% of the participants reported chronic tiredness.

Let that sink in. 85% of these people we trust with our lives—nurses, practitioners, and support staff—and the vast majority of them are running on empty.

One participant, Jane, summed up the feeling perfectly: "Even though I was in bed for long enough, I was waking up shattered... I needed to do something, but I didn't know what to do."

This story is a perfect microcosm of a much larger, national problem. We have normalised exhaustion. We accept being "shattered" as a normal part of modern life, especially for those in demanding jobs. We see tiredness not as a critical warning sign, but as a badge of honour or an unavoidable consequence of a busy life.

The real villain in this story isn’t the NHS working hours/shift patterns, nor is it just a bad pillow or an uncomfortable mattress. The trial, while well-intentioned, focused primarily on a single aspect of sleep: posture.

The participants appear to have been given a specially designed pillow and advice on their sleeping position. And for many, like Jane, it made a real difference to their pain and sleep quality. This is fantastic, and any improvement is a win.

But it also highlights a dangerous tendency in how we approach sleep problems: we look for a single, simple, "magic bullet" solution. We believe that if we just buy the right gadget—the perfect pillow, the weighted blanket, the sleep tracker—our problems will be solved.

The real villain is the belief that sleep is a simple, one-dimensional problem. It's not. It's a complex interplay of our environment, our schedule, our daytime habits, and, most importantly, our mindset.

A new pillow can't fix a mind that's racing at 3 a.m. It can't compensate for a dysregulated body clock. And it can't undo the damage of a caffeine habit that's out of control because we use it to keep us going.

For over 35 years, in the Army, the Police, and as a human performance development facilitator, I've seen first hand what chronic fatigue does to individuals and to organisations.

It erodes decision-making, increases errors, and destroys wellbeing. My journey into becoming a Sleep Activist, a qualified CBT-I plus therapist, and an NLP Master Practitioner has been driven by one core understanding: you cannot fix a systemic problem with a single product.

You need a system.

I don't sell pillows. I provide a plan. My R.E.S.T. Method™ is a comprehensive, evidence-based system designed to tackle the four critical areas that actually control your sleep.

The results of the NHS trial were positive, with 75% reporting an improvement.

But what about the 25% who didn't? And how sustainable is the improvement for the others if the root causes of their fatigue aren't addressed?

Scale of the problem, the NHS in England alone, employ over 1.5 million people if you take that 85% of staff reporting chronic tiredness then you have 1.3 million people in NHS England alone with sleep issues. Is this Unbelievable?

A truly effective plan must go deeper than single issues. It must involve:

Resetting Your Mind: Giving you the tools to dismantle "The Sleep Effort Trap™" and calm your nervous system, something no pillow can do.

Engineering Your Environment: Going beyond just posture, pillows and mattresses to create a "Rest Nest" that sends powerful signals of safety and sanctuary to your brain.

Scheduling Your Sleep: Teaching you how to work with your body's natural circadian rhythm, not against it.

Tackling Your Daytime Habits: Understanding how your choices about light, food, and caffeine and more during the day are setting you up for success or failure at night.

This is a plan that empowers the individual. It gives them back a sense of control, just like Jane wanted when she said, "I didn't know what to do."

The fact that 85% of NHS staff in this trial were chronically tired should be a national wake-up call. It is a symptom of a society that has forgotten how to rest.

If you are part of that exhausted majority, know this: you don't have to accept being "shattered" as your normal. You don't need to search for the next magic pillow. You need a plan.

Imagine waking up not shattered but feeling refreshed. Imagine having the energy to excel at your job and still be present for your family at the end of the day. Imagine feeling calm and in control when your head hits the pillow. This isn't a fantasy; it's what happens when you stop treating the symptoms and start addressing the system.

The alternative is to continue the endless cycle of buying new gadgets, hoping for a quick fix, while your energy, health, and quality of life continue to decline. It's accepting a life where you are always running at 50% capacity.

Ready to stop searching and start building? If this story resonates with you, let's talk. Whether it's through my one-on-one coaching, CBT(I) Plus, or Hypnotherapy, a corporate workshop for your team, or my upcoming book, I can give you the system you've been missing. It's time to stop normalising exhaustion and start prioritising restorative sleep.