A charity dedicated to promoting the importance of sleep has linked up with James Leinhardt, a sleep posture expert, to highlight the impact of poor sleep on the workplace, as part of a national campaign.
James, who founded fast-growing Manchester-based pillow and mattress company Levitex, is recognised as an expert in sleep posture. He has amassed a following of more than 320,000 people on TikTok, where he regularly shares tips and advice on how to sleep better, focusing on the quality of sleep rather than the number of hours.
The Sleep Charity, founded in 2012, are working with the Levitex team to help drive the charity’s ambitious national campaign focused on tackling fatigue and sleep deprivation in the workplace. It’s estimated that sleep deprivation costs the UK economy more than £40 billion in lost productivity each year, and the charity says this is a problem that can no longer be ignored.
As part of the campaign, James attended the charity’s event at the Houses of Parliament in London to meet with Clive Betts MP and officially launch The Sleep Equality Charter. Businesses of all sizes across the UK are being urged to join the Charter and pledge their support to tackling the issue of sleep deprivation in the workplace, and ultimately looking at putting provisions in place to prevent it.
Vicki Beevers, The Sleep Charity CEO, said: “It’s been well evidenced that a good night’s sleep is vital for mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. But for far too long sleep has been overlooked as part of our wellness routine, and we are now seeing a huge impact on individuals and the inevitable knock-on effect this causes to businesses.
“We are working hard to raise awareness around the impact of sleep deprivation as a health and safety risk and the lack of support available. We need to get influential people to support us and that’s why we asked James and the team at Levitex to help us to spread the word about our campaign. Our mission of educating the nation on the importance of sleep quality aligns with James’s work and it’s important this issue is placed on the radar of more businesses.”
James has a long history of working in the NHS, supporting patients with complex neurological conditions; chronically ill patients; and working with people in care homes. His work is focused on the importance of sleep posture – ensuring people understand how the position they lie in at night, combined with what they lie on, can have a massive impact on the quality of their sleep and overall health.
He said: “When I spoke with Vicki and The Sleep Charity team it was obvious that our end-goals were the same. It makes absolute sense for us to work together in this way so we can shout from the rooftops about how important tackling sleep issues are for the workplace. The figures around days lost are shocking and should be a wake-up call for everyone.
“On top of this, there is no provision for sleep in care homes or in hospitals – the places where you need it the most – and in everyday life. My mission is to get every NHS Trust and local authority in the country to offer a standardised provision of care that considers the position that you sleep in and the surface that you lie on, and makes us accountable to night-time positioning.
“Equipping these places and the staff that operate them with the right training and skills will improve patient outcomes, reducing the prevalence of pressure injuries and making the moving and handling of patients way easier for the care giver.
“The Sleep Equality Charter is a fantastic way to draw more attention to the importance of sleep and I’m proud to be supporting it.”
Any businesses or individuals wanting to support the Charter can pledge their support here: https://thesleepcharity.org.uk/get-involved/campaigning/
