Sleep Well, Work Well, Live Well

My grandmother had very strong views about sleep. I forget how many times she used to say “it’s not called beauty sleep for nothing”. It was indeed remarkable that when I went to stay with her I did sleep much better than I did at home. Of course, I found it laborious making the bed with the crisp sheets and pure wool blankets, which had an uncanny knack of falling off in the night if I hadn’t made the bed properly that morning. But it was worth it. There. However, back home in London where I was always on the go, I preferred my duvet, which was quick to throw back across the bed and I could roll up in like a cocoon to hide myself away from the trials and tribulations of life and the sleepless nights that I spent thinking about them.

I noticed that those nights when I had slept well, which didn’t necessarily mean longer but the nights where the sleep was rejuvenating, I awoke refreshed, alert and enjoyed my work. They were few and far between; frequent enough though to give me the impetus to resolve to get myself into a virtuous cycle of sleep.

We all know the basics about how to improve our sleep: don’t drink caffeine, stop thinking about work before you go to bed (really, how often have you succeeded in that?!?), go to bed at a regular time, don’t eat too late in the day, get enough exercise, and so on. In my experience none of these really helped enough to get me to the Shangri-la of a good night’s sleep. Good sleep is both a symptom and a cause of a healthy lifestyle. And yet, it eludes so many.

There’s a wonderful story about Yogi Bhajan when he first arrived in the West in the late 1960s. A group of university students arrived for his lecture on their campus only to find him sitting in full lotus position on a table on the podium. He simply said that the problem with westerners is that they don’t know how to relax; in fact some couldn’t even sleep properly. He then lay down on his right side with his head resting on his arm, legs bent, with his eyes closed to demonstrate the correct sleeping posture, and went to sleep himself. Five minutes later, he sat up saying “that is how it is done”, and left.

For many years now each night I prepare myself for sleep consciously using techniques he recommended, with very good results. All hours of sleep are not though equal, and it’s definitely worth taking 20 minutes of sleep time to improve the quality of the rest of the night. That’s part of the story. The other is the environment in which you sleep.

It was in my quest to improve my sleeping environment that I first came across Caroline Bodger, who founded White Cloud Trading with her husband, Guy. Memories of Grannie’s disdain for the manmade fibres in my duvet finally prompted me to do something about it. Natural fibres had to be the answer.

White Cloud Trading imports the most beautiful, extremely high quality wool duvets, under-blankets and pillows from New Zealand. Wool is successful for bedding because it can breathe, and absorbs and releases moisture, keeping you at a consistent temperature all night. You therefore don’t toss and turn, which means that your heart rate slows down, inducing a relaxed sleep. I speak from personal experience of sleeping with a wool duvet, summer and winter (in different weights) because I genuinely wake up feeling more refreshed than when I’ve had either a synthetic or feather duvet. I also love snuggling under it in the winter when it’s cold because it warms me up quickly too.

Caroline’s passion for her product and her desire to improve others’ lives through helping them to enjoy a good night’s sleep are really heart-warming. There is though so much more to her to inspire you as well. Caroline obviously sleeps well, but she also works well and lives well, combining the domestic and income generating life of the household into one.

Inspired herself at how a wool duvet, purchased in New Zealand, had overnight solved her son’s sleepless nights (and consequently improved the happiness quotient of the family) she wanted to share that with others. It was the germ of an idea to start a company importing them to England, where they had now moved back to.

Caroline had often said to her husband, Guy, that it would be really good if they worked together. Guy was very driven, and up until then had worked for other people, working long hours and getting stressed: he was just the classic ideal worker. Guy wanted to provide for the family, but the family wanted him. Caroline felt that the family were getting the thin end of the deal: all that effort could be put into something that they could do together. Guy was adamant that they could only make setting up their own company together work if it wasn’t going to be a hobby, and he expected Caroline to pull her weight. Till then she had been the last person that any of her friends and family had ever imagined would run her own company. Guy was asking her to up her game, just as she was asking him to reconsider his.

Setting up White Cloud Trading has been the best thing that they have done, both for themselves and for their children. It’s brought them closer as a couple, and given a focus to the family – they often consult their teenage children who are studying Business in school -, and made their house and office into a home, where the children know that their parents are if they need them. They have also received enormous support from their friends, who have a can-do attitude, and their main supplier, who put a lot of faith in them to make it happen.

What though inspires me most is how Caroline herself has developed and grown through the whole process. She has gone from being feeble at pushing herself forward (her words) to being more assertive, happier, relaxed and fulfilled. Caroline’s self confidence grew gradually without her noticing it. One day she realised “oh my goodness, I’m somebody, that’s me who’d left school with no maths, I’d never passed a maths exam in my life, and now weirdly I like doing things with maths. It’s astonishing what you can do when you really believe in it; you can jolly well do it.”

She and Guy have also developed a very healthy way of working, where they don’t compete with each other and agree to agree, and if one of them doesn’t agree they don’t tend to do it. They also have absolute belief in their product and their brand identity which allows them to discriminate when people give them their opinions. As the business has developed they’ve recognised that they needed to stop doing everything themselves and to pay for specialist areas of help to concentrate on the main areas of the business which is the ethos, the customers and suppliers.

Most of all though what shines from Caroline and White Cloud Trading (named after the native name for New Zealand of the Island of the Long White Cloud) is the total enjoyment they have in living and working well. Their innate kindness, their unwavering belief that it could be done, and selling products which improve people’s lives, have brought miracles into their lives at times when they needed them most. They are indeed reaping the just rewards of having been brave, been out there and been prepared to give it their all. I, for one, go to sleep every night including them in my list of things and people I am deeply grateful for that day.

To listen to my Regally Graceful™ Teleseminar interview with Caroline click here

To read my list of what works to get a good night's sleep click here