A former insomniac who’s appeared on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to share his research and tips on sleep, has given talks to staff at an island bank.

James Wilson, known as ’The Sleep Geek’, gave four seminars to Douglas Standard Bank International staff on how to achieve a better night’s sleep.

This was part of the company’s ongoing commitment to support employee wellbeing. The four talks focused on general sleep, sleeping through menopause and sleeping when you have young kids.

The sleep behaviour and environment expert has appeared on Channel 4’s TV series of The Secrets of Sleep, which helped people with severe sleeping disorders.

Mr Wilson also provided slots for one-to-ones for staff to talk about their sleep issues.

’Sleep is something that underlines everything we do,’ he told the Examiner.

He listed work productivity, healthy eating and mental health as examples of things that can be negatively impacted by a lack of sleep.

’My family made mattresses and I was the one who couldn’t sleep,’ he said. ’My grandad, who was the original mattress-maker and had previously lived in Onchan for 10 years, told me not to drink caffeine nor smoke and to make the room dark. I did all of those things and it didn’t work. He said: "You’re not doing it right".’

Wanting to look into the issue more, he began working with a number of families and individuals with sleeping problems and found that the same message had previously been said to them: ’It’s all your fault you’re not getting sleep.’

This encouraged him to delve deeper and over the years he’s worked with a range of experts on the subject.

To the Standard Bank staff, he advised them to:

â?¢ Always make sure you wind down, even if you are shattered. This will help you not only fall asleep but sustain sleep;

â?¢ As you start the wind down routine, make sure you are ready for bed and you can just get up and go to sleep when you are sleepy;

â?¢ If you are in bed for 30 minutes and not asleep, then get up and start again or listen to something;

â?¢ Have a consistent wake up time. Don’t lay in for more than an hour and a half. If you do, you are giving yourself a form of social jet lag;

â?¢ Don’t compare yourself to others. Work out your sleep need and what good sleep feels like to you.

Talking about the menopause, he said it’s the good sleepers who tend to suffer more because - unlike poor sleepers - they’re not used to a disturbed pattern.

He added: ’Menopause is being talked about more in the workplace and that’s good. It’s how it should be. I find it strange this happens to every single woman and yet we hide away from it.’