Our co-founder Mathias Deceuninck recently elaborated on the global sleep pandemic we're currently in as well as on the vision for 8hours in an interview with Diana Goderich for The Brussels Times.
Read the full article below or here.
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In our fast-paced world sleep is often seen as the ‘gap’ in our productive hours, after all – it is 7 or 8 hours of unconsciousness - unable to work, or socialise with friends, workout or polish our newest hobby, so why would you care?
We find ourselves in the era of flexible working, 4-day work weeks and overall rethinking of career paths, but at the same time facing revenge bedtime procrastination and mental health pandemic… This begs the question – how does sleep come into all of this? And what can we do, to ensure that our lifestyle and our mental and physical health are supported in the best way? To answer these questions and more, I spoke to Mathias Deceuninck – one of the founders of 8hours – an Amsterdam-based start-up focusing on sleep and recovery.
Why is healthy sleep so important for us? What is its value in society today?
In a nutshell, society today is not wired and created for quality sleep and recovery. Scientists estimate 1 out of 3 adults worldwide is sleep deprived, but the real numbers could be much higher. You would be surprised how many people struggle to get good sleep – we are talking about a global sleep pandemic.
Sleep deprivation is not something to be taken lightly – it is linked to depression, burn out, diabetes and is a major co-factor in development of those and many other conditions. We all know the famous Snickers slogan “You are not yourself when you are hungry” – I think it’s more relevant to say “You are not yourself when you don’t get enough sleep”. After all, we die from lack of sleep much faster, than from lack of food.
What is quality sleep and how do we get it?
I can talk about this for hours, but I will try to break it down as much as I can. There are 3 main pillars to quality sleep. Society (or mindset), nutrition and movement:
In terms of society, we are in a bit of a pickle, because we are the only species that deprives itself of sleep on purpose. An animal will just sleep when they are tired (unless they are hunted at that moment) – but human lives are filled with things that disrupt our circadian rhythms – device screens, working schedules, illumination, just to list a few. It’s about recognising these disruptors and limiting their impact.
Nutrition is an important part of sleep, as sleep is a chemical process. A lot of what we take into our bodies disrupts our quality sleep – caffeine and other stimulants, sugars, alcohol. The classic night cap is a myth – even if you fall asleep easily afterwards, it deprives you from a refreshing night of recovery. You need to take nutrition into consideration when you are looking to build better sleep quality.
Lastly, movement – this is a very interesting and important one for 8hours. Our slogan is ‘sleep to move’, but you can also turn this around as ‘move to sleep’. Have you ever noticed how well you sleep after an active day? But if you lack movement, you will often find yourself sleepy during the day and wired up at night.
Who should care about us getting quality sleep?
First, you yourself should care, but actually society at large. It’s not just an individual’s problem but it impacts entire economies. It is estimated that the US economy loses 1.3 million productive working days due to employee’s lack of sleep, which leads to lower performance. That is a smashing 411 billion dollars of economic loss per year. Of course, this does not just happen in the US, as we see similar statistics popping up for countries like UK and Germany, and this is not counting impact from absences from depression and burn out.
There is a need for more information and tools to help people prioritize sleep and recovery, and as a result it will benefit us across the board – as individuals, as employees, organisations and governments. But we are far from where we need to be. On average trained medical professionals (who do not specialise in sleep science) get only 2 hours of training and education focused on sleep. That seems a little underwhelming for an activity we spend 25-30% of our life doing.
How did 8hours start out?
The idea for the company was born out of personal need and experiences. I started my professional career as a lawyer, working incredibly long hours and often through the night, basically existing in a constant state of sleep deprivation. Everyone in my team was going through the same thing, but what struck me is that lack of sleep was worn as a badge of honour, people would actually brag about how little sleep they got. At the end of day, it wasn’t actually good for the work – it led to mistakes and bad efficiency, and a lot of people got burned out. After experiencing some mental struggles, I quit, and spend the next 2 years deep diving into the science of sleep, reading mountains of available research of the workings of sleep and its impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. I used myself as a guinea pig to test a lot of the methods and theories, and that’s when I came up with the idea for the start-up and in 2021 8hours was launched.
So, what is the main idea behind ‘8hours’?
The main idea behind it is raising awareness around the importance of quality sleep and recovery as one of the main pillars of health – alongside nutrition and movement – and help people understand that sleep is essential to perform well, both physically and mentally. We started the company by providing tools to build around the ritual of sleep, setting the scene for an effective recovery, providing both the tools but also skills and knowledge needed to make them work for you. In the last 3 years the team has grown and so has the vision, we have spent the last 1.5 years developing a natural sleeping supplement that was launched as part of the new vision mid-November this year.
What is the new direction for 8hours launched in November 2023?
Well, you see the re-formed founding team is all ex-athletes or amateur athletes, who are invested and interested in what recovery can do for them. Athletic and adjacent brands on the markets now primarily focus on performance, the act of actually doing something, while we want to focus on the ‘off hours’, the ones that are often ignored and underestimated.
While that might seem a little niche, in our eyes everyone is an athlete, we also like to use the word life-lete – as long as they aim to lead a more body-conscious lifestyle and are open to a degree of change. Whether that be running a half marathon every weekend, or just walking your dog every day, if you incorporate movement in your life and strive for a better balance and better performance – both physical and mental – we feel that our mission is relevant.
The main focus of the re-launch will be the release of our scientifically developed natural sleeping supplement, but we aim to provide much more than just a product – we want to empower people to understand their bodies better and the role recovery plays, to take responsibility for their health. We sell a natural supplement, and yes, it definitely works – but if you are not intentional about you sleep, nutrition and movement, there’s really no point in just taking supplements. 8hours will help your healthy lifestyle, but it is not a substitute or a replacement for one. It’s important for us as a brand to be transparent about this, and set correct expectations, and we will continue to provide transparent information about our research, our product and the ways of working, and will also incorporate free voluntary sleep consultation sessions for our subscribers.
The first step towards taking the new 8hours public has already happened! We had our soft launch event during the Amsterdam marathon weekend, where we partnered up with other brands focused on recovery – such as the Belgian NA protein-beer Thrive - to set up a rest & recovery station, providing services to runners ranging from massages to ice baths to sleep workshops.
What are 3 key things you would like the reader to take away from this article, that would help them on their journey towards better sleep and recovery?
- First and foremost, get rid of the ‘we can sleep when we are dead’ mindset – sleep is essential for a healthy and productive life. Everyone needs sleep, you are not superhuman. Of course, sometimes you will get some less sleep because of a party or a late flight, but it’s about being aware and intentional about your sleep and recovery.
- My second tip is quite practical – here is an easy sleep framework that can help a lot, it is called ‘10-3-2-1-0’. Basically, it goes like this: 10 hours before bed – no coffee or stimulants, 3 hours before – no heavy meals, 2 hours before – no work and no alcohol, 1 hour before – no more screens and blue light. The 0 I personally find the most difficult – because it means zero snoozing in the morning – so get up as soon as your first alarm goes off!
- The third tip is pretty much what we believe in as a company – your quality of life and your overall health has 3 key pillars – recovery, nutrition, and movement – and having a sustainable routine within them that you can keep. It’s not about a monk-like lifestyle, because its better to be doing a 80% great job on all health pillars and keep that up for years, than do 100% and give up after a few months. It’s okay to sometimes break the rules – life is for living!
And with that, we wish the reader a blissful night of sleep..."