Sleep Coaching Review: Hiltrud Schlueter

As I had written in the mail I had sent last Friday I wanted to let the coaching session with Nick sink in a bit before writing a review or giving feedback. Misconceptions and the resulting conditioning built up over a lifetime don’t just disappear overnight. Hence a bit of a “trying out things” period first.

First things first: the coaching session in itself was a fantastic experience. I have to admit that I had been extremely nervous in the beginning, with me being German and English not my first language, plus being just an average Jane Public with pretty much an average Jane Public life. I was afraid that he might be feeling that I am wasting his time…

If there ever was such a moment where he thought “what am I supposed to do and say here” it did not come across. I am deeply impressed by the sincerity with which he had taken a lot of time both for me - and obviously for going through the questionnaire. Even if nothing had come out of the session, that alone would have been worth the investment. I did feel taken seriously throughout the session - plus it was fun, too!! Who’d have thought that when thinking about a topic like sleep…

Anyway, I digress…

I have had sleep issues most of my life. Long story there, but I am recovering from PTSD and a childhood not worth writing home about. Took me way too long to start tackling that aspect of my life, but that’s another story. The thing is, I didn’t know any better where sleep was concerned. I just thought I had a particularly light sleep and was proud that I could sleep almost everywhere, mainly in moving vehicles; unfortunately that also happened at times when I was behind the steering wheel...

The journey I started last year first made me take a break from alcohol which already greatly improved my sleep. Improved, but not solved all issues. During that time I first came across Nick’s session with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and, almost simultaneously, the podcast he had done with Andy Ramage on OYNB. Andy is not only one of the founding members of the latter, but also a magnificent coach in his own right. And it was in that context that we - a group of people training with him right now to implement dramatic changes in our lives - asked Andy to bring Nick on board. We are from all walks of life - one of us being a UN war crimes investigator, another one a UK TV producer with international acclaim - but in spite of our different backgrounds we were all struggling with this one topic: sleep. And we had all read the book, too.

What I want to say: we had high expectations, and they were still exceeded. And I can only say the same was true for my 1 -2-1 a week later.

I have since made some small shifts in my daily routines. Nothing big or revolutionary, just following up on the plan Nick had presented to me last week. But the changes “inside” are amazing. Just to mention a few of the biggest wins out of just one week:

Being a single (foreign) woman in a very small Austrian countryside village can have its perks. It’s fun most of the time. Half the village think I must have a secret lover. The other half would probably like to be that lover… anyway, I had a bit of an issue lately with one guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer. And in this neck of the wood the hillbillies have guns, so he was getting a bit massive. As was usual with me I was trying to “sit it out”, while at the same time tossing and turning at night because I felt deeply uncomfortable, to say the least. 3 days after the call I had one of those nights, tossing and turning, I mean. But then I thought about the cycles and the fact that it doesn’t have to be stressful - so I got up, took out a pen and paper and wrote down ideas what I could do about that i… individual in the village. Then I waited for the next cycle to start - and really DID fall asleep pretty much right away.

The biggest win for me, however, is that the energy levels across the day are starting to balance out. I used to have that massive spike in the mornings and another one late(r) in the evening, and the time in between I was in such a state of slump, being massively exhausted, grumpy, lacking mojo, and in dire need of sleep. This has not disappeared yet, but it is shifting noticeably. For three days in a row I have slept through. Well, I DID wake up shortly, but fell asleep again right away. I am still alert and energetic in the mornings, but that state lasts until later in the afternoon now, while my “evening pike” is disappearing. The last two evenings I was calm and felt pretty normal - and I was tired around the time I would want to go to bed if I wanted to have 5 sleep cycles (where in the past I’d still be on high alert hacking away on my keyboard). I might be losing a couple of highly productive hours out of the day, but I believe the pattern that is emerging is much healthier and way more sustainable in the long run. I don’t want to end up again where I have been last year in summer for sure…

Sorry for the long rant! I am just so happy about all the differences emerging that I felt the need to share :-) And what’s more, the changes seem to be noticeable on the outside, too. I feel calmer, less driven and pushy, and people do realise that too (and have started to comment on it).

I am already spreading the word in my various communities, and I will also write a review on social media and/or your program page, but I’ll need to condense what I want to say a bit more. Probably distill it to the level of a good Scottish single malt…

Oh well, as you can tell from this mail I am slightly challenged when it comes to “short and precise” at times, but I WILL get there!

Please give my regards and a heartfelt “thank you” to Nick.

- Hiltrud Schlueter

R90 Sleep Coaching is available here.