Uganda's certified sleep coach, Carolyn Busingye has called on Ugandans to take sleep seriously if they want to improve their health, productivity and overall well-being.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Sleep Code event held at Protea Hotel Kampala Skyz, Busingye officially launched her practice and rallied participants to rethink how they approach rest.
The event, themed Discover the Sleep Code, brought together professionals, wellness enthusiasts and individuals sharing real stories about sleep struggles, alongside proven strategies for better rest.
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According to Busingye, her work focuses on teaching people how to achieve quality sleep rather than just "shutting down for a moment to reboot."
She revealed that her journey into sleep coaching was sparked by personal battles with insomnia during the COVID-19 lockdown.
She also drew inspiration from clients of her bedroom and bathroom linen business, many of whom admitted they were not sleeping well despite using high-quality products.
"I realised, you know, if it's serving them, if it's helping them, why am I sitting on this information just because I used it for myself? It worked for me. So I went back to school to really understand beyond what I had read on Google, how sleep works, what it does to the body, and how I can actually help my clients recover like I did," she said.
According to Busingye, lack of proper rest has wide-ranging consequences on people's lives.
"Many of us world over don't reach optimal performance, productivity, well-being because among many other things, yes, we are not sleeping well. We are tired. We are irritable. We are not showing up the best we can. And, yes, it will affect how we show up as parents, siblings, at work, in our communities," she stressed.
She added that understanding the value of sleep is the first step.
"For me, the first level is for people to understand why sleep is important so that they know why they should prioritise it, why it shouldn't be something that we just do at the end of the day. Something that we plan for right from the beginning of the day," she explained.
On the challenge of balancing night shifts with healthy sleep patterns, Busingye noted that while human bodies are designed to follow the natural rhythm of day and night, it is possible to adapt.
"In a 24- hour period, a healthy adult should get at least seven to nine hours of quality sleep. So if you work a night shift, use the daytime to sleep. If you work two jobs, structure it in such a way that you're still putting in enough time to sleep," she advised.
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Busingye closed with a simple appeal to the public, urging them to stop treating sleep as an afterthought and start seeing it as a vital part of their daily lives.
"Go to the Internet, research why sleep is important, why it's beneficial to your body and to your mind, and the things that you can do to sleep better. Little tweaks that we can do to improve our sleep will ultimately improve our health and our well-being."
