Carrie Dils guest hosts this episode of ZenFounder and interviews Dr. Jeffrey Clark, a psychiatrist and entrepreneur, who has developed an expertise on sleep. They talk about how to build better sleeping habits and its long term benefits.

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Episode Transcript

Sherry Walling:

Hey guys. Today’s episode is hosted by my good friend Carrie Dils. Carrie Dils is a force within the WordPress community. She’s also the host of TheOfficeHours.fm podcast, and she is an incredibly stellar human being. Anyone who’s in a room with Carrie is laughing, is feeling listened to, is feeling cared about, and she’s way smart. She today is going to interview Dr. Jeffrey Clark. Jeff is a psychiatrist and an entrepreneur. He’s also someone who is developing this deep expertise in sleep, and anyone that I have talked to in the entrepreneurial community is struggling with this. Often, sleep is the first thing to go when we’re busy, and when our families and businesses have demanded us.

 

Jeff has some awesome wisdom to throw down, and some great strategies, and I think this is going to be probably one of the most important episodes that we put out this year because of the importance of what Jeff has to share. Carrie is hosting today because Rob and I just had some things happening in our family that have made us say, “Wow, we need to slow things down and we need some help.” I asked Carrie to help, and she did amazingly with two days notice. Took over this interview for me, and she’ll be hosting the podcast this week, and then another one in the coming weeks, and I’m so grateful to her for stepping in and helping out, and Rob and I will be back on soon, and explaining a little bit of about some of the crazy and amazing things that are going on in our lives, and in the meantime I give you Carrie and Jeff.

Carrie Dils:

Jeff, it is really wonderful to have you on the show today. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on.

Jeffrey Clark:

Oh, my pleasure. Glad to be here.

Carrie Dils:

Yeah. One of the things that particularly excited to talk about, and when Sherry asked if I would be willing to do this interview I was like, “Heck yes,” because this is a topic that is fascinating on multiple levels, and applies to absolutely everyone, and that is sleep. Maybe just kind of briefly share how did you … You’re a psychiatrist. How did the sleep component come to be something that you were particularly interested in?

Jeffrey Clark:

Oh, absolutely. I started learning about sleep all the way back in … During my undergraduate degree. I was a neuroscience major, and so sleep is one of the most interesting physiological functions of the brain, and it turns out to be important for all sorts of diseases and illnesses, and in my roles as a psychiatrist I treat a lot of people who have sleep disorders on top of anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder. Also, I found that in a lot of my colleagues, sleep was a major challenge, and I just started to get more and more interested in it during my first year as a resident where I was working 80+ hour weeks most of the time.

 

I realized I was just totally burnt out, and tired, and frustrated. Sleep became a personal passion of mine. How to figure out how do I get better sleep? Even with limited time I can find a way to hit the