Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Jeffries.
Hi Sarah, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Well, I’ll start with the fact that I’m not from the US, I’m originally from the UK, a little town in the North East of England called Sunderland. That’s where I learned my trade as an ER Nurse.
We moved here in 2011 after my husband (2008 Beijing Olympic boxing bronze medalist) turned professional, his new coach was based in Torrence. We fell in love with LA, so I began the process of transferring my Nursing license and took the CA board exam, and passed (I failed the first time) we got a green card pretty fast and the last 10 years have been an absolute whirlwind.
I got a job as an ER nurse at Saint Johns ER in Santa Monica, where I then became the ER clinical Nurse educator after getting my online master’s degree on maternity leave. When I tell people my story their first reaction is “oh my gosh, you must be busy”, we have three little California girls (4,6,7 yrs) so life is pretty hectic, to say the least.
Tony (my husband) is also the co-owner of Box ‘n’Burn gym, so our girls have grown up around boxing and health (they would always ask “who did you fix today mammy”).
Once COVID hit, my ER educator role became more stressful and less enjoyable, I was away from home a lot, the pressure was so intense, and my happiness was at an all-time low. of course, I didn’t talk about that, I just powered through, we moved to the valley and I took another promotion as a sepsis educator at Holy cross. This new role was a lot more hours, and way more stress, but this was all to better me right?!
How wrong I was, after only a few weeks, my body and mind shut down and I had what Drs described as a panic attack, of course, was in total denial. I had ignored my mental health and well-being for so long, always striving for more, always on to the next biggest and better thing (promotions, kids, supporting my husband) so my body took control and basically said “enough is enough”
I took time off and re-evaluated everything. the most important question was “my happiness” so I focused on that. This brought me back to my kids and back to my passion – which is helping people.
I started “The Greatest Sleep” from my own learning experiences. When I was working full-time and having back-to-back babies as well as doing part-time school work for my Master’s, one of the things I missed the most was Sleep. I was tired all of the time and was looking into ways to get the most out of my life and schedule – we’ve all heard the term Bio-hacking. But sleep is one of those things that you can’t hack, it’s constant and stable and has no compromise. It’s the most basic thing affecting our physical and mental health. That’s where my idea was created. One of the most positive ways to impact a person’s life is by helping them get “the greatest sleep” ever.
My background in ER, clinical education, being married to an athlete, and most recently completing courses on sleep therapy as well as looking into research and studies on sleep, get me excited…. oh, I also have a Youtube channel “Nurse Sarah Jeffries” it’s pretty cool!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not. I’m an ER Nurse through and through, and that will always be a part of me. So leaving that world to start something new seemed crazy.
I questioned everything, I wanted to run back to my comfort zone. A person (definitely not a friend) once told me “there’s growth in the squirm” and when you feel uncomfortable and confused, I think that’s actually a blessing. It means you are changing, that’s exciting to me, it took me a while to figure that out.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Greatest Sleep. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My Business is all about getting the best out of your sleep. I’m not a salesperson so I don’t have any fancy sales tactics or punchy brand advertisements. It’s honestly out of personal experiences and knowing that sleep is so underrated.
I’m from the health care field, from both sides of the Atlantic (and also the pacific – my brothers live in Australia) so I have a wealth of experience and knowledge in not only listening to Drs, specialists, and surgeons but also patients. Being a nurse is the communication between dr and patient, we are patients’ advocates, it’s both a huge responsibility and privilege.
After almost 2 decades in health care, I had never heard a dr or patient talk discuss their sleep habits in relation to health. This to me now is so crazy.
Sleep is the single most important thing we can do to immediately improve our health. And seeing the rise in social media addiction, dementia, Alzheimer’s, teen suicide rates, and mental health problems, this is an urgent need, not a luxury.
My website, along with Youtube, IG, Tik Tok, and Twitter, all offer education around sleep and some other health topics to keep the engagement going.
Most recently I started an online booking system offering zoom or FaceTime sleep consultations. This is the most exciting thing for me. As a Nurse and not a Dr, I know my limitations, I can’t and wouldn’t want to offer medications. It’s purely educational and very eye-opening to see the things people are doing to stop themselves from getting the health benefits of good quality and quantities of sleep.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Keep your mind and eyes open. You can find education and inspiration in the most unexpected areas.
It was very hard to not think that everyone in the health care field or ER was judging me for starting a YouTube channel, but my Husband is my biggest supporter and showed me, that there’s no right or wrong direction, only learning.
I was terrible at networking and had no social media skills – now look at me, I have a TikTok account. ha!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thegreatestsleep.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursesarahjeffries/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatestSleep
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nurse__SarahJ
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NurseSarahJeffries/about
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nurse_sarahjeffries
