Professional Standards Often Begin With A Conversation
Sleep coaching is a n industry that lacks professional standards, here is the story of how Ian and I started the process of rectifying that…..
This week we have our second guest article, and it’s written by someone I’ve been fortunate enough to work alongside over the past few years, Ian Braid.
I first met Ian on the day Queen Elizabeth II died. It’s funny how the biggest moments in history become intertwined with our own memories. While the news was unfolding, I was on the South Bank in London for a SportsAid dinner celebrating a project we’d delivered around the Commonwealth Games.
We got talking over dinner and, we both liked the cut of each other’s jib. Ian has all the hallmarks of a great collaborator. He knows when to champion people, when to challenge them, and how to do both in a way that makes ideas, organisations and the people around him better.
Ian has spent much of his career helping shape leadership, athlete welfare and professional standards across sport. As Chief Executive of the British Athletes Commission he was a leading voice in improving support for athletes and contributed to the work that informed Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s landmark Duty of Care in Sport Review. More recently, he has chaired CIMSPA Specialist Expert Groups, bringing together experts from across different disciplines to develop the professional standards that underpin education and practice.
I’ll now hand you over to Ian in his own words. (The latest news that I have been reading in Sleep This Week are at the end of the article…..)
Start At The Start
Professional standards rarely emerge from boardrooms alone. More often they begin with conversations, trusted relationships and recognising a gap that nobody else has yet addressed. Looking back, that’s exactly how this story unfolded.
Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it’s a chance meeting with someone who later becomes a trusted colleague. Sometimes it’s attending an event that creates an unexpected opportunity. Occasionally it’s both.
I first met James Wilson – better known as The Sleep Geek – when I was a Trustee of SportsAid, the charity that works with National Governing Bodies to identify and support the next generation of talented athletes. At that time, SportsAid’s support focused primarily on financial awards. During my time on the Board we broadened that support to include advice and guidance for athletes and their parents. James became one of the experts helping us explain the importance of sleep within a performance environment.
Fast forward a few years. One thing I have learnt throughout my career is that if you build relationships on mutual trust and respect, time apart rarely matters. Good people tend to find each other again, particularly when they share similar ambitions. My work around duty of care and professional standards in sport has always sat comfortably alongside James’ passion for improving sleep and wellbeing.
That happened at Elevate, the annual trade event for the sport and physical activity sector at London’s ExCeL. I was there supporting longstanding DOCIAsport client CIMSPA. Much of my work with CIMSPA has involved developing minimum professional standards for the workforce. For example, I chaired the Specialist Expert Group that created the professional standard for practitioners working with people living with long-term mental health conditions. Independent professional standards give employers, participants, parents and insurers confidence that training has been rigorously assessed and benchmarked.
During our conversation James and I realised there was no recognised professional standard for sleep within the sport and physical activity workforce, despite its obvious relevance for coaches, personal trainers and many other practitioners. We also acknowledged that the wider sleep industry remains largely unregulated in the UK, leaving consumers without the reassurance that recognised professional standards can provide.
Although I am certainly not a sleep expert, I do understand how robust professional standards are developed. Together we produced an initial draft before I was asked to chair CIMSPA’s Specialist Expert Group for Sleep. James was joined by Louise Berger, Ben Pratt and Sandy Wilson, who brought a wealth of expertise and challenged every aspect of the draft. Over the past year we debated, refined and strengthened the document before it progressed through consultation and CIMSPA’s independent governance processes.
Once final approval is received from CIMSPA’s Workforce Professional Development Board, Awarding Organisations, training providers and higher education institutions will be invited to benchmark their qualifications and courses against the new standard.
For those working in sport and physical activity, this fills an important gap. Better informed practitioners will be better equipped to support people’s health, wellbeing and performance through evidence-based sleep practice. For James, I know this is only the beginning of a wider ambition to raise professional standards across the sleep industry.
Looking back, none of this happened by accident. It began with a conversation many years ago, continued because relationships were maintained, and has resulted in something that has the potential to improve professional practice across an entire sector. That is often how meaningful change happens. It is also what DOCIAsport exists to do: identify important gaps, bring the right people together and collaborate to bring about sustainable change. Change that ultimately benefits both the sector, giving better professional careers for those working in the sector, and the people who matter most, the participants in sport and activity.
Ian Braid
MD, DOCIAsport.co.uk
July 2026
ian@dociasport.co.uk
😴 Sleep This Week
🛏️ Somnigroup Expands into Denmark with SENG Acquisition
Somnigroup has acquired Danish bed retailer SENG from Lars Larsen Group. SENG operates 28 stores across Denmark alongside a growing online business and will continue trading under its own brand. The move further strengthens Somnigroup’s strategy of combining manufacturing with retail, giving it greater insight into how consumers shop for sleep products while expanding its European footprint.
📊 Mattress Sales Fall, But People Are Still Buying Better Beds
The International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) has released its latest Mattress Industry Trends Report, showing that 13.2% fewer mattresses and bases were sold by manufacturers into the US market during 2025 than in 2024. Despite selling fewer products, the value of the market fell by only 6.5%, suggesting consumers continue to choose larger and more premium mattresses when they do replace their bed. It’s another reminder that value growth doesn’t always depend on selling more units.
⌚ Are Sleep Trackers Making Our Sleep Worse?
The San Francisco Chronicle has published an excellent piece exploring whether our obsession with sleep trackers is becoming part of the problem. Sleep clinicians warn that many people are placing too much faith in sleep scores and worrying unnecessarily about “perfect sleep”, leading to a phenomenon known as orthosomnia, where trying to optimise sleep actually makes it harder to sleep.
It’s a timely reminder that technology should support judgement, not replace it.
🇦🇺 Amelia Scott on Reading Sleep Research Properly
One of the people whose writing I increasingly find myself reading is Dr Amelia Scott. This week she highlighted one of the biggest problems in sleep science, the way individual studies are often over interpreted and turned into headlines that simply aren’t justified.
Her approach resonates with me because it starts with helping poor sleepers rather than chasing clicks. The sleep world needs more people willing to say, “That’s interesting, but let’s not get carried away.” Give her a follow on LinkedIn…..
👋 What I’ve Been Up To
England’s defeat to Argentina in the World Cup semi final was a bit of a downer as an Englishman, but earlier in the week I had the chance to talk to the Daily Mirror about Lionel Messi’s sleep as part of my role as Bensons for Beds’ Sleep Expert. The real lesson from Messi isn’t to copy his routine, it’s that elite performers understand what they need, both biologically and emotionally, and build habits that work for them.