Leadership Character(istic)s - Episode 1: A Leader's Lullaby - Time to Boost Your Sleep

We often talk about resilience, mindset, and performance—but rarely about sleep. Yet it underpins all three. In high-performance environments, sleep is often deprioritised, even though it may be one of the strongest predictors of leadership performance and mental health.

For the first interview in the Leadership Character(istic)s series, Nina Kapp was the perfect guest. As a certified sleep specialist, psychotherapist, and systemic coach—with a 20-year background in retail finance reorganisation—she understands both the human and professional cost of running on empty.

What follows is a conversation about leadership, resilience, recovery, and why sleep may be one of the most overlooked strategic tools available to senior people today

"Sleep is not a luxury and not a weakness. It is one of the most powerful levers for leadership clarity, emotional stability, and long‑term performance.”

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What first drew you into this work?

I didn't come to sleep through theory—I came through lived experience. I spent almost two decades in banking and restructuring environments, where performance, speed, and responsibility were non-negotiable. I watched the smartest people in the room make the worst decisions. Not because they lacked competence, but because their nervous systems were running on empty. The pattern was always the same: declining sleep quality, rising cortisol, narrowing cognitive bandwidth. And nobody connected the dots.

Here is what finally shifted my perspective: we have brain imaging data that shows the difference between a rested and a sleep-deprived brain. A well-rested brain lights up across regions — prefrontal cortex, amygdala regulation, executive function networks all communicating. A sleep-deprived brain? Large areas go dark. They are simply offline. That is not a metaphor. It is a scan. And we are asking leaders to make high-stakes decisions in that state, every single day.

I have had sleep problems myself. At some point, it became clear to me that sleep is not a "soft topic" but a strategic one. I made the decision when I thought about what was the biggest part of my day-to-day work. It was the work with people, their personality. It was not about numbers and management information systems. It was all about people, the willingness to change behaviour, and to understand the passion and the motivation behind.

That insight took me into psychotherapy, sleep medicine, and systemic work—with the explicit goal of translating science into real-world, high-pressure environments. Sleep disorders are rooted in stress. Somebody has to tell people what is possible, and make people better without suffering, without burnout, without anxiety, or without depression. This was, and this is, the idea.

Why does sleep matter so much for leaders?

Sleep is the most important third of our lives. It has a crucial impact on our physical, mental, and emotional health. Sleep is related to dementia, to stroke, to cardiovascular problems, to diabetes, to burnout, anxiety, depression, and our decision-making, the quality of our decisions, and how we behave with ourselves and with the people around us—whether we go into conflict or try to talk to people in a calm way.

The data says it is anything but private. A landmark 2026 study published in the European Journal of Neurology by Bassetti, Welter et al. quantified the economic burden of sleep disorders across 47 European countries. The findings are staggering: €422.9 billion in annual costs — that is 3% of collective GDP in high-income Europe. And here is the part every CFO should underline: 52% of those costs are indirect — absenteeism, presenteeism, lost productivity. Direct medical costs are only 48%.

Why do so many senior leaders still treat sleep as optional?

There is no link in the economic bubble between sleep (and the quality) vs the performance we do on a day-to-day basis. But we have brain scans where we can show very clearly the difference between a rested brain and a sleep-deprived brain. The well-rested brain has more areas that can connect with each other. In the tired brain, the areas are not on. They are switched off. They cannot communicate.

There are urban myths there. Leaders need less sleep. I will catch up later. In crisis, sleep is optional. More and more, companies and individuals realise that sleep is something they did not play with in the past, but it has the biggest potential.

What changes when organisations treat sleep as a business issue?

Our performance minds are saying, I need to do more, more, more, more. And the suffering is quite normal because everyone around me is suffering as well. But sleep enables you to work on a new quality and to reach your personal and business goals in a whole different way, without burning. They have a good night's sleep, they are well recovered, and they feel whole different. More stable, more balanced, more regulated with their emotions.

Think about it this way: the Bassetti study found that insomnia costs between 0.49% and 0.89% of GDP in lost workplace productivity alone. We are talking about billions in invisible drag on output. That drag is sitting inside your organisation right now, in the form of people who show up but cannot perform to capacity.

And for leaders who always ask, “What difference does this actually make in practice?”, what data do you have from your programs?

Across my corporate programs, here is what we consistently measure: sleep debt reduced by over 50% within the programme period. Stress levels down by 20% or more. Self-reported productivity up by 21%. And at one client organisation, 90% of participants implemented healthier work habits that sustained beyond the programme.

“Our performance minds say, ‘I need to do more, more, more.’ But sleep enables you to reach your goals in a whole different way—without burning.”

Photo Credit: iStock

Where should someone start if they want to improve their sleep?

Consistency is key. Regularity is key. Stick to the same bedtime routines, the same bedtime and wake-up time. Stay hydrated, because a stressed mind is a stressed body. We know from science that a 2 percent dehydration raises your cortisol level up to 10 percent, and cortisol is your enemy when it comes to sleep.

And light. Light is information for your circadian rhythm. You need light exposure. In the darkest seasons, you can buy a light lamp and put it closely to your eyes within the first 30 minutes of your day. You can set your circadian rhythm and it is a kickstarter. So we have regularity, hydration, light, movement as much as possible, and stop doing stupid things.

To mention my dear colleague, Dr. Lutz Kraumann, "stop doing stupid things" means do not drink coffee within 10 hours before you go to bed, eat your last meal 3 hours before bedtime, and do not drink alcohol. Honestly, alcohol destroys the first cycles of the night, which are basically the most important for physical repair.

What makes your approach different?

I sit at the intersection of sleep medicine, psychotherapy, and the corporate reality. I do not just explain why sleep matters. I help people implement it under real conditions—in a stressful environment. My work combines clinical diagnosis, evidence-based psychology, performance and longevity science, and a deep understanding of executive systems and the whole corporate world.

I also collaborate closely with Dr. Lutz Kraumann, who has been head of medicine for the German Armed Forces, and Marcus Specht, who is a board member of the German Sleep Society with decades of experience in the field. When I have very difficult cases and we need the sleep clinic, that network is in place.

What do you find most satisfying about this work now?

It is absolutely satisfying because people want to change. They come in and say, I have this problem, what can we do? And then we work on it. I am helping people to sleep better. This is crucial for each and everyone's life.

When people leave my private practice, they are more happy than before. They can see the steps. They can see how they feel better, how they work better, and how they are more balanced than before. I am pretty sure I have the best job.

What kind of impact do you see over time?

It is about the impact I have that is absolutely invisible for other ones. For example, I am working with three people in the same family who are brilliant in their field. I have huge impact on this family in a very silent way. Nobody knows me, but I have a huge impact. That is incredible. That makes me proud.

Sleep problems have their roots in stress. What is stress about? Conflicts and problems that people have. Then we are working on the problems with good strategy and tactics, so the stress disappears. It is not just about sleep habits and strategies for emotional regulation. It is more than that, because I have this track record in banking.

Who tends to come to you, especially at senior levels?

The youngest has been 15, and the oldest one was 64. So it is male, female, mothers with four kids, young adults—the range is huge. And the smartest people come early.

For example, there is an analyst I worked with who was based in Frankfurt and promoted to London to quite an amazing company. He realised that sleep is crucial, and we sat down two months before his promotion. He said, I want to be stable. I want to be emotionally regulated. I want to be prepared for this upcoming position. He texted me one or two months into the job and said, I am so stable, my brain is working in a different way, and I feel energised late in the evening.

How did your method evolve?

I started with acceptance and commitment therapy because that was important to get my licence, and also because it is not that common in Germany. Then I did hypnosis and PEP at the same time, and then everything came after that. It was a period of three years where I had huge input, and that was so satisfying for me because my brain was empty and I had the absolute will to feed it with stuff I am interested in.

It is also not just sleep. I work with EMDR, clinical hypnosis, systemic coaching, and acceptance and commitment therapy. I am free in my way of working, so I can combine methods. The result is that there is a shorter way to reach the goals.

What myths about sleep still show up most in high-performance cultures?

There are several persistent myths, and most of them are expensive. "Leaders need less sleep." In reality, leaders need more sleep because their cognitive load, emotional regulation demands, and decision density are higher. "I will catch up later." Sleep debt does not work like a bank account. "In crises, sleep is optional." In crises, sleep is mission-critical.

Sleep regulates the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for impulse control, empathy, strategic thinking, and emotional regulation. When that goes offline due to poor sleep, what takes over is the amygdala — the threat-detection centre. Leaders become more reactive, less patient, quicker to escalate, and slower to listen.

Now multiply that across an executive team. You are not just dealing with one under-rested individual. You are dealing with a leadership culture that normalises short fuses, poor decisions under pressure, and chronic low-grade conflict. I have seen it in boardrooms across Europe. The problem is never labelled as sleep. It is labelled as “team dynamics” or “communication issues.” But when we stabilise sleep in senior leaders, we routinely see measurable improvements in decision clarity, reduced anxiety markers, and better interpersonal leadership — within weeks and without changing workloads.

“The smartest people come early. They don’t wait until their battery is at 20 percent before asking for help.”

What are you excited about next?

There are two books in the works. One is a blueprint for shift work, where we are trying to think about hospitals in a new way. The other one is some sort of The Rested Female Leader—that is the working name so far. We want to picture women's health in a different way. Especially menopause is a huge transformation, and there is a huge impact here for women in leading positions.

We are currently also working on an online course for pregnant women and for menopause as well.

Where can clients find you?

People usually connect with my work through different entry points: my podcast all.about.sleep; certified corporate and insurance-backed prevention programs; my private practice in Frankfurt; my book 'Time to Sleep'; and increasingly through LinkedIn, where I speak directly to leaders and decision-makers.

We are ending each interview in this series with the same question: what are you currently reading and listening to?

I am currently reading books about forests. I am listening to podcasts about longevity, politics in the world, and also fun stuff about how relationships work better. I need to feed my brain. That is very important for me.

And when I am not working, I am in the forest and I have an NGO in South Africa. We are helping disabled people to work with healthy people on a daily basis. The other project is that we help young adults through Osborne Blue Sky International. These are two passion projects I am supporting.

I am blessed because the forest is with my 73-year-old father and he is very fit, so we can both work there. It is a gift to do this with him.

If readers take one thing away from this conversation, what should it be?

Sleep is not a luxury and not a weakness. It is one of the most powerful levers for leadership clarity, emotional stability, and long-term performance. Ignoring it does not make you stronger—it just delays the cost. €423 billion in Europe alone. That number is not going down. The question is whether you address it strategically or continue to absorb it silently.

It was an absolute pleasure having Nina as our first guest in the series. If you want to find out more about Nina, you can see more about our collaboration together on our website in our 'Your Resilience and Sleep Catalyst' program or on Nina's website. We are thrilled to be collaborating together and for all the exciting projects Nina has in store for the remainder of 2026.