168. From REM To Rewards: The Science And Strategy Of Better Sleep

Sleep is not just another health tip; it’s the base that holds our diet, exercise, and mood together. We sit down with Vaughan, Discovery Vitality’s technical marketing lead to unpack why rest now sits at the heart of the programme, what the latest research reveals about global sleep debt, and how small changes in routine can lower real risks like diabetes, obesity, and depression. The conversation moves from science to practice, showing how duration, consistency, and quality work together—and what to do when life or shift work disrupts the ideal.

We share a practical blueprint for better nights: set a one-hour bedtime window, time caffeine wisely, and carve out a two-hour buffer from screens. Then we make it measurable. Vitality’s personalised sleep score blends your age, gender, chronic conditions, and activity to create a fairer 0–100 rating, so two people with similar sleep patterns can still get guidance that fits their context. You’ll learn three easy ways to track: via Apple, Samsung, or Garmin watches; through phone-based estimation; or with the Oura Ring.

Oura takes centre stage with best-in-class sleep tracking, readiness insights, a week-long battery, and a smooth path to get started in South Africa, including a home sizing kit. We explain funding options through Vitality goals or a straight discount, plus how consistent, high-quality sleep can now earn points—another route to that coveted diamond status. By the end, you’ll have a clear plan to improve sleep and a set of tools that turn rest into results.

Enjoyed the conversation? Subscribe, share it with a friend who needs better sleep, and leave a review telling us the one habit you’ll change tonight.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hello everybody, welcome to Know Your Money. I am Bronwyn Wayner.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

And I'm Craig Finch, and we are from Growth Financial Planning. We hope you enjoy our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hi everybody, we have Vogan from Discovery, who is the technic who does technical marketing for vitality. Hello, Craig. Hello, Vogan. Thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Likewise. Likewise. I think you're gonna chat about your favorite subject. Sleep.

Why Vitality Added Sleep

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yes. I'm ready to sleep. Yeah, I mean, we introduced sleep as a fundamental part of the vitality program heading into 2026. So I think it's it's worth unpacking.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Yes, absolutely. Um maybe you can just let us know what made you um bring that into vitality and then why sleep is so important and what you guys see.

The Health Risks Of Poor Sleep

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, no, 100%. You know, I think oftentimes when people think about health, they sort of think about um eating well and exercising as these key pillars of health. And although those are key pillars of health, the truth is that sleep is the foundation that underlies these pillars. Um, so for us, introducing sleep to the program was a no-brainer. I mean, we've done tons of research into sleep, and the findings are actually pretty shocking. Um, what we found is globally, one in three people aren't sleeping well, and the effects of that are actually very drastic. You know, poor sleep habits result in a 22% higher risk of dying sooner. Um, it also results in a 70% higher risk of diabetes, 41% higher risk of obesity, a 20% higher risk of showing our depressive symptoms. So sleep is really fundamental to overall health. And as you know, at Vitality our goal is to make people healthier. So it felt like we we really needed to introduce sleep as part of our program.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Amazing. And what can a person do to get better sleep?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah. That's a very good question. Um, so I mean, we actually released a white paper last year on the power of sleep. So I'm hoping that the overview I give will make people excited enough to to go and read that white paper.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

You can put it in the link on this. Yeah, it is a very good question.

Three Pillars: Duration, Consistency, Quality

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Um but essentially good sleep is made up of three components. I think oftentimes when we think about good sleep, we just think about duration. We just think, oh, am I sleeping my seven to eight hours? And duration is an important part of good sleep. However, another important part is actually sleep consistency. So that's do you go to bed at the same time every evening? And I think that's something that people often overlook, but that's an extremely important part. And then lastly is the quality of your sleep. So it's not just about going to bed at a consistent time and sleeping for seven to um eight hours, but it's also trying to get high quality sleep. So I mean, very high level if you're getting more than 15% of REM sleep, and yeah, the same for deep sleep, we consider that as good quality sleep. So I think that's important to point out that sleep is multifaceted. It's not just how long you sleep, but there's also a consistency element and a quality element to it.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So should you go to sleep at the same time every night? That's a big Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Um, I mean, obviously we know we we're not robots, unfortunately. So if you can just try and keep it within a one-hour window of your own.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

What's the reason for that?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Like Um it it's just more how your body sort of releases its hormones and your um, I guess, uh circadian rhythm. It just helps your body kind of just know when to do what if there's that consistency.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Like a routine. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

And I've heard a lot of chat about um shift work. Some people are that's quite bad for you. Yeah, is that the consistency of sleep? Exactly. So I think always sleep at the right time.

Circadian Rhythm And Shift Work

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, 100%. I think that's where the complexity comes in with with people who work shifts, where you can find some nights you're working uh night shift for four nights, other times you're working mornings. So in that case, obviously, consistency of sleep becomes a lot more difficult. But then, you know, in those cases it becomes important to prioritize duration and then quality of sleep. As I said, it is multifaceted. So ideally you do well in all three, but if you can't, because life happens, you know, trying to to sleep as well as you can by considering those three facets.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So now if you found out that you're not getting that deep sleep or that REM sleep, like have you guys got tips or tools of how a person can actually change that?

Daily Habits For Better Sleep

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Um yes, 100%. So in the paper, actually, which we'll share in the link, they have this beautiful diagram which actually almost plots out how to set up your day to achieve optimal sleep. If I'm thinking some of the stuff is like uh to kind of limit uh caffeine intake to four hours before bed, uh to not have screen times two hours before bed. So that's the thing. I think oftentimes we think, oh, I'm just gonna show up at night and have an amazing night's sleep, but it's actually you have to be preparing for a good night's sleep as soon as you wake up. Um and I think the the the paper really unpacks that and we'll get a look at it.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Screen time, is that television and time on your cell phone?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yes, correct. Your laptop, everything. Anything like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Two hours before you use. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

So so what do you do for those two hours? Listen to podcasts?

Vitality’s Personalised Sleep Score

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, listen to podcasts, uh speak to people, think about life, journal. Exactly. Yes, okay. Yeah. So now how do you know you're sleeping badly? The one way to know is through sleep scores. Um, and I think actually one of the exciting stuff we introduced to the program was our very own vitality sleep score. So essentially this is a score zero to a hundred that tells members how they're sleeping. So anything above a 75 is considered a good sleep score. And what makes our sleep score different to, let's say, an Apple or a Garmin sleep score is that we actually factor in your personal information. So we'll look at stuff like your age, your gender, your chronic conditions, uh, physical activity levels, and give you a personalized sleep score. So you and I could have the exact same, I guess, sleep trend, same amount of REM sleep, same duration and whatever, but we might have slightly different sleep scores just given that we're different people.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah. And the score, is it a questionnaire that you fill out? Is that how you know?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

No, so actually you can track your score in three different ways. Um the first one is you can use a smartwatch. Um, so there you can either use an Apple, Samsung, or Garmin smartwatch. Um, you would see they have their own sleep score that would then feed through to us, and we would do our adjustments and give you our sleep score. A second way in cases where people might not have a smartwatch is you can actually just track your sleep through your phone. Um, so we developed this interesting technology where we can essentially estimate your duration of sleep and when you went to sleep just by looking at how you interact with your phone.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I mean, I know how do you switch that on and how do you let Discovery read that?

Tracking Options: Watch, Phone, Ring

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, so it's just uh through the app. Um so you'll just have to yeah, accept permissions and then that's all you do, nothing else. Um so yeah, I mean, I know we chatted about earlier, you know, ideally you limit screen time two hours before, but we know in the modern world, oftentimes the phone is the last thing we look at before we go to bed and the first thing we look at when we wake up. Um so yeah. And then the third way, which is something I'm really excited about, is actually tracking sleep through our new partner, um, which is Aura. Um, Aura is essentially a smart ring that tracks your health. Um, so it tracks stuff like readiness, stress levels, and so forth. But it's really known to be best in class for sleep. Um, and we've partnered with them exclusively in South Africa to actually bring Aura to our members.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

So physically you put a ring on and that finds out or that monitors your sleep rate. Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

So it actually tells you, you know, how long you slept, um, when you fell asleep, it tells you the quality of your sleep, um, the percentage of REM.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Does it need to charge or how does it work to work?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

It does need to charge, um, but it charges extremely quick. So I mean, on a full charge, it lasts about a week or so. And when you charge it, it's like an hour and it's fully charged.

Oura Partnership And Features

SPEAKER_02 8:27

So Do you wear it during the day or only when you sleep?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Um I mean I wear it during the day because I find the insights very helpful because it also tells you sort of stress levels, it tells you you're breathing.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

How are you doing now on this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I'll have to look at the app. Um but yeah, so for me personally, I wear it throughout the day. Um I think it also then just helps you see sort of how how you're performing during the day and how you know the the stuff that come up during the day are affecting your is it available now?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Yes, it is. It is so and you can switch it on now and you can fix it now.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

100%. And there's sort of two ways in which people can get it. So they can either fully fund an Aura ring, um, which is, I guess, sort of like Apple, where you just achieve in this case your weekly sleep goals. Um, if you achieve four of them in a month, and then you can fully fund it. Um and in cases where people don't want to go the fully funded route, um, they can also get a 25% off up.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

And you sleep only at night, or what about some people have a nap in the afternoon or on the um so I mean Aura does factor in your naps during the day.

Buying, Sizing, And Wearing Oura

SPEAKER_00 9:32

But I think it's important to make sure that you keep naps to a minimum because that then has a ripple effect on your your sleep at night. But it does factor in naps. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

And can you go into a specific store to buy those or?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um so you can get them in the I mean you can see the size of them in our stores, um, in the Discovery stores. Uh, but the sort of journey we have for members is very seamless. Uh so you can just uh I guess log into your discovery profile and you'll see the journey is very seamless. To figure out your size, they actually send you a sizing kit beforehand. I think there's rings of about 12 different sized rings in there. So you can test it for a day, see which size works for you, and then choose your size uh size, and then within a couple of days you you should have your ring delivered to you.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

All on the app?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Okay. On the website as well? Yeah, okay. Both of those.

unknown 10:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah.

Earning Points Through Sleep

SPEAKER_02 10:24

And you get points for getting a ring, or you get points for the sleeping?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah, you get points for sleeping well. Um so if you achieve a sleep score of 75 or more and you tracked at least 25 nights of sleep um in a particular month, then you'll get five hundred points.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

And they have they increased the points or are the points still the same?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Uh the points uh threshold. Yeah, that's exactly the same.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

So this is uh even an uh another way of getting points sleeping.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Exactly. And look, again, we we know that HALT is holistic, you know. So we want members to be able to reach the coveted diamond status, whether you, you know, value or prioritize exercising or sleep or eating well. So it's just another way in which members can can reach diamond.

Closing And Listener CTA

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time and all your insights. It's been awesome having a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Thanks so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this podcast or would like to subscribe, please visit our website www.growth.fp.co.za. The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion. For more detailed information, please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner.