Sleep on it

June 2026

Goodbye Substack

Not long ago, I woke up after a good night’s sleep and felt a surprising level of clarity about something. It wasn’t life changing, just a realisation that it was time to stop sending my newsletters via Substack.

I was keen to try Substack last year after hearing positive things about it. This platform was described as an ideal option for writers who want to share their ideas and be part of a friendly online community. The first time I used Substack, I was happy with how easy and simple it was to create an email newsletter compared to what I’d experienced before.

Then before I hit ‘send’, I found out that every update sent by email is also automatically posted to the Substack website and app. I didn’t feel completely comfortable about this. At the same time, all my articles previously sent by email are also publicly available on my Archives page anyway, and I was advised that if I put up a paywall on Substack, I could keep certain details private as well as deter online trolls. 

So originally, I offered the main content of each newsletter for free, while keeping the details of monthly winners/prize draws and the ability to post questions behind a paid subscription option. Then I had a few people ask if the free monthly consult was still being offered, as they couldn’t see any information about it anymore. I ended up removing the paywall months ago, so it would be clear again for everyone that the prize draw was still going ahead each month. Straight away, I began to receive some lovely comments about my writing too, now that it was free for anyone to post comments and questions.

Within days, however, those comments disappeared. After a bit of digging, I discovered that they’d been deleted by an automated spam filter on Substack, despite not being spammy at all. Those comments were directly related to the article above it, and contained no links or irrelevant, promotional messages. Even my own comments and replies had been removed by the spam filter! There was an option to appeal this, but that took me to a chatbot, which directed me to a help page, which took me back to the chatbot. It seemed futile to persevere with this, and as someone who doesn’t use social media for business anyhow, it didn’t seem overly important to restore comments. I was content to just keep sending newsletters each month as per usual without worrying about weird spam filters and having everything posted publicly. 

However, when I woke up knowing it was time to move on from Substack, I didn’t feel I’d be missing anything, and I hadn’t even consciously thought about it for a while. It reminded me of other times when I’d received a clear idea or solution first thing in the morning, even about things I’d given up on trying to figure out or solve.

Take a Nap

There’s now a large body of research showing how beneficial it is to receive adequate rest – not just to keep our physical body functioning well, but for our mental and emotional state as well. Sleep has been shown to help memory, learning, mood, creativity and problem solving, because our brains tend to work in amazing ways behind the scenes while we’re not consciously thinking. Is it any wonder then, that a problem can seem to solve itself after a decent sleep? (This is consistent with the notion of forgetting a problem to solve a problem).

Such benefits have been shown to occur even after a short nap. This means you don’t have to necessarily wait until tomorrow morning to get clarity on something. If you’re stuck on an issue, try taking a break in the form of a nap, and see if any pearls of wisdom arise afterwards; these can be disproportionate to the amount of time invested in a little rest.

Not everyone is a fan of napping. I used to hate naptimes when I was a kid. It was difficult to get to sleep and then I’d wake up feeling grumpy. Now, I think they’re fantastic. The insights, clarity, and peace of mind that often follow a nap are priceless.

So, if you’re feeling indecisive about anything, maybe try taking a nap.

Can’t hear your intuition? Take a nap.

Overwhelmed with a problem? Take a nap.

Feeling good, but want even more clarity? Take a nap.

Sleep on it

In Lesson 1 of the Clear Channel Course, one of the suggested homework tasks is to write down five questions about anything you’d love to have more clarity on. Those questions can be reviewed just before bedtime, then in the morning, you can write down any new insights or answers that may have come through. People are often surprised at how many aha moments and clear answers pop up after simply writing a question down the night before and then sleeping on it. In light of what we now know about napping, you could try this practice before a nap as well. See for yourself if it works.

Whenever I do this exercise, an answer usually comes up for one or more (sometimes all five) of the questions that have been written down. Occasionally it becomes clear that it’s too early for me to receive an answer yet, so the answer is simply to wait – that alone is good to know.

Focusing on a long list of questions seems to have a diluting effect, and it’s common for nothing to come through strongly about any question. So, it’s okay to write one or two or three questions, but more than five is not recommended.

I invite you to try this in the week ahead. Write down 1 to 5 questions before you go to bed, then let your subconscious mind do the rest. Don’t forget to write down any new insights when you wake up. While it can be enough to just hold your questions in your mind the night before and hope for clarity the next day, it really does work more powerfully when you write stuff down.

Happy napping!

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