103: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky - Episode 103103: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky - Episode 103
UK Health Radio Podcast
Host Andrew Colsky talks with behaviour analyst and Percy Sleep founder Connor Herman about her journey from sleep-deprived new mum to creating a contactless night-time monitoring device, with a special focus on autistic individuals’ sleep challenges. The conversation highlights how better environmental data can help clinicians address the real reasons people stay awake at night.
46:17•15 Sept 2026
Sleep, Sensors and Autism: How Percy Sleep Is Changing Night-Time Care
Episode Overview
- Sleep problems are often driven by environmental and behavioural factors that standard medical assessments miss.
- Objective night-time data can reveal hidden patterns, such as other people entering the room or light and noise changes, that disrupt sleep.
- In autism, untreated sleep issues are widespread, and better data can support behavioural approaches instead of relying on sedation.
- Contactless, no-video devices like Percy can offer detailed context while protecting privacy, especially for children and vulnerable adults.
- Improved self-report and sensor-based information helps clinicians address the root causes of chronic symptoms linked to poor sleep.
“There are zero people in our entire chain that could have addressed and pinpointed the one thing that would have made the difference.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how sleep – or the lack of it – can completely reshape a life. This episode of Sleep Science Today centres on Percy Sleep, a contactless, no-video monitoring device, and the powerful personal story behind it. Host Andrew Colsky chats with founder and CEO Connor Herman, who shares how severe postpartum depression, a sleepless baby, and later a grand mal seizure pushed her to rethink how we understand night-time problems.
She explains, “Nobody cared about my sleep,” highlighting how her distress was missed because no one was looking at what was actually happening at night. You’ll hear how Connor’s first company, Dream Team Baby, sent consultants into homes to help exhausted parents, and why that hands-on support eventually hit its limits.
That frustration led to Percy – a bedside device wrapped in fabric that measures light, sound, temperature, humidity, radar and thermal patterns to track what’s going on around a sleeper, without using video. As Connor puts it, “Percy is a sensor device that replicates a human being being in the room.” The episode focuses especially on autistic individuals, where an estimated 80% have serious sleep problems.
Connor, now a board-certified behaviour analyst, explains how Percy helps therapists and doctors see environmental patterns that might otherwise be missed – like a parent quietly playing video games all night in a child’s room – and supports more compassionate, practical interventions instead of jumping straight to sedating medication. This conversation is ideal if you’re curious about sleep tech, support for neurodivergent people, or how environment and behaviour shape rest.
It mixes personal struggle, science, and a bit of humour (including talk of monsters under the bed) to show why better data at night could mean better health by day. It might leave you asking: what’s really going on in your bedroom while you’re trying to sleep?
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