Only recently have scientific investigations been made to truly understand what constitutes good sleep habits \u2014 and the very serious effects of these habits on our health and cognition.<\/p>\n
In this piece we want to look specifically at work performance. From the lowest-ranking employee to the CEO, what is the effect of sleep? How damaging is a one-off or chronic lack of sleep, really, and does being \u201cwell rested\u201d actually make a difference?<\/p>\n If you suffer one night of less than seven hours of sleep, you are sleeping inadequately. If you regularly sleep six or fewer hours, you are chronically sleep deprived. It doesn\u2019t matter if you sleep like a baby or think you feel fine (we are hopeless at self-diagnosing), this lack of sleep is scientifically proven to be harmful.<\/p>\n In response to those who claim they\u2019re built differently and can survive on heavily limited sleep, let\u2019s quote Matthew Walker, a brilliant researcher and probably the world\u2019s foremost expert on sleep: \u201cThe number of people who can survive on 5 hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population, and rounded to a whole number, is zero.\u201d<\/p>\n In reality, we all need between seven and nine hours of sleep. This is a biological reality, not a choice. If your body needs nine hours and you keep giving it seven, you are going to feel serious long-term consequences.<\/p>\n Many of us burn the midnight oil during the week and then bag 10 to 12 hours of sleep on Saturday and Sunday \u2014 often after consuming alcohol. There are two things to know here:<\/p>\n While there is a detailed scientific explanation<\/a> of this, we can simply say that caffeine is a stimulant. It tricks your brain into feeling awake, while sleep-inducing chemicals silently pile up in the brain. This leads to crashing, more coffee, and eventually a horrible night\u2019s sleep.<\/p>\n Because of caffeine\u2019s lengthy half-life, the stuff is still racing through your brain as you sleep. Even if you sleep for eight hours, the quality of that sleep is impacted. The bottom line? Sleep more, drink less coffee.<\/p>\n Sleep-deprived individuals have a lower work rate and complete tasks more slowly<\/a>. They generate fewer and less accurate solutions to problems and, if given the choice, will consistently choose the least challenging tasks from their to-do list. They do this without conscious thought.<\/p>\n Ironically, this lower productivity often means working longer hours (to get everything done) and pushing back sleep even further. Because few employees or employers understand the power of this negative feedback loop, performance can continually degrade over time. We have said nothing about the cumulative effects on stress, relationships, and self-worth, which are closely tied to poor performance at work.<\/p>\n Numerous studies have demonstrated that sufficient sleep deprivation induces a level of cognitive impairment (hampered reaction time, coordination, judgement, etc.) equivalent to legal intoxication<\/a>.<\/p>\n The heads of organizations and high-pressure workers are usually the groups taking sleep deprivation to extremes. The CEO that\u2019s celebrated for working until 1:00 a.m. and doing their spin class at 5:00 a.m.; the ER doctor completing back-to-back 20-hour shifts; the startup founder who works 18-hour days \u201con the grind.\u201d<\/p>\n This low-sleep badge of honor is not only a major long-term health risk, it massively impairs our ability to think creatively, make decisions, and be a great leader<\/a>. FitBit\u2019s CEO James Park makes sleep a \u201cpriority,\u201d but only averages six hours a night, while\u00a0many CEOs get even less<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of Walker\u2019s studies found that a leader\u2019s lack of sleep directly correlated with them being less charismatic, having worse self-control, and being more abusive to others. More incredibly, the leader\u2019s sleep deficiency led to their team becoming less engaged in their jobs throughout that day.<\/p>\n By any metric, adequate sleep is essential for your business to grow, innovate, and generate profits \u2014 without sacrificing employee health and well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cHuman beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain,\u201d says Matthew Walker. The first area of our lives that most of us choose to sacrifice is sleep. We compromise our sleep for a whole laundry list of reasons, but fundamentally it comes from two misunderstandings:<\/p>\n Self-diagnosing sleep deprivation is probably the biggest \u201csleep mistake\u201d most of us make. Whether it\u2019s inducing sedation with alcohol, suppressing our natural sleepiness with caffeine, or simply buying into the notion that we can \u201cconquer\u201d sleep through willpower, most of us are simply not taking our sleep epidemic seriously. And that\u2019s bad for business.<\/p>\n The first step is education. From the top down, everyone needs to understand the mammoth importance of regular, high-quality, restorative sleep. Employers can rewrite the narrative around sleep, especially the glorification of burning the candle at both ends. Matthew Walker\u2019s eye-opening book Why We Sleep<\/em><\/a> should be mandatory reading for everyone in management.<\/p>\n In the workplace, early starts have become exceedingly fashionable \u2014 but a large percentage of the population is hard-wired to fall asleep later and wake up later. While it\u2019s possible to force an earlier routine, these employees will always be fighting their nature. This is not laziness (though it is heavily stigmatized) and one solution is to introduce core hours (say 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) and let employees fix their own wake-up times. This could lead to huge gains in productivity, job satisfaction, and employee well-being.<\/p>\n The new era of remote working<\/a> might also help. While there are issues around \u201cswitching off\u201d from work, the culling of lengthy commutes is a firm positive. Before the work-from-home<\/a> revolution, many workers would regularly commute one or two hours each way for work. And to make time for these journeys, sleep would inevitably take the hit.<\/p>\n Regardless, it’s time that your organization makes high-quality sleep habits a priority. At the end of the day, your employees, your senior management, and your company will all benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the U.S., the glorification of long work hours, early starts, and \u201coptimizing sleep\u201d is approaching fetishism. Rampaging through life with minimal sleep is impressive and virtuous, while snoozing nine hours a night or sleeping past 9:00 a.m. is considered lazy and unambitious. Only recently have scientific investigations been made to truly understand what constitutes good sleep habits \u2014 and the very serious effects of these habits on our health and cognition. In this piece we want to look specifically at work performance. From the lowest-ranking employee to the CEO, what is the effect of sleep? How damaging is a one-off or chronic lack of sleep, really, and does being \u201cwell rested\u201d actually make a difference? How much sleep is too little? If you suffer one night of less than seven hours of sleep, you are sleeping inadequately. If you regularly sleep six or fewer hours, you are chronically sleep deprived. It doesn\u2019t matter if you sleep like a baby or think you feel fine (we are hopeless at self-diagnosing), this lack of sleep is scientifically proven to be harmful. In response to those who claim they\u2019re built differently and can survive on heavily limited sleep, let\u2019s quote Matthew Walker, a brilliant researcher and probably the world\u2019s foremost expert on sleep: \u201cThe number of people who can survive on 5 hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population, and rounded to a whole number, is zero.\u201d In reality, we all need between seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":49240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,156],"tags":[164,241,629,385],"yoast_head":"\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/christian-erfurt-sxQz2VfoFBE-unsplash.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow much sleep is too little?<\/h2>\n
Catching up on the weekends?<\/h2>\n
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Self-regulating with coffee?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe proven effects of sleep deprivation in the workplace<\/h2>\n
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It\u2019s even worse for leaders and decision-makers<\/h2>\n
Self-diagnosing sleep deprivation<\/h2>\n
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How can organizations help employees prioritize sleep?<\/h2>\n
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