We live in an age where being productive is highly valued. Trying to squeeze in as many things in our day that we end up compromising the one thing helping us to be efficient in the first place: sleep.
Deep down, we know that sleep is very important. But most of us cannot muster enough hours in our day to dedicate time for adequate rest. That means at least 6 to 8 hours, my friend. Instead, we sleep less hours than that, relying on caffeine, energy drinks, soylent, or whatever to get us through the day.
It may feel like you’re getting a lot done during the day. But the truth is, your poor sleeping habits are slowly harming your productivity. Here are the five ways that it’s doing so.
Table of Contents
1. Less Energy, Slower Reactions
Working longer hours does not necessarily translate to working smarter. Lack of sleep causes you to have less energy to do work. You’re not as motivated to perform because you feel weak and groggy. In addition, you react slower to everything around you.
You’re prone to zoning out and your work associates may need to repeat themselves several times before you can respond. And even then, when you do come up with something, it may not be as great. It’s known that not getting enough sleep not only impacts your focus and creativity but also your decision making and problem solving skills as well.
2. Terrible Memory and Lack of Follow Through
While we sleep, our brain makes way for new memories by consolidating the previous’ days events via REM sleep. You are in deep sleep during this stage but your brain is working hard to free up more space allowing you to function optimally the next day.
When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re not able to absorb as much information. What you experience during the day, you don’t really take anything away from it. This leads you to not following through with important commitments. Rather than processing new information, you’re busy managing a crisis caused by your lack of focus.
3. Risk for More Diseases
Individuals who are chronically sleep deprived are more prone to serious health issues like cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, memory loss, and a weak immune system. There’s no point in losing sleep over work when the end result is an earlier grave.
4. Great Sleep Means Great Performance
Good sleeping habits have been associated with better performance. When you get better sleep, you experience the following benefits:
- Faster reaction to stimuli
- Better creativity
- Improved memory
- Better problem solving
- Better accuracy and less errors
5. Sleep as Self-Care for Well-Being
It’s a well-known fact that the happier you are, the better you perform at work. Sleep can be a huge contributor to that enhanced well-being. In this busy age that we live in, we’ve forgotten that sleep is an essential part of self-care that we should partaking in.
Getting quality sleep is more than just shutting your eyes for hours. It involves a set of rituals to make it happen. Depending on the person, it may involve having a warm bath, spraying lavender essential oil, shutting down all smart devices by 6PM, drinking peppermint tea, reading a book in bed, lighting a candle.
Others require more sophisticated steps such as getting high quality bedding where you can control mattress firmness, turning on the humidifier, doing some yoga stretches –whatever it may be, all these actions are forms of self-care that you’ll need to do to get that good sleep.
By taking the time to care for yourself, you gain a better sense of well-being that translates into better performance at work.
In what ways does your work get affected when you don’t get enough sleep? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
About Carson Derrow
