Being busy all the time is probably the curse of our era. People that want to have a successful career spend at least eight hours every single business day at their office and then have to choose between sleeping and doing something fun for a change. Watching a movie, finishing some work or having a drink with your friends often seems like a good idea. However, having a good and long sleep is crucial if you want your body to function normally. Sleep deprivation is a serious problem that not only affects your health, but it can also affect your performance at work. Here are several reasons why you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of sleep and how you can organise your time so you are able to accomplish everything without sacrificing sleeping hours.
Top Five Reasons to Sleep Longer
Aside from the obvious reasons of being happier, healthier and fitter, sleep affects the impression you leave to your boss, customers and co-workers. People that suffer from sleep deprivation are more likely to make risky financial decisions and that by itself is a reason enough to sleep more. Plus, it’s not only about financial decisions, it’s about the decision-making process in general. Sometimes, it may seem smart to you to play here. Nevertheless, that’s never a smart decision when you’re at your workplace and have tons of work to do instead of playing games.
Do you like it when a person has slurred speech, uses repetitive words and talks slowly and monotonously? If not, it’s about time for you to get some sleep and avoid becoming such a person. That’s right, not enough sleep can cause you to lose your ability to express yourself well and thus look impolite and/or bored when communicating with other people.
The next reason employed people might want to pay attention to is – you’ll be more productive at work as well as more focused when you’re at home. If you want to be able to focus and do your job efficiently, it’s important for your brain to be well rested. This, obviously, is possible if you get enough sleep.
Another work related pro of sleeping is making fewer mistakes. How many times have you made a typing mistake? How many times have you send the wrong document? Well, such mistakes are a common result of sleep deprivation because your brain works slower and your eyes are worse at noticing them.
Finally, you will learn better and faster. We all know that getting a job is just the first step of further improving our knowledge and learning is a never-ending process for those that want progress. Thus, bad news to those that choose to sleep less and work/party more is that they won’t be able to use their full brain capacity and they will quickly forget things.
Set Your Priorities Straight
In order to avoid having a poor quality life only because you choose to ignore the importance of sleeping, you should change your lifestyle so sleeping is one of your priorities. According to the American Psychological Association, healthy adults need approximately eight hours of sleep; keep in mind that this number may vary depending on the individual. Therefore, if your day usually starts at 8 AM, you should go to bed no later than 12 AM in order to keep your body and mind in a good condition for the following day.
Naturally, there are times when going to bed early is simply not possible and such days call for extra measures. This is why napping was invented. That’s right, go to bed and sleep for an hour or two when you get back from work. By doing this you provide your system the rest it needs, plus you won’t be exhausted from the staying up late, regardless whether you’re supposed to be part of an event or get something done for work.
Remember, you don’t have to sacrifice sleep to succeed. By getting a good eight-hour sleep your brain will function better, you’ll do your tasks faster and you’ll look fresh. All these things will most certainly help you improve your working skills and be more successful at what you do for living.
About Carson Derrow
