Ever felt less productive at work when you had poor sleep the previous night? You are not alone! Sleep deprivation costs the UK economy £40 billion each year. Many prominent personalities are guilty of glorifying less sleep. For example, Donald Trump has stated that he only sleeps for 3-4 hours a night. However, if you are a normal human being we recommend sleeping for at least 7-9 hours each night.

Good sleep helps us safeguard our mental and physical health. While our body goes on standby mode when we sleep, our brain doesn’t. The brain is preparing for the new day ahead by forming new connections to help us learn and process more information. A good night’s sleep will help you be more attentive in your meetings the following day. After all, it is no point attending a meeting if you don’t remember what was discussed during that meeting!

Sleeping takes the metabolic waste out of our brains, aiding our short and long-term memory. If you have a sleep deficit, you may have trouble in decision-making, brainstorming new ideas, controlling emotions, and coping with changes. You will also tend to be less alert if you are sleep-deprived, thus potentially making wrong or sub-optimal decisions.

Are you finding it hard to get quality sleep? I have personally suffered from poor sleep for years and know exactly what you are talking about! However, over the past 2 years, I have worked on improving my sleep and trust me, it has really helped improve my productivity. I recommend you try sleeping at the same time every day, even on weekends. I also recommend you put electronic devices away at least an hour before bed and then perhaps let your eyes relax or read a book. If you want book recommendations feel free to reach out! And lastly, this was the most important, stop consuming alcohol and caffeine at night. I think this was by far the game-changer in improving my business output.

I highly recommend these Ted Talks if you want to further understand the correlation between sleep and productivity:

How to succeed? Get more sleep

The Science of Sleep (and the Art of Productivity) 

Think of sleeping like recharging your batteries. Stop thinking of sleeping less as being more productive… and if you can’t get enough sleep because you have too much work, reach out to us for help!

Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash