If You Want to Make $$, You Need To Sleep
Feeling overwhelmed by everything you have to do? Are you very busy? You might be tempted to try to claw some hours back by shortchanging sleep.
Bad idea.
There are toxic “broductivity gurus” who claim you can get more done if you only sleep four to five hours a night. But according to Sleep Review Mag, only about 1% of the population can get adequate rest in less than seven or eight hours.
Are you really in the 1%? It’s statistically unlikely. If you think you’re in that 1% but you drink coffee or energy drinks all day, guess what? You’re in the 99%.
It’s not just your grandma’s belief that sleep is important – critical processes that are necessary for your health (and productivity) happen during sleep.
March 15 is World Sleep Day, and here’s to more good nights’ sleep in your near future!
Why is sleep so important for a productive day?
Human brains are not machines. People treat them and talk about them like they’re computers, but this is a false analogy. Brains are far more complex, for one thing. And unlike computers, they need rest in order to function properly.
You may not be conscious while you’re sleeping, but your brain (and body) are doing extremely important work during this time. Being unconscious is not the waste of time you might think it is.
Recently scientists discovered how the brain gets rid of cell waste that’s accumulated during the day while you sleep. “Taking out the trash” is a critical activity for avoiding or preventing certain neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Sleep also helps you fill up your productivity tank so your brain is ready for the next day.
There are four stages to every sleep cycle, each of which has a different function. The brain needs three to four sleep cycles a night to complete its work. Things that happen only while you sleep include:
Building muscle after a weightlifting session
Processing learning throughout the day
Building up neural pathways that are heavily used
Pruning back (removing neurons from) pathways that aren’t being used
Repairing cells
Removing toxic “sludge” from the brain that’s accumulated during the day
Supporting emotional health (increased activity in areas like the amygdala and hippocampus)
Controlling hormones for weight loss/maintenance
Making proteins that help fight inflammation and infection (cytokines)
And more
When your brain’s had a chance to process learning and your prefrontal cortex gets a break from actively making decisions and solving problems, it’s better able to function the next day. You start off with a clean slate and a full tank for your thinky work. As the day goes on, the tank gets drained, which is why it needs a nightly refill.
Sleep is just one of the “unproductive productivity” boosters, but it’s a crucial one.
Why getting the sleep you need helps you be more productive in the workplace
Studies have shown that you get about 4 hours a day for cognitively demanding work before the brain taps out. After all, human brains have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but most of that time was spent hanging out with other humans and obtaining food.
The Industrial Revolution and the idea of factory work are only about 300 hundred years old, and computers have been a part of our daily lives for less than 50. Human brains didn’t develop in the fast-paced demanding world we live in today.
Why is it so important to have your brain optimized for the day? Most of you reading this are knowledge workers, so you’re working with your brain all day.
Maybe not everything you do is cognitively demanding, like if you’re a salesperson building relationships with prospects most of the time. But you still have some brain work when you’re strategizing or building out plans.
When you have work that requires your brain to, well, work, you need to make sure it’s in the best shape possible. Of course, that’s only if you want to be productive and accomplish the important tasks that will move you, your team, your business, etc. forward.
Trouble sleeping? Cool, dark, and quiet is the way to go
The first thing to do is remove your phone from the bedroom. Charge it in another room and don’t look at it right before you go to bed.
If you think taking your phone to bed is important, I have a question for you. Suppose you get a work email that alerts you to an issue. What are you going to do about it at 11:30 at night? Is there really anything you can do that can’t wait until morning, since most of your colleagues won’t respond late at night?
All that’s going to happen is that you’ll be worried about it so you’ll probably have a hard time getting to sleep. You probably can’t take any action, so all you can do is fret.
(And you don’t need to look at your phone immediately on waking, either. If it’ll be an hour or more before you get to the office, as it is for many people, you still can’t take any action on an email that worries you. Other than stewing over it, of course.)
Try to stop looking at screens about an hour before bedtime, so the blue light emitted from screens doesn’t trick your body into thinking it’s daytime.
If you tend to have a lot of thoughts whirling around, journal before bed. (Also, before you leave the office for the day, list out tomorrow’s 3-5 priorities).
Brains don’t like issues that haven’t been resolved, but just writing things down lets your brain know that it doesn’t have to hang onto that information anymore. Get it out on paper and then your mind is more at ease.
Once you’ve put your phone away and journaled if necessary and you’re ready for bed, time to make sure it’s cool, dark, and quiet. All of these can help you get the room in the right place to promote good sleep:
Room-darkening blinds and/or curtains
A sleep mask
A ceiling fan
Air conditioner
Earplugs
White noise machine
Sleep is only one kind of rest for the brain that leads to a more productive day
Ever work on something where you’re really focused and intense, and at the end, you feel good but exhausted? That’s your brain ready for a break. The human brain can concentrate for about 45-60 minutes at a time, depending. But then it needs a break, something that’s not cognitively demanding. A walk, maybe some lunch, talks with friends or colleagues.
From time to time your brain benefits from being released from thinky work to do things that come more naturally and feel good. You’re not sleeping, but your brain isn’t focusing intensely on hard work.
Refresh and recharge and then go back to your work. If you’ve been trying to grind through brain fatigue, you’ll probably be surprised at how much better you feel and how much easier the work feels after you’ve had a break.
Recap (tl;dr)
Your grandma was right when she said you needed 7-8 hours of sleep a night, even if she didn’t know why. We now know how important sleep is for some very important processes, including mental work that will help you be more productive the next day. If you have trouble sleeping, avoid screens for the hour before bed, and make sure your room is cool, dark, and quiet.
Worried about how little you’re accomplishing during the day because you’re so distracted? Schedule a free consultation to discuss how I can help.