Looking for how to boost your productivity at work? Think beyond calendars, to-do lists, and extra cups of coffee. Instead, try getting a good night’s sleep consistently. In today’s globalised, hyper-connected, always-on working culture, we spend long hours in the office, sometimes to the severe detriment of our sleep.
Lack of sleep fundamentally hinders managers’ ability to perform at their peak and leads to other damaging physical and emotional side effects. You can also solve your sleep issues by opting for authentic medication from buydiazepamuk.
What is Sleep Health?
Source: soundsleephealth.com
Sleep duration is the commonly investigated sleep measure. However, it may need to be more accurate as it only considers the quantity instead of the sleep quality. Good sleep health means a person regularly gets sufficient sleep at appropriate times without any sleep hindrances or disorders.
Many people have untreated sleep disorders like sleepwalking, insomnia, or restless legs syndrome that prevent them from getting quality sleep. In addition, men are more prone to have sleep-related breathing disorders such as loud snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. Women are affected by depression, life events, illness, medications, and physical or hormonal changes. In the long run, untreated sleep disorders are linked with an excess of serious diseases, like:
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Heart failure
- Heart attack
- Lowered Immunity
- Obesity
- Poor quality of life
- Mental health problems, like depression and other mood disorders
You spend approximately a third of your life sleeping. As such, sleep quality is directly correlated to the quality of life. In addition, good sleep hygiene is essential for good health. Sleep is the third pillar of a healthy lifestyle, along with nutrition and exercise.
How does Sleep Improve concentration and productivity?
Source: hubgets.com
Sleep and quality work performance go hand in hand. Your health, well-being, and work improve when you get sufficient sleep. Sleep promotes physical recovery in your body. As you sleep, the body tissues repair and strengthen. The heart rests, and blood pressure changes during the night to enhance cardiovascular health. During sleep, the body also creates hormones that help the immune system fight infections. So, good sleep may prevent you from getting sick. Instead, it enables you to recover quickly.
Sleep also improves your mental health, mood, and brain function. When you have an appropriate quantity and quality of sleep, you awake feeling refreshed and energised. In addition, during sleep, your brain creates and maintains critical memory formation and retention pathways. These processes enhance your learning and problem-solving skills, the essentials for the best performance in the workplace.
Sleep impairment may act as a moderator in the complex relationship between well-being, health and productivity. Sleep disturbances may be the cause and the consequence of reduced well-being. Therefore, it sets up a vicious circle with relevant implications for productivity and the safety and health of workers.
There is also a significant relationship between well-being and general positive health indicators like job satisfaction, work engagement, happiness and quality of life, morbidity and productivity.
Factors Responsible for Irregular Sleep Patterns
Sleep has a rejuvenating impact on brain functions and many bodily systems. Studies on sleep regulation suggest that two distinctly regulated processes exist. The circadian pacemaker controls the homeostatic sleep-wake process ‘S’ and the circadian process ‘C’. Occupational factors may interact with both of these mechanisms, inhibiting sleep even when there is a need for rest and altering biorhythms through the demand for anti-circadian activities. Consequently, work-related sleep disorders are prevalent. They may have significant short- and long-term impacts on health and safety.
Not only environmental factors but also lifestyles and diseases may be the cause of irregular sleep patterns. Lack of sleep or inadequate sleep is associated with a wide variety of unfavourable events: industrial and civil disasters, road accidents, distress and psychiatric conditions, drug abuse, increased mortality and morbidity, increased healthcare costs, direct economic costs, detrimental health effects and a reduction in overall wellness, performance and productivity.
Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Work Performance
Source: smallbizdaily.com
Sacrificing just an hour or two of sleep for a few nights impairs the ability to function. Experts say losing sleep this way is equivalent to functioning without the whole night or two of sleep.
Sleep deprivation symptoms are more than just feeling fatigued. You may get irritable or struggle to think clearly. In fact, lack of sleep may lead to a lack of cognitive function. With lowered cognitive abilities, you are less alert and slower to respond, which may affect your work performance. You might also have difficulty making decisions and are more likely to make mistakes. People with insomnia have lower levels of concentration and even difficulty performing their duties.
A lack of sleep may also lead to accidents or injuries in the workplace. For example, sleepy employees are 70% more likely to get involved in a workplace accident than workers who aren’t fatigued. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation may give a person false confidence in their abilities. For example, they may feel capable of driving when they should not.
The Connection between Sleep and Productivity
Sleep problems predate employment
Source: sleepeducation.org
A lot of psychological research suggests that sleep disturbances are prevalent during the school and university years. These studies and related research establish significant causal links between sleep and clinical problems, even during childhood. Also, they indicate that academic performance is significantly lower in students who suffer from sleep issues and that such students are in large numbers.
Sleep boosts employee engagement
A multi-billion-dollar industry is devoted to boosting organisations’ engagement levels and the degree of enthusiasm, satisfaction, and productivity of employees and managers. Although much of this money goes to cafeteria food, improving office designs and person-job fit. That’s ok; firms have no comparable awareness of the importance of sleep quality as a driver of employee engagement. But, importantly, unlike many drivers of employment, including the competence levels of your boss, sleep is often in your control. So there are clear rewards for improving your sleep patterns.
As always, leadership plays a significant role
Incompetent leaders always stress and alienate their employees, ruining their sleep quality. Good leadership will reduce some of the detrimental effects of poor sleep habits on performance. Leaders must not just be competent but also ensure they are not sleep-deprived and avoid irregular sleep patterns. Even decent leaders are likelier to adopt abusive or unethical behaviour if they are sleep-deprived.
Conclusion
Sleep has become a luxury in this fast-paced and high-pressure life. As a result, we are used to sacrificing sleep for work and working more to compensate for lost productivity, inadvertently creating a vicious cycle.
However, our modern hustle culture must recognise that beauty sleep is strongly linked to job performance, mental health, and productivity. So, more and better sleep is much better for your career. The earlier you start improving your sleep habits, the more you can expect to accomplish.
