How Poor Sleep Could Be Ruining Your Productivity and How to Help

Sleep is imperative for more than a positive mood. When we wake up refreshed, we’re able to begin our day on the right foot and get off to a running start, but when we roll out of bed exhausted from the day before, we’re sabotaging our performance, productivity, and more.

Lack of sleep not only weakens our mood but affects our physical and mental health as well. When we suffer from prolonged periods of stress, we put ourselves at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure, obesity, dull skin, depression, anxiety, brain fog, and stroke.

We discuss what good sleep hygiene looks like, how you might fit some quality rest into your schedule, and why it should be a priority.

The Effects of Sleep Loss

Our culture often rewards individuals who overwork themselves with a badge of honor, but we’re not usually reaping the benefits in the way we think we are. We may be presenting ourselves as committed to our work by coming in early or staying late, hoping to impress our boss; however, we may be performing at a lower level by forgoing proper rest. Sleep loss makes critical skills like focus and attention more challenging to maintain, ultimately sabotaging our chances of a promotion, a raise, or a new role.

Anger and irritability are common side effects of sleep loss, and this can not only affect your workday but can carry over into your home life. Greeting your family or friends after an exhausting day without much sleep the night prior can affect the integrity of your relationships. The lack of this essential need may cause you to become grumpy when your child spills a dish, or your partner forgets something you’d agreed on when you would otherwise have patience.

Sleep Deprivation & Economic Performance

According to Science Daily, lack of sleep costs the US economy $411 billion per year. This loss of productivity is attributed to sleep deprivation, as many adults get less than six hours of shuteye a night. Researchers seem to agree that if the workforce could collectively increase our rest by just an hour more a night, we could infuse over $200 billion into the economy.

Our collective sleep deficit doesn’t only result in an economic loss; researchers have found that people who sleep less than six hours nightly on average have a 13 percent higher mortality risk than a person who regularly gets seven to nine hours.

It’s estimated that the US loses over a million working days a year due to sleep loss among the working population. We lose productivity due to a combination of absenteeism, which is employees not being at work, and presenteeism, in which employees are present but produce sub-par results due to exhaustion, lack of focus, and insufficient attention.

How Sleep Affects Our Work

Proper sleep supports just about every function in our bodies. When our brains sleep, our neurons switch to a different form of functioning to foster countless biological processes to rejuvenate our minds and bodies. This nightly refresh is critical for our ability to process new information, think quickly, manage our emotions, and power our immune and cardiovascular systems.

Without proper amounts of sleep, your body’s ability to perform begins to suffer slowly. Your brain becomes overworked, resulting in slower reaction times, impaired decision-making, and emotional mismanagement.

People who endure fatigue run the risk of increased errors and mistakes and may process information slower than when well-rested. Further, because lack of sleep results in delayed processing, this results in longer reaction times. We all encounter moments when we’re expected to react quickly, whether it’s while defending a client, pitching an idea, or during life or death situations seen by doctors or truck drivers.

Over time, prolonged sleep deprivation could affect your life in profound ways. Feelings like irritability, anger, and stress aren’t unusual to see in individuals who are working while underslept.

Stress due to sleep loss is common and, when chronic, could trigger severe mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and is even known to trigger bipolar episodes. Conditions like these can not only make work more challenging but could result in job loss if it’s significantly affecting your work.

Working from Home Perils

With technology advancing at lightning speeds, internet connectivity has allowed much of the workforce to work from home. While many people enjoy the flexibility and freedom of working at home, the blurred line between work and home life can make psychologically disconnecting at the end of the workday difficult.

Preserving separation between your work periods and relaxation and rest makes it easier to maintain mental and physical health. SleepAdvisor.org is an excellent resource for improving sleep hygiene.

How to Improve Your Sleep For Optimal Performance

Getting serious about sleep hygiene may be the difference between a promotion and staying in a position that doesn’t excite you; sleep could also be the difference between making $120k a year or $60k a year. Most importantly, sleep could be the difference between living a happy, fulfilled life and one of exhaustion and misery.

Maintain Regular Wake Times and Bedtimes

Our bodies crave routine. Similar to how children like to know what to expect, our bodies naturally enjoy rhythm. Our brains work with the sun to develop our circadian rhythm, producing melatonin when the sun goes down and reducing the hormone when the sun rises.

We encourage committing to rising at the same time every day, weekends included. If you can’t bring yourself to wake up at 6:30 am on Sundays, keep time variation to a minimum if possible. Your body may thank you for the regularity.

Turn Off Screens

You may have noticed more people sporting blue light glasses to protect their eyes. Blue light boosts our alertness, and while this can be beneficial during work hours, it can negatively affect the body’s wake and sleep cycle, keeping us up well past our bedtime.

Have a Designated Workspace

For those of us who work from home, closing your laptop at the end of the day doesn’t always allow you to “switch off” the way we would when leaving the office. The mere sight of your computer could prompt additional stress and impair sleep.

We don’t all have space for home office, but we may be able to get creative. You might look into working at a public library, cafe, or friends home to create some separation. If that’s not ideal, you may benefit from setting up a workspace in the corner of a room with a curtained partition to close at the end of the day.

Create a Bedtime Routine

Going through a routine each night should help prompt your body to prepare for rest. Pick a mellow activity or two to do in the evening; drinking chamomile or lavender tea, or reading a book is a great way to wind down. Plus, reading is an excellent alternative to staring at your phone, as it allows your brain to naturally wind down and prepare for sleep.

Get Outside

Sunlight is not only great to maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle, but it’s also thought to increase serotonin, a hormone associated with mood. Getting outside and exposing yourself to the sun, particularly in the morning, is believed to help you sleep better come time for bed.