Prialto’s 2021 Executive Productivity Report revealed a shocking figure.
71% of the 600 top-earning executives surveyed reported getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night.
it’s understood.
High profit jobs are high risk jobs, and there are only 24 hours in a day.
Performance pressure can feel as threatening as a tsunami, and you need to make sure that everything that needs to be done, gets done on time.
But you are human.
You have needs outside of work that compete for your time as well.
Family, exercise, hobbies and necessary downtime are all important contributors to success.
Cutting back on sleep may seem like the obvious solution, but when you do, you trade quality for quantity, and it will cost you in the long run.
The truth is you are not “doing nothing” while you sleep.
Sleep is not indulgent, nor is it an expression of laziness.
You are not stronger because you sleep less.
In fact, just the opposite.
Because the hours you spend sleeping are when your mind and body do some of their most important work.
So, it’s not just the time in bed that you shorten when you don’t get enough sleep.
You also reduce:
These are essential for effective leadership and positive results in your business.
Meanwhile, you increase your risk of:
- chronic stress
- Depression, anxiety and mood disorders
- accidents and injuries
- grinding
- Cardiovascular and other diseases
- Death (Yes. It’s that serious.)
And if this doesn’t inspire you to go to bed earlier, maybe this will:
Less sleep also means less dollars in your pocket.
A 2010 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine calculated that sleep-related productivity loss costs about $3,156 per worker per year.
and the year 2016 is international study published by the RAND Corporation showed that up to 3% of GDP is lost due to lack of sleep, with the US leading the losses at $411 billion a year.
Now, it is true that some lucky people are genetically predisposed to need less sleep.
And anyone who sleeps less than 7 hours a night claims to be one of these people.
But according to the University of California neuroscientist, Matt Walker“Short sleepers”, as they are called, make up zero percent of the population when the fraction is rounded to a whole number.
You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to have these genes.
“Short sleepers” are characterized as full of energy and consistently sleep about 6.25 hours, even when there is more time available for sleep.
They don’t need coffee to keep them alert.
Instead, they are Fall asleep easily, sleep deeply and wake up refreshedNo sign of irritability or mental impairment during their waking hours.
To be clear, 6.25 hours is still more sleep than 1/3 of Americans get on average per night.
And these are people who do not have the “short sleep” genetic variation.
Which means there are huge portions of the workforce that are performing at suboptimal levels thanks to lack of sleep.
If you’ve been sleep deprived or suffering from insomnia for a few years, you probably don’t understand the effect it has on you.
Just like a drunk person who thinks they are sober, your fatigue clouds your ability to see your impairment clearly.
“One of the biggest dangers in sleep is that you don’t know you’re sleep-deprived when you’re sleep-deprived.”
Matt Walker
The vast majority of people who sleep less than 7 hours are, in fact, chronically sleep deprived, and this has a significant negative impact on their lives and work.
Signs of sleep deprivation include:
- Sleep less on work days but more on weekends and holidays
- Need an alarm to wake up
- wakes up nervous
- Feeling tired, foggy mind and less mentally alert throughout the day
- trouble falling asleep
- trouble staying asleep
- fell asleep during the day
If you experience one of them these signsThere is no doubt about it.
you need more sleep
And for your work, health and well-being, it’s essential that you take steps to improve both the duration and quality of your sleep.
Here are 5 strategies you can use to sleep better:
Once you start sleeping better, you won’t just get it More Done.
You will also feel happier and less stressed.
As a result, the work you do will be of higher quality, be more efficient and increase your productivity exponentially.
1. Stick to a schedule
A regular sleep schedule is one of the best ways to optimize your time in bed.
Sleep hormones are cyclical, and they thrive on predictability.
When you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, you fall asleep faster, sleep more deeply and wake up more refreshed.
Don’t deviate from your schedule by more than an hour – even on weekends! – and you are preparing yourself for deep sleep success.
This is as close as you can get to the effectiveness of biological short slayers.
A predictable sleep routine also lays the foundation for a more efficient work routine.
When you have a consistent sleep routine, your energy peaks and drops predictably throughout the day as well.
This means you can schedule your most intense work when you know you’ll have the energy to do it.
And you can schedule less focused work when you know your energy will be low.
If you’re more of an introvert, for example, you can use this information to schedule appointments when your energy is high.
If you tend to be an extrovert, you may want to schedule meetings when your energy is lower so you can feed off other people.
2. Identify your sleep needs
Most people thrive on 7-9 hours of sleep a night, but individual needs vary.
Would you wake up at the same time if you didn’t set an alarm clock?
If the answer is “no”, your body is sending you a clear signal that it needs more sleep.
And if you’re not sure how much sleep you need, start by timing 8.5 hours in bed and see if you still need that alarm after a week or two.
Why 8.5 hours?
Because most people need about 30 minutes to fall asleep after putting their head on the pillow.
But if you want to fall asleep faster, you can speed up this process with a calm routine.
3. Create a relaxation routine
A calm routine promotes your mind and body for better sleep.
Ideally, you want to spend 15-30 minutes on your bedtime relaxation routine.
Do something relaxing, like meditation, gentle yoga, or a warm Epsom salt bath.
This will help your brain let go of your to-do list, and activate your parasympathetic nervous system to fall asleep faster.
4. Optimize your sleeping environment
Set yourself up for better sleep by optimizing your sleep environment.
sleep psychologistMichelle Drop, PsyDof the Cleveland Clinicmeans keeping your bedroom at 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 19 degrees Celsius) and thinking of your bedroom as your ‘cave’.
“It should be cool, dark and quiet to improve your sleep,” she explains.
Blackout curtains and earplugs can help.
Finding your ideal bedroom temperature is also essential for better sleep and productivity.
Thermoregulation keeps you in the restorative slow wave sleep stages that your mind and body need to feel rested.
And it can boost performance throughout the day.
But a cool, dark, quiet environment is also important an hour or two before you go to bed.
Too much exposure to light can inhibit the release of your body’s sleep hormone, MelatoninSo it can be helpful to turn off overhead lights after sunset, limit screen time before bed, and remove electronics from the bedroom to support better sleep.
5. Representative
Of course, insomnia cannot be your problem.
You probably don’t get enough sleep because you just have too much to do.
You may feel that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, when really there are.
It’s just that busy work like administrative tasks and scheduling steal time from the work that’s important to you.
Sleep is non-negotiable.
And if you don’t have enough time for that, it’s a sign of inefficiency, which can be corrected.
If your work duties prevent you from getting the amount and quality of sleep you need, it’s time to get help.
Hiring a managed virtual assistant service like Prialto can help you free up your schedule and put your mind at ease so you can sleep better at night.
Want to increase your productivity?
So it’s time to get serious about your sleeping habits.
You already excel in business, just imagine how much more powerful your work would be if you had more energy to do it!
So, create a sleep schedule.
Be honest about your sleep needs.
Help your mind and body relax to sleep better.
Optimize your sleeping environment.
and reduce workload and stress by delegating tasks that someone else can do
(Click here to learn more about reducing stress through delegation.)
Your business will benefit, and so will you.
