Why Sleeping is Your Best Business Decision

How to Choose Your Co-Founders: Find ... From Big Business to Bankruptcy: Over...

Why Sleeping is Your Best Business Decision

Sometimes around exam period in university, it seemed like we were all engaged in a who-got-the-least-amount-of-sleep war. You slept only five hours? That’s nothing, I slept for four. That’s your second cup of coffee? Well this is my fourth cup! You get the idea.

Many people pride themselves on being able to function on just a few hours of sleep – I myself have been there with the braggarts. Although now that I am out of university, living a life filled with a measly three hours of sleep and continuous trips to the coffee machine doesn’t sound so glamorous. Life’s daily trials and tribulations are so much easier to deal with when you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

Did you know that after staying awake for over 18 hours, your brain functions as if you’ve had a few too many drinks? Perhaps you won’t be dancing on tables, but your body’s reaction time will be slower and your thought processes won’t be as sharp as they could be. This doesn’t bode well for completing our daily tasks, and certainly not for conducting business. You wouldn’t take a few shots before walking into a business meeting, so why would have an important meeting after a sleepless night?

Sleep deprivation is considered a form of torture under international law, according to the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). Sleep deprivation causes the deactivation of part of the brain and affects the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for higher level thought. When someone is deprived of sleep for an extended period of time, it can lead to the breakdown of the nervous system and cause both physical and psychological damage. Long term periods of moderate sleep deprivation can lead to a myriad of ailments.

deprivationeffectd

Signs of Sleep Deprivation

You don’t have to be on the verge of collapsing to experience symptoms of sleep deprivation. Here are signs that you might not be getting enough sleep:

you need an alarm to wake up in the morning
you feel slow or frustrated when dealing with creative tasks that involve critical thinking and problem solving
you are acting more impulsively
you are forgetful
you are more hungry than usual

The phrase “I can sleep when I’m dead” often gets thrown around to support the idea that now is the time to be pushing yourself harder. Sleep just postpones the future and all of its potential productivity. In the United States, and increasingly in vacation-friendly Europe, there is a growing culture that celebrates the loss of sleep as a virtue. Around 51% of small business employees have reported working in their sleep.

As entrepreneurs, there is always a bit of pressure looming in the shadows to become the next “insert big name company”. Unlike a typical 9-5 job, it is harder to clock out of your role as an entrepreneur, and it is easy to give into the pressure that you should and could be doing more.

Unfortunately, the main product of our sleep-deprived culture is underwhelming solutions to problems, poor decisions, and failed ventures. As we move towards more technology driven industries that require sharper innovation and stronger attention to details, it might be time to re-examine the values of prolonged thought and careful reconsideration.

The good news is that, unlike that bad deal you just closed, sleep deprivation is reversible. You don’t need to clock 10 hours a night, either – studies have shown that people who get between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep per night live the longest. If you find yourself suffering from sleep deprivation, getting some sleep could be the best business decision you could make. Your talent will still be there when you wake up.

This tip comes from the CMI-award winning management book, Winning Without Losing by Martin Bjergegaard and Jordan Milne. If the thoughts presented here resonated with you today, have a peek at the 66 strategies gathered from successful and balanced entrepreneurs from around the world, and find out how you can achieve your own perfect work-life balance.

Winning Without Losing