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Optimizing Personal & Professional Performance - Sleep
According to a study conducted by RAND and reported in SmallBizDaily and Tuck, people who sleep 7.5-8 hours per night tend to earn $2,280 of more productive hours, an equivalent of 11 days, than those who sleep less than 5 hours per night.
IMPACT OF PROPER SLEEP ON PERSONAL PERFORMANCE
- Chronic sleep deprivation is linked with a host of serious health issues, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
- Sleep has found to be critical to a person's overall well-being and performance.
- A good night’s sleep has been found to be an ideal form of therapy; it can help people deal with, manage, and sort out emotions.
- It even has the potential to reduce some cognitive biases, such as fear and negativity.
- A lack of sleep has a direct, negative impact on a person’s body, mind, and spirit, also affecting emotions, temperament, and self-control.
- Sufficient sleep generally makes people more relaxed, less anxious, appear more attractive, and it lowers food cravings.
- With adequate sleep, one's body can perform better and has the ability to recover faster.
- We look better, feel better and make better decisions when we are well-rested.
- At Harvard Medical School, the Division of Sleep Medicine reported that persistent sleep issues are also linked to long-term mood disorders, including depression, anxiety, and mental distress.
- Lack of sleep affects the immune system, inflammation, cholesterol, metabolism and the hormones that regulate appetite, according to University of Helsinki researchers.
- Leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone that helps improve weight control, is at a high level among people who sleep eight hours per night.
- The University of Chicago researchers found physical changes from loss of sleep mimic those of aging, including decreases in memory and learning functions.
- When sleep is deprived, people become exhausted sooner because the body is trying to conserve energy.
IMPACT OF PROPER SLEEP ON BUSINESS OR WORK PERFORMANCE
- In a study conducted by RAND, it was determined that insufficient sleep directly leads to 1.2 million missed days of work a year in America. RAND found out that it cost the US economy a staggering $411 billion a year. That’s 2.28% of the nation’s entire GDP.
- On an individual level, that translates to 11 lost days of productivity and $2,280 in lost wages each year.
- Workers who get enough sleep have a healthier immune system, better cognitive function, more energy, and improved memory, attentiveness, alertness, and performance all throughout the day.
- They are better able to acquire and perfect new skills, connect new information with current knowledge, and manage pain as the analgesic aspects of sleep increase pain thresholds.
- Moreover, and perhaps of most interest to organizations, increased sleep tends to cause individuals to be happier, more engaged, and more creative.
- In a study, 72% of managers noted the difficulty in concentrating due to a lack of sleep.
- Results indicate that the executive control functions of decision-making, creativity, processing, adaptability, learning, and control of emotions, performed by the pre-frontal cortex within the brain, are all highly impacted by sleep loss.
- From an organizational perspective, a lack of sleep often has a direct impact on workplace performance.
- People’s ability to learn, concentrate and retain information is greatly impacted by how well-rested they are.
- Insufficient sleep causes individuals to be more emotionally unstable, or moody and has been tied to aggression.
- Nearly half of Americans report that low-quality or insufficient sleep interferes with their daily work life at least once a week. Sleep deprivation makes us 20-30% more prone to error, procrastination, or the sluggishness that blocks our creativity.
- Workers with insomnia or insufficient sleep experienced the steepest productivity losses.
- Lack of sleep makes us overly sensitive and unable to empathize with others in the workplace.
- People’s ability to learn, concentrate, and retain information is greatly impacted by how well-rested they are.
- Sleep loss makes workers spend nearly three times as much of their day on just time management alone. Sleep-deprived workers were also less motivated and had difficulty focusing, remembering things, and making good decisions.