How and Why Sleep Improves Your Productivity CareerMetis.com

How and Why Sleep Improves Your Productivity â€" CareerMetis.com Photo Credit â€" pexels.comSleep is an automatic occurrence. We can’t avoid it and most of us wouldn’t want to even if we could. Sleep is healthy and restorative, allowing us to recharge and tackle the new day.When it is plentiful and good quality, sleep feels incredibly pleasant and has a vast array of positive impacts on our daily life. We feel more energized, our focus is better and our mood tends to be far more stable and controllable.On the other hand, when it is not good quality, sleep can feel stressful. Some people have trouble shutting off their brains and drifting off, while others have trouble staying asleep.evalSome wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep and others still simply do not get enough quantity of sleep every, or most, nights.Both the benefits and the drawbacks of sleep have a profound influence on individual and group productivity and performance.This article outlines some issues that come with a lack of sleep, as well as what the in dividual and the company can do about it.Sleep StatsIt is estimated that the grown-up individual requires 7-8 hours of sleep a night. More liberal estimates extended the duration up to 9 hours.Toddlers, children, teens and the elderly have their own estimates and the amount decreases as the person ages, but the healthy range usually doesn’t drop below 7 hours.Naturally, there are always exceptions and small variations, but for every person, it is very easy to tell if they are not getting enough sleep. These symptoms are discussed in the following sections.It’s been conventional wisdom that sleeps is hugely important and its benefits have been noted long ago, but recently, some scientific studies have been done and the corporate world has taken notice.evalA Harvard and Hult sleep study has both found that many working people are regularly sleep-deprived and that this deprivation becomes worse the higher the position of the subject. With this in mind, let us take a look at some of the tangible consequences.Effects of Sleep on The Bottom LineYour own personal experience is likely to be a very clear and persuasive indicator of the information in this paragraph. While operating under a lack of sleep, the first symptom is grogginess or lethargy.This directly affects focus and performance, especially in terms of volume. It is immediately clear how both the employer and the employee lose when this occurs.More seriously, a lack of sleep adversely impacts memory and speed, which can significantly hinder decision-making. Couple this with the fact that managers, who are in a higher position, are on average less likely to sleep well, and this becomes a threat to their job.evalA chronic lack of sleep was found to lead to other physical symptoms, most prominently and dangerously, a lowered immune system, making the person more susceptible to all sorts of illnesses.Most commonly, these manifest as colds and seasonal illnesses, but all the same, they lead to days off and l oss in time and output.When you combine all these problems, which can ultimately be traced back to something as simple and necessary as sleep, it becomes obvious that both the individuals and the companies need to take it very seriously and actively work on improving it.Increasing The Quality of SleepThe issues people have with their sleeping habits are often diverse and quite complex. There are steps to take and pieces of advice to follow that are very general and can’t hurt to try, such as slowly plugging out of the day by not doing work-related things or watching TV at least an hour before bed.These stimuli tend to shift your brain back into gear and make it all the more difficult to nod off. For some, a walk or a run helps them get good and tired before hitting the hay.However, many people also have easily identifiable issues they might need help with and this is where sleep gadgets come in. There are apps for your smartphone that can change the quality of light so that it doe sn’t wake your brain up, apps that play expertly selected noises to help you sleep, timers that wake you up in the optimal moment to avoid grogginess, and more.Other sleep gadgets include smart clothes, eyeglasses, masks, devices and diffusers that either target specific areas or the entire process of sleep to make it better. There are also courses and programs that are designed to help if nothing you have tried has worked.Measures Companies If this practice is not possible, companies should at least make sure to educate their employees and encourage them to get enough sleep outside of work.Finally, the ethical thing to do when it comes to persons in the highest positions would be to reduce their workload if it is such that it requires overly long hours and activity outside company hours on a regular basis.A bad decision or a sneaky chronic illness does nobody any good and the few hours the manager or CEO takes off every week can be more than made up for with an improved dispositi on and sharpened focus.