How Getting Enough Sleep Affects Your Productivity

In a culture we live in wherein we are expected to be productive and efficient as possible; we are bound to feel anxiety and more stress. At this day and age where people are always on the go and provide a 24/7 service, sleep is, most of the time, compromise. As we need to keep up with the fast pace environment, we tend to adjust both our mind and body to progress with what is being required to us.

Sleep is most of the time being adjusted when it comes to pursuing a productive work environment. Frequently this is being neglected and not considered as an essential part of good health. We all know how important sleep is to our performance, but for some reason, we are all trying to figure out how to squeeze in more productivity on less sleep. Cutting back on sleep has a significant effect on our overall well-being; people often lose or weaken their ability to stay productive which leads to sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation happens when a person fails to get enough sleep. The amount of sleep varies from one person to another, but on average, this should be at least 7-8 hours at night for a person to feel more alert and well rested.

The Effects of Poor Sleeping In Productivity

Since we are already aware that poor sleep negatively impacts our productivity, we need to find ways on how we can prevent this from recurring. The long hours we work, the more tired we get, and more prone to error that we might get. As many people work more than 40 hours, work might not be productive if a good sleep does not support this.

Insufficient Sleep. Lack of sleep is the first barrier to productivity. Will have less energy and slower reaction. Difficulty in making decisions and solving problems are the effects of sleep deprivation. The sleep-deprived workers are less motivated, had trouble focusing and remembering things and often struggle to make good decisions.

When you don’t have enough sleep you will also miss out the deep sleep. This is the stage of sleep responsible for repairing and restoring our muscles and body tissue. As a result of missing this stage, our muscles ache more and gets exhausted quickly.

Inconsistent Sleep. Consistent sleep schedule is essential for productivity. Our sleep cycle is dictated by what we call circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm follows the day and night cycle which the human body dictates based on the particular schedule of night and day sleep. Ignoring your internal body clock has a serious effect on productivity. Those that work at a night shift have been sometimes affected by this as they have encountered impaired focus and actual job error.

Burnout. In the long run, sleep deprivation has devastating effects on the quality of our life, it is being unable to focus, always in a bad mood and always struggling to remember things. You can see that all these problems can have negative consequences over one's productivity in general.

Good sleep helps you think better; a healthy amount of sleep stimulates creative thinking. This is the reason why sometimes you wake up with a novel and a brilliant solution to severe problems. Having enough sleep can give you outstanding ideas.

How to Make Your Sleep a Productive One  

Finding the right kind of sleep is the solution for you to be productive. However, sometimes in our efforts to correct manner of sleeping we fail to identify and address what is causing it. It is crucial to diagnose sleep deprivation to recognize the ongoing cycle of poor sleep.

Here are some steps on how we can achieve good sleep and develop a well-balanced lifestyle.

Find Your Best Sleep Schedule. Does your body clock tell you that it's about to sleep even it is not yet your sleeping schedule? One of the best things to do is to listen to what your body says you. Sometimes exhaustion from work also plays a significant role as you are forced to sleep. However, to be consistent, we need to identify which schedule works best. Identify even the amount of sleep that you must have. Determine how much sleep you need, set a sleep schedule that allows for that amount and follow it daily.

Sleep Debt. It is a cumulative sleep loss resulting from ongoing sleep restriction. When you don't get enough sleep than you need, your sleep debt will grow larger over time. This means that if you sleep 7 hours a day and wake up on a particular day with 5 hours of sleep only, you need to offset this by adding up the loss 2 hours at night. Although this is not good for those with a fixed schedule as this will hamper their current work schedule, this will be a good way to recover from improper sleep. However, it is necessary for us to address this issue as we will reap lack of sleep over the weekend.     

Induce Your Sleep with a Calming Bedtime Routine. Before going to bed, it is best to complete the same set of activities in the same order. The goal is to exercise and help your mind to be able to associate bedtime routine as preparation for sleep. Taking a warm bath, making yourself a cup of tea or writing down helps clear issues from your mind so you won't be worrying about it while lying at your bed. You can worry about the issue instead the next day.

Some people also invest in a piece of furniture or inflatable couch to aid them in relaxing. The inflatable couch from PouchCouch is useful when you are outside in a camping site or in a place where regular beds are not available. Having this kind of furniture helps you to sleep better and feel relaxed.

Exercise Daily. It is another energizing activity that helps improve your sleep. Though it should be done depending on when you want to do it, exercise should be avoided at late nights. This will activate your nervous system and makes it harder for you to sleep. A workout routine that is regularly done in the morning or during the early part of the day will physically tire out your body.