How often do you stay up extra late at night, watching reruns of your favorite TV show, knowing that you are cutting down on the amount of sleep you are going to get before going to work in the morning? Getting the full amount of sleep you need each night results in you being more alert and productive each day. Just look at the many ways that getting enough sleep can improve your performance.
You Recover From Distractions Faster
When you are sleep deprived, feeling groggy, feeling sluggish, it is much more difficult to refocus on a task after a disruption. Imagine being interrupted by loud music or shouting from the street, leaving your task to investigate, then coming back and trying to refocus. If you are sleep deprived, it takes more time to refocus your attention, and even then you are more likely to not be truly focused and alert. Whereas when you are rested and alert, you can easily return to your task at hand and get your mind on the work that needs to be done.
Helps Prevent Job Burnout
Lack of sleep, usually less than six hours each night for the average adult, is one of the best predictors of job burnout. If you are forcing yourself to work each day on less sleep than you need to be at your best, it will catch up to you in the form of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion and soon you will doubt your competence and the value of your work. However, when you do get your optimal amount of sleep each night, over the same amount of time you will be increasing your confidence in your ability to do good work because you will have been consistently producing work that you are proud of.
You Will Make Better Decisions
When you have slept well, you improve your ability to make accurate and fast decisions by around 4%. This may not sound like much, but every little bit helps! If you continue to sleep well and make better decisions, it will result in work that you are confident is your best work.
Your Memory Will Improve
Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep is a factor in memory. Just as your muscles rebuild and recover during sleep, so does your brain. The connections between your brain cells are strengthened, and information is more firmly imprinted. Getting enough sleep is what allows you to retain what you have learned during the day. It also means that you are better able to process what you have learned, resulting in better recall and the ability to use what you learned during the days ahead.
You Will Make Fewer Mistakes
Drowsy driving results in missing stop signs, or not noticing that car in your side mirror. Lack of sleep means you cannot think quickly and respond slower to disruption. This means you cannot process outside distractions well enough to avoid injury or making mistakes. By getting enough rest you are less likely to make these mistakes.
Clearly, there is a connection between sleep and productivity. Being aware of this you can now focus on improving your sleep habits and becoming more productive.
