A friend of mine has been worried that he may loose his job. The company he works for is apparently not doing so well and there have been some rumours of lay-offs. He is a hard worker and recently he told me that he was working extra hard to show management that he’s worth keeping. He is fearful, depressed and tired which is not a good combo. I asked him if he was getting enough sleep and he responded by saying that he was working extra hours, coming in early and going home late and when he did get home the stress kept him up at night.
I sympathized with him but told him that he has to get more sleep and sustain a healthy lifestyle and while he argued that it was easy for me to preach this I told him that limiting his sleep wasn’t going to save his job, it was probably going to do the opposite.
Sleep is crucial to the success of any PCPer but what does it do to the everyday Joe during their daily work?
Shortening your sleep time by as little as one hour dramatically cuts into cognitive performance. Research shows it diminishes your ability to concentrate, multitask, pay attention, retain information, problem-solve, react quickly, and make good judgments. Worst of all, you think you’re doing just fine.
Getting six or fewer hours of sleep each night is like being drunk. When you’ve been up for eighteen hours, studies show that you function as if your blood alcohol content were .07(in most states and provinces, the legal blood alcohol limit is .08.) After 24 hours without sleep, you’re at .1 – the same as a drunk driver.
Even if you resist tiredness and drink or eat stimulants, sooner or later your body will rebel, so sooner or later your body is going to have to sleep and it may just be on your way home from work.
Harvard Medical School recently released a study that showed that lack of sleep causes the brain to become 60% more reactive which translates into losing your cool, overreacting and being a real crank. In addition your emotional control is one of the first functions to go when lacking sleep and one of the last to return when you’re getting some sleep. In a survey I found, 44% of the respondents said that they were likely to be unpleasant without enough sleep.
Lack of sleep also makes you three times more likely than an eight-hour sleeper to catch a cold.
With the research that I’ve done on this I know I have to get more sleep – its actually quite scary when I think about being tired and driving my kids around town – I’m actually more scared of the other drivers but I’ve got to get my sleep too.
I told my friend that working the extra hours is not going to save his job if he’s cranky, making mistakes, with poor productivity and an unsociable nature. I’m not sure he bought it all but I did convince him to get some sleep tonight rather than watch the game with me – it’s a start.
And so I’ll catch a bit of the game but I’m going to get at least 8 hours of sleep tonight too.
See you tomorrow.
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1 comment:
Yeah, I've read that before and it concerns me because my boyfriend only gets 4-5 hours each night. When he comes over I make him sleep like 10 hours to try and make up for it. His job may also be on the chopping block but even if it wasn't that is the usual amount of sleep a typical Japanese business man has. That's no life to have. I'm thankful that this is not the norm in most countries.
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