The Sleep Advantage

#sleep #wellbeing

© 2023 Zoryna O’Donnell

This article was first published by The Maverick Paradox Magazine on 17/03/2023

Please raise your hand if you sacrificed your sleep in order to tackle an important item on your “to do” list (just as I am writing this, my hand is shooting up).

That’s right, we all do it from time-to-time and some of us even pride themselves in running on five to six hours of sleep each night. After all, we can’t afford to waste one third of our life being asleep and unproductive, right? We have goals to achieve, people to lead and money to make. And so we are willingly reducing our hours of sleep – “the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep”, according to sleep scientist Matthew Walker.

A study published in 2018 shows that the average person living in the UK sleeps for between 5.78 and 6.83 hours per night. This means that you and I are likely to be missing out on the recommended amount of sleep(7-9 hours for adults) by at least 100 minutes.

From other studies, we know that adults, worldwide, sleep on average 6.8 hours during the week nights and 7.8 hours at weekends. It’s all right then, you may say, as we are catching up with our sleep on weekends. Sorry to disappoint you, but this assumption is wrong.

In fact, sleep debt (aka sleep deficit) which is the difference between how much we need to sleep and how much we actually sleep, adds up over time and cannot be “repaid” by sleeping longer on weekends.

There is plenty of evidence that sleep deficit (sleeping less than 7 hours per night over a long period) impacts all areas of our lives including our relationships with others, productivity, cognitive functions, mental and emotional wellness, physical health, risk of illness, safety and mortality (see, for example, here, here and here).

Are you really willing to take this risk if you are a leader or an entrepreneur? I bet the answer will be “no” in most cases. And rightly so, because sufficient and good quality sleep is critical for our personal success as well as for the success of our businesses.

So, here are a few tips for you to improve both the quality and the quantity of your sleep. …

Please read the entire article here. [https://themaverickparadox.com/the-sleep-advantage/]

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