brain needs the most gets overlooked
or short-changed. We get so busy with
our to-do lists and ‘always urgent’
deadlines we look to extend our brain’s
working hours shaving off a little bit of
sleep time here and there. Sleep is still
sometimes seen as a bit of a nuisance.
If we didn’t have to deal with the
inconvenience of losing valuable work
time from sleeping, just imagine how
much more we could get done.
Except it doesn’t work that way.
Sleep is the time when our brain is
working at its hardest, consolidating
long-term memory, deepening our
understanding, creating new ideas and
regulating our emotion.
Insufficient sleep over a period of time
leads to an acquired sleep debt and the
result is we feel tired, chronically tired.
Why this matters so much is that sleep
deprivation is associated with poorer
health - we are at increased risk of
high blood pressure, stroke, obesity,
depression and cognitive decline.
It also has a huge impact on our
performance that can cost us dearly.
At the societal level, sleep disorders
cost the Australian economy over
$5.1 billion dollars in 2012 with the
reduction in life quality costing a
further $34.4 billion dollars a year.
With roughly 10% of the Australian
population suffering from some sort of
sleep disorder, there’s clearly a lot of it
about.
There are many reasons why we don’t
always get a good night’s sleep. Some
factors may be outside our control, but
there are many that are.
How we choose to live and work can
often lead to poorer sleep.
Have a look at the following statements
and ask yourself if any of these apply to
you and if so, how much is it impacting
your ability to do your work and do it
well?
By the way, it’s important to be honest
here – there can be a big difference
between ‘knowing’ the right answer
and what we actually do.
• You regularly work extended hours or
pull all nighters to get all your work
done?
At the individual level it costs us our
• You frequently use your smart phone,
ability to learn well, to form memory
tablet, laptop or computer in the
and recall information. It reduces
evenings or at night?Working late
our ability to pay attention, reduces
after you’ve put your kids to bed and
accuracy so we are more prone to errors,
still ‘online’ or with a digital device
we make worse decisions, we suffer
right before you go to sleep?
more foggy thinking and it makes us
• Your boss or work expects to be able
irritable and snappy.
to contact you outside normal workGLOSS JULY 2015 67