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happen one day when you’re not so busy.
You frequently wake up feeling as if
you’ve only just gotten off to sleep; you’re
tired even before the day has started.
If it’s not your partner snoring like a
wildebeest or the dog taking up all the
doona space, your sleep time is one long
interruption after another.
Fatigue has become your constant
companion; you can’t remember what it
feels like to not feel tired.
Coffee is your essential go-to to stay
awake and alert in the morning.
You have cancelled dinner dates and
social activities because you’re too tired
to go out and enjoy them.
How well we work, depends on the
energy we bring to work, and that
means ensuring our brain is cognitively
refreshed after 7-8 hours of great sleep.
However we are all different, and there
are always going to be those who can
get by with less sleep. However they are
in the tiny minority. Training yourself
to do with less sleep doesn’t work.
• Non-restorative sleep where it feels as if
you haven’t been to sleep properly.
• Early morning awakening.
These often reflect our super busy
brains that have lost their ‘off’ switch
and ability to go to sleep easily.
More often than not the contributing
factors resulting in these sleep problems
are derived from work habits that
favour the idea that to be productive
we have to work harder and for longer,
which is simply not true.
So let’s look at some of the ways we
can improve the quality and quantity
of sleep we get by making some
adjustments to our work practices.
WORK A SHORTER NUMBER OF
HOURS.
Yes really. If you are currently putting
in 50, 70 or 100 hours a week, other
than being a quicker way to shorten our
lifespan, there isn’t a lot going for working ourselves to death.
Sleep matters and sleep deprivation is a There has a been a cultural shift
critical workplace issue that needs to be towards working longer either to get
adequately addressed.
through the mountain of work we have
accumulated or because that is expected
Outside those sleep disorders associated work ethic; if you’re not working extra
with certain medical conditions, the
hard you’re considered either as not
problems I hear about the most that
committed to the cause or not worthy
people are experiencing include:
for a promotion.
• Difficulty falling asleep and staying
asleep.
It was Henry Ford who cut working
hours and showed how it increased
GLOSS JULY 2015 69