How Sleeping Can Make You More Productive
And also, improve your health.
Every time I’d have something important the next morning such as a big exam or a presentation, my parents told me to go to sleep earlier so that I could have more rest and a better night’s sleep. Does any of that sound familiar?
Our bodies are like machines: we need fuel in order to work. This translates to energy. And where does this energy come from? Food and sleeping. These two things are what keep us awake during the day.
Having a great organization system can increase our productivity but, at the end of the day, if we don’t have enough energy to sustain ourselves, how can we even think that we’ll be able to do everything we want to?
The recommended sleeping hours
We’ve been hearing our entire lives that a good night’s sleep ranges between 7/8 hours. In 2018, a group of neuroscientists from the University of Western Ontario worked on the world’s largest sleep study (more than 40.000 people from all over the world participated).
The results showed that people who slept on average 7/8 hours had better performance throughout the day than those who slept less or more.
In theory, it is pretty easy: have a healthy and balanced diet and sleep 7 to 8 hours a day. But, when it comes to real life, it isn’t that simple.
This is when work comes to a place
Staying up until 4 o 5 am and getting only 2 hours of sleep to work on a deadline or finishing an important project is something most of us are familiar with. This causes an infinite loop: we don’t get enough sleep because of all the workload and we don’t work hard enough because we aren’t getting enough sleep.
Losing sleep is usually related to enjoying your day and getting things done, but what most people don’t realize is that sleeping less than what their body needs is gonna make it harder for them.
What makes a good night’s sleep?
It’s important to differentiate between:
- Sleep quantity: the number of hours spent in bed
- Sleep quality: how well (or bad) you sleep
A good quality sleep indicator would be falling asleep in between 30 minutes or less, sleeping through all night without waking all of a sudden and, in case that happens, being able to drift back to sleep in 20 minutes or so.
On the contrary, a bad quality sleep indicator would be, for example, having trouble falling asleep, waking up various times throughout the entire night, or even insomnia.
Controlling sleep quality is way more difficult than quantity. You could try with a sleeping app (Sleep Cycle: IOS and Android), which tracks your sleeping patterns. If you still can’t seem to figure out how well you sleep or don’t think you’re getting good sleep, it’s always a great option to talk to your doctor.
The research behind the relation between sleep and productivity
There have been many studies that have clearly shown how people who sleep the recommended average hours and have a good quality sleep have many benefits. For example:
- Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students: made by Kana Okano, Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk, Neha Dave, John D. E. Gabrieli, and Jeffrey C.Grossman in 2019.
“This study found that longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, and greater sleep consistency were associated with better academic performance.”
- Lack of Sleep Is Affecting Americans, a survey from Sleep Foundation in 2014.
The percentage of adults who didn’t have adequate sleep was at 45%. Bad sleep caused poor quality health. They also said to have good sleep quantity, but not quality.
- Work Productivity Loss Associated with Sleep Duration, Insomnia Severity, Sleepiness, and Snoring: made by R Yang, L Hale, C Branas, M Perlis, R Gallagher, W Killgore, J Gehrels, P Alfonso-Miller, M Grandner in 2018.
“Sleep duration (both short and long), insomnia, sleepiness, and snoring were all associated with decreased work productivity. Among sleep symptoms, insomnia demonstrated the greatest impact on work productivity. Sleep should be considered an important element in workplace health.”
How much sleep is necessary to be productive?
The truth is, it depends.
If you ask around, every person you ask will give you a different answer about how many hours they sleep. Some say sleeping 8 hours works for them, and some others, the other way around: they feel satisfied with just 5 hours of sleep a day.
As there are so many factors that could interfere in your sleeping schedule, there’s one easy and simple way to know if you’re having enough sleep.
Ask yourself: “Am I tired?” If you do and you also feel sleepy, there you have it. You probably need more sleep.
In conclusion
- As humans, we need to sleep just to have energy, which helps us do better throughout our day.
- Everyone is different, and what works for you may not work for others.
- We should focus more on sleep quality rather than quantity (although it’s also important)
