Week 21, 2020
Why We Sleep: Epidemic Proportions, Hidden Superpowers, and Public Education
Each week I share three ideas to make work better. And this week, the topic is sleep. Specifically, how the lack of sleep affects performance.
The irony that [people] miss is that when you are not getting enough sleep, you work less productively and thus need to work longer to accomplish your goal. This means you often must work longer and later in the evening, arrive home later, go to bed later, and need to wake up earlier, creating a negative feedback loop. Why try to boil a pot of water on medium heat when you could do so in half the time on high? — Matthew Walker
Why am I writing about this? I read Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep and it blew my mind. This book is so packed with insights that I considered writing a series of issues on everything from Melatonin and sleep spindles to ADHD and school start times. But in the end, I thought that you, dear reader, would be better served by a short synopsis:
1. Epidemic Proportions
“Silent sleep loss is the greatest public health challenge we face in the twenty-first century.” That’s a bold claim. Especially in COVID times. But Walker does an excellent job explaining why, starting with the fact adults, on average, need more than 7 hours of sleep per night. That’s actual sleep — not to be confused with a 7-hour sleep opportunity. Laying in bed for 7 hours is not the same as sleeping for 7 hours. And if you’re like me and you average an 80% sleep efficiency, you are actually getting less than 6 hours of sleep per day. And that’s a problem. Walker explains: “Adults forty-five years or older who sleeps fewer than six hours a night are 200 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke during their lifetime, as compared to those sleeping seven to eight hours per night.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
For the backstory, check out w192019 on the history of work.
2. Hidden Superpower
When was the last time you slept more than 7 hours for several consecutive nights? Can’t remember? No surprise! That’s what sleep deprivation does to you. It makes you forgetful: “sleep assimilates complex memory knowledge and aids retention, a process that takes at least three nights of proper sleep to complete.” Turns out the old adage was wrong! “Practice does not make perfect. It’s practice, followed by [three nights of] sleep, that leads to perfection.” Sleep makes you more productive, more motivated, and more creative. It makes you happier. It puts you in control of your emotions. It makes you less likely to make rash decisions. And as we saw above, it makes you healthier as well! Sleep is like a miracle drug, the benefits of which most people are completely unaware.
For more, see Walker’s TED talk on Why Sleep is Your Superpower
3. Public Education
If you think that the 7-hour rule doesn’t apply to you, think again. People who can survive on 5 hours of sleep do exist, but the numbers are so small it’s effectively zero. And so for the remaining 99.99 percent of the population, 7 hours is the target to meet and, preferably, beat. The question, of course, is how? Walker provides two answers, both of which come down to education. First, Walker suggests that we work to change the cultural narrative from you-snooze-you-loose to you-loose-if-you-don’t-snooze. We live in a society that celebrates burning the midnight oil and that has to change. Second, we need to equip people with the information and tools they need for better sleep. It’s not rocket science. And a little bit of common sense could have dramatic effects on public health.
For more on this, read Walker’s Twelve Tips for Healthy Sleep.
Let me bring this back to work by relating a personal experience:
I’ve been writing WorkMatters for almost two years now. And I’ve hit upon a strategy that works really well for me. I write each issue in more or less one sitting. And the reason I’m able to do that is that I decide what to write a few days ahead of time. I let it percolate a bit. Simmer. And so when I finally sit down to write, the words sort of just flow out of me.
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. — John Steinbeck
Sleep, and REM sleep, in particular, help build and add neural connections in the brain. My practice, therefore, is akin to front-loading the topic and allowing my subconscious to process the information while I sleep. And while it’s not a perfect system (I still get stuck at times), it works well enough that I’ve actually come to plan for and expect things to just… flow.
Imagine what it would be like to capitalize on this in an organizational setting? What would have to change if we wanted to always run the kettle on high? Why We Sleep raises a bunch of questions like this… enough to get your mind spinning. It’s why I now wear an Oura Ring to track my sleep. And it’s why I’m sure to return to Why We Sleep again and again and again.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time, sleep tight.
/Andreas
PS1. Why We Sleep is a great read. But I would be amiss if I did not point out that there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding some of Walker’s claims. In reviewing the book, Bill Gates writes that Walker “sometimes reports as fact what science has not yet clearly demonstrated.” And independent researcher Alexey Guzey takes it further (quite a bit further) in detailing the book’s many scientific and factual errors, adding that he “would caution readers against taking the book’s recommendations at face value.” To the best of my abilities, I’ve tried to stay clear of these controversies.
