Sleep well to work well

Sleep well to work well
Sleep is an under used resource in our society, especially for organisations. There is considerable evidence that in the workplace, better sleep not only avoids the costs of accidents and mistakes, but also enables a level of personal wellness that leads to spectacular results.
Most organisations understand the benefits wellness at work these days but sleep underpins wellness as the third leg of the wellness stool that includes eating and exercise.
One of the most valuable tests for you organisation is the cost of poor sleep calculation*. How much is the poor sleep of your employees costing you and them? Perhaps more importantly, how much potential are you ignoring…?
 
The benefits of better sleep speak for themselves
 

1. Higher productivity

Numerous studies show that people who sleep well outperform those who don’t by a significant amount. No surprises here…to be sharp and responsive, we need sleep!

1. Less stress and anxiety

Lack of sleep is known to result in poor emotional self-control. This allows negative thinking and over-sensitive feelings to damage both the individual and relationships their colleagues. Depression and suicide have both been linked  to poor sleep.

1. Greater creativity

Creative ideas come together in sleep and many famous innovative ideas have been tapped into through sleep and/ or walking. Although the hours of sleep we have cannot guarantee genius, many great inventors realised their solutions while dreaming, a creative process that we can all learn to access with practice.

1. More energy, fewer mistakes

Tiredness and low energy are symptoms of poor sleep. Mental and emotional energy comes from regular, quality sleep. Mistakes and misunderstandings are often a symptom of brain ‘fog’ that results from poor sleep.

1. Better health and safety

There are fewer accidents in the workplace caused by lack of focus, poor attention span and micro-sleeps (when the brain forces sleep for a second without you knowing it). Unnecessary accidents with machinery, vehicles or from simple falls can be prevented and there are fewer sick days from general ill health.

1. The ability to make better decisions

Complex decision-making takes place in sleep – the brain sorts and organises information so that it can be more easily processed. This is why you sometimes wake up and know the answer to a thorny that has eluded you for days after a good night’s sleep or when you wake up in the early hours of the morning with a ‘Eureka’ moment!.

1. More adaptability

The connectivity that takes place across our brain while we sleep enables more innovation and better ‘big picture’ and longer-term thinking. Mental agility and openness to change is a result of rested and recharged brains.

1. Better relationships between people

Better control of emotions leads to more positive and collaborative relationships. Chemicals created during sleep also produce more positive attitudes and less ‘knee jerk’ negativity.

1. Better memory

The brain use sleep to set and sort memories. Without sleep, the brain is like a sieve! ‘Cleaning’ of toxins also happens in certain levels of sleep, so that the brain washes away the substances that can clog up our thinking over time. No wonder there are so many cases of dementia as we age beyond  mid-40s. An accumulation of toxic waste rubbish has built up over the years and sleep has not removed it!
 
If you would like to know more about taking the cost of sleep calculation and improving sleep for employees and the organisation, contact me to talk about it.
 
*The cost of poor sleep calculation is the start point for prioritising action and measuring results in the ‘Sleep well to work well’ programme offered by Workplace wisdom.
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