Your effectiveness is defined by how healthy of an entrepreneur or employee you are. But the question is, why is a healthy dose of sleep so important?
Well, there are many facts regarding health; but one of them is good sleep. Sleep is founded as one of the major contributing components of human health and being-well. In spite of this, many people remain unable to get enough rest… especially entrepreneurs. Maybe you didn’t realize this, but bad sleep habits kill your productivity, and your business, too.
You should also probably know that bad sleep doesn’t only affect your health, but employment-related factors such as work schedules, workload, norms, stress, and can lead to interpersonal mistreatment.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found that approximately a third of U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended 8 hours per night.
Studies also found that short sleep is associated with some of the unwanted complications of cardiovascular diseases (e.g., stroke, hypertension, myocardial infarction), diabetes, and psychiatric disorders including depression, substance dependence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Below are some of the major outcomes of non-healthy sleep habits:
1. Job Dissatisfaction and Poor Customer Service
Sleep deprivation, insomnia, and, poor sleep quality lead to negative and unstable moods and emotions as well as a lowered overall work/life balance.
Having specific moods or emotional status to the customer is an important role of many service-related occupations. Sleepless entrepreneurs experiencing negative moods are unable to regulate emotional intelligence and become less effective in customer-facing roles.
2. Decision Errors and Lack of Creativity
The adverse cognitive effects of insufficient sleep are directly connected to work outcomes.
Sleep loss also undermines efficiency in switching among tasks, increasing task-switching costs and compromising multitasking performance. Thus, insufficient sleep can damage the ability of employees to effectively manage their attention and apply their most relevant knowledge to make effective decisions.
3. Work Engagement and Unethical Behavior
There is no surprise that interdisciplinary literature exists examining how sleep influences behaviors relevant to workplace success.
The effect of sleep deprivation on mood and job satisfaction leaves employees less likely to engage in helpful behaviors toward their colleagues. More broadly, inadequate sleep leads to lower levels of overall work engagement. One study in particular revealed that just an hour less sleep per night than the recommended 8 hours led to an increase of approximately 5% in procrastination, and a 3%-6% increase in cyber-loafing or web-surfing.
4. Social Loafing and Trust
Overall, sleep-deprived entrepreneurs are less effective in handling their individual workloads, simply because business success also requires employees to work together effectively.
Unfortunately, sleep deprivation compromises effective workplace collaboration by causing social loafing, in which a given member of a group freely rides on the efforts of others.
5. Lack of Team Effectiveness
A bird’s eye view of these aggregated effects highlights how insufficient sleep erodes the value of human capital within businesses.
Overall, sleep-deprived employees conduct their work less productively and ethically, work less well together, make poorer decisions in pursuit of business goals, and lead others less effectively. As a result, work groups are less effective when their members are denied their precious sleep.
Bottom line
As per the necessity of healthy sleep, managers should focus on human sustainability when leading employees, focusing specifically on sleep health as a way to sustain high levels of performance and work satisfaction over time. Talk to your constituents about the importance of having a good night’s rest along with a healthy work/life balance so your company can achieve its goals.
