My own journey with experiencing the negative impact of lack of sleep on my mental, emotional, and physical health is what inspired me to make SLEEP one of the key components of the MEGA SELF framework.
The fact is good sleep is critical to our health. But unfortunately, sleep is something we can’t outsource and it’s not negotiable. It is the very building block that fuels us to take inspired action in all other areas of our lives. It is the investment we make every night into our wellness and productivity tomorrow.
In today’s fast-paced world, it has unfortunately become accepted to work longer hours so that we can meet both professional and personal demands with less emphasis on sleep, exercise, healthy food, and rest. To fit everything in, we often sacrifice sleep.
Such lifestyles become habitual, leading to poor quality of rest, and consequentially being burnt out. We simply aren’t empowering our bodies with positive activities like exercise and healthy food and the time needed to properly deactivate our daily stress cycle.
One critical preventive measure against burnout is the maintenance of proper sleep patterns.
Sleep is an essential process for cognitive processing, memory consolidation, and emotional regulation. Research shows that lack of sleep can cause excessive daytime sleepiness, mood disturbances, cognitive impairment, and even physical health problems. When you are tired, you can’t function at your best – higher levels of reasoning, problem solving and attention to detail are all impaired.
A recent study at Harvard Business Review reveals that poor sleep can increase feelings of job burnout by 13%. In contrast, quality sleep has a positive effect by reducing stress levels and improving overall mood.
Incorporating regular sleep patterns and practicing ‘sleep hygiene’ in our daily lives is therefore crucial. This involves activities such as ensuring a comfortable sleeping environment (quiet, dark, and comfortable temperature), avoiding caffeine, and stimulating foods before bedtime, or incorporating relaxation practices like meditation, breath-work or yoga.
Proper sleep patterns can significantly prevent burnout and lead to a happier and productive working life. If we want to prevent burnout it is essential to inculcate sufficient rest hours and avoid overwork, ensuring overall physical and mental well-being. Employers can play active roles in promoting adequate sleep, creating better work environments, and enhancing the productivity of the workforce.
In conclusion, I really believe we need to be working towards a work culture that empowers us to work less hours but still achieve desired outcomes. A culture that promotes self-care and optimal wellness. In turn, this will lead to us taking advantage of our flow state, and capitalizing on extraordinary productive periods of work, resulting in more time for rest and living a more fulfilled and balanced life.
If any of this resonates and you would like to empower your workplace or yourself with PROJECT MEGA SELF and The 8 Wonders of Well Being, get in touch for more details—we’d love to hear from you!