Here's How Sleep Affects Your Career And Tips For Getting Better Sleep

By Heather Cherry—

Check out tips for better sleep

Unsplash-Priscilla Du Preez

Sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation are common challenges that can have lasting implications—affecting your personal and professional life. According to Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Professor and Associate Dean Brian Gunia, “Sleep deprivation or sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of problem behaviors, mental and affective health problems, cognitive deficits, and physical ailments. Each of these issues has the potential to hurt the organizations they work for in many ways. For example, unhealthy sleep can cause distractions that prevent employees from achieving organizational goals, or it can lead to potential errors and even physical injury. Or, it could impair an employee’s ability to interact productively and professionally with coworkers, customers or others.”

And a large part of the population may experience challenges when it comes to sleep. A recent study concluded that nearly a third of the population experience symptoms of insomnia—approximately 26% experience excessive sleepiness, and 4% have obstructive sleep apnea.

Sleeping better is something everyone can work on and improve with the right support and attention.

Here’s how sleep affects your career and tips for getting better sleep.

Sleep Stages

According to the Sleep Foundation, a normal sleep period includes four to five hours of sleep

stages. This stage is divided into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep.

• Stage one: Generally short and includes the time to transition from wakefulness to sleep.
• Stage two: Your body and mind slow down and settle into your sleep. You can still be easily awakened—this stage can be thought of as light sleep.
• Stage three: The body slows down and enters a recovery mode, often referred to as “rest and digestion.” It may be harder for you to wake up during this stage. This stage is often called deep sleep because breathing and brain activity are generally very slow.
• Stage four: Brain activity increases into a pattern as if you were awake; However, you don’t. Your breathing and heart rate increase and your muscles stay still. This is the stage where you may have intense dreams.

How the stages come together during the sleep period is known as sleep architecture. Typically, you have to go through four or five different sleep cycles during a given night, and each cycle lasts between 90 minutes and two hours. Some cycles will contain all three phases of NREM sleep and REM sleep, but not all of them will contain every phase.

Benefits of Sleep

Scientists believe that healthy REM patterns help the brain focus and clear out unnecessary information. This is why you can make decisions or tasks faster after a good night’s sleep.

It is important to note that there is a difference between a sleep disorder and a sleep disorder.

• Sleep disorders include apnea, narcolepsy, insomnia, sleepwalking, and restless leg syndrome.
• Sleep disturbances include fatigue, restlessness, daytime sleepiness, lack of energy, pain, and sleeplessness in your chronotype.

Adequate sleep supports healthy hormone function and emotion regulation. In particular, sleep regulates the level of cortisol—a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands—also known as the stress hormone, and cortisol helps regulate other hormones in the body. “Sleep deprivation will take you down the hormonal ladder,” says Sara Gottfried, MD, assistant clinical professor in the department of integrative medicine and nutritional sciences at Thomas Jefferson University. “When you relax and have a good night’s sleep and wake up feeling healed, your cortisol peaks within 30 minutes of waking up. That peak triggers all of your other hormones, including your thyroid and estrogen.”

Getting enough sleep helps you:

• Less sick.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Lowers the risk of serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.
• Reduce stress and improve your mood.
• Think more clearly and perform better at work.
• Get along better with people.

Sleep and Mental Health

Poor sleep contributes to the onset, recurrence, and maintenance of mental health difficulties, among other risk factors for your overall health and well-being. For example, people with insomnia are 17 times more likely to experience clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety than those without insomnia. “Sleep affects almost every tissue in your body. It affects growth and stress hormones, the immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health,” says Dr. Michael Twery, Public Health and Biomedical Research Consultant and former sleep expert. at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Sleep deprivation and sleep disturbances can also cause problems in a person’s personal life, especially in their family. This can affect people’s performance at work or school.”

Although most research studies the relationship between insomnia and depression and anxiety, there is also evidence that sleep problems are associated with a variety of mental health difficulties. For example, sleep deprivation has also been linked to post-traumatic stress, eating disorders, and experiences of the psychosis spectrum such as delusions and hallucinations. Additionally, studies have found that certain sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, excessive daytime sleepiness, and narcolepsy, are more common in those with mental health difficulties.

Better sleep patterns help your performance at work.

unsplash-Brooke Cagle

Sleep And Career Vitality

Sleep deprivation causes losses in job performance, productivity, career advancement, and satisfaction, and increases work-related accidents, absenteeism, and counterproductive work behaviors. In contrast, better sleep improves memory, knowledge acquisition, and learning.

In particular, there are some consequences of sleep disturbance on your career.

• Decision-making: Sleep deprivation reduces cerebral metabolism in the prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain responsible for cognitive processes, such as judgment and decision making.
• Take a risk: A sleep study showed how sleep-deprived participants tended to choose more monetary risk.
• Mood and memory: One night of sleep deprivation increases the scale of hostility and anxiety and increases tension, confusion, and fatigue.
• Show: Creativity and complex thinking are hampered by lack of sleep—contributing to poor performance and harming your company in the long run.
• Less motivating: Sleep-deprived leaders have more difficulty inspiring their workforce.
• Circadian rhythm disorders: Circadian rhythms—the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle—contribute to health and wellness (or lack thereof). An out of sync circadian rhythm can interfere with your daily activities and contribute to poor or other performance. the skills needed to be effective in your career.

Better Sleep Habits

A healthy amount of sleep is critical to brain plasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt to input. Sleeping too little keeps you from processing what you’ve learned during the day and you may have more trouble remembering it in the future.

Better sleep often starts with creating better sleep habits. Good sleep habits (sometimes referred to as “sleep hygiene”) can help you get a good night’s sleep. Improving your sleep habits includes being consistent—going to bed every night and getting up at the same time every morning—including on weekends. “Everyone should sleep seven to eight hours per night to feel rested; otherwise you will feel tired all week,” says Dr. Susheel Patil, MD, PhD, Director of the Sleep Medicine Program for University Hospitals and previously Director of the Sleep Medicine Scholarship Program at Johns Hopkins. “Often, people will try to catch up on sleep over the weekend to pay off the “sleep debt” we accumulate during the week. While this can help, one weekend of increased sleep isn’t enough to pay for it.”

Here are some techniques to improve your sleep habits and sleep quality.

• Track sleep patterns: Use digital tools to track your sleep patterns, such as Oura Ring, FitBit, health apps, and more.
• Create a quieter bedroom: A pleasant bedroom environment can be an invitation to relax and fall asleep. Stage your bedroom to promote better sleep hygiene—create a quiet, dark, relaxing space, and a comfortable temperature.
• Set a sleep schedule: Optimizing your sleep schedule, bedtime routine, and daily routine is part of leveraging habits to make quality sleep feel more automatic. Decide when to schedule wake and sleep and stick to it.
• Working towards a better diet and nutrition: Try to eat more whole foods and less processed foods.
• Stay active: Regular exercise improves sleep quality and can help with sleep disorders such as insomnia and restless leg syndrome.
• Natural light: Aim to get more exposure to natural light throughout the day, whether sitting by a window or taking a walk.
• Assess medications and other diagnoses: Some medications can affect the quality of your sleep. Talk to your healthcare provider about medications or diagnoses to see how they might affect your sleep quality.

If you have trouble sleeping once a week, once a month, or at any point that causes concern, talk to your healthcare provider. If you have concerns about the amount or quality of sleep you’re getting, or if you feel tired even though you think you’re getting enough sleep, raise those concerns with your doctor.

Good sleep is essential for your health and wellness and for you to function effectively in your career. To make each day productive, take the necessary steps to ensure you get a good night’s sleep on a regular basis.

heather cherries is a versatile writer and editor with 15 years of experience creating content. He is experienced in providing solutions to clients through strategic, creative and conversational messaging. He published, Market Your A$$ Discount, marketing guide for small businesses.

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