Does sleep affect your productivity at work?

The simple answer is yes. Very few of us have the battle weary resolve to make it through the working day after a bad night’s sleep, let alone a sustained period of time of poor rest.

A lack of sleep can have a detrimental effect on your mental and physical health. It’s healthy to establish a pattern of regular sleep.

Fundamentally this is why the Sleep Council  was formed. An impartial organisation established to help you get a better night’s sleep and ultimately improve your health. 

Feeling tired is not the only sign of poor sleep. Other key indicators include...

1. Uncharacteristic mood swings – your normal chilled out persona has suddenly become subject to outbursts at work.
   
   
2. Absent mindedness – Forgetting a task in the afternoon that you haven’t completed in the morning, overlooking a request in an important email and making simple errors.
   
   
3. Inability to focus – the key cause of lack of concentration is fatigue. You may look to blame other things as distraction, but when you are tired you cannot focus.
   
   
4. Underperformance – All the above leads to poor performance. Which in turn can cause a vicious circle of sleepless/disturbed nights worrying about your fall in productivity and mistakes. Tackling the root cause at the outset should be your main focus and the rest will fall in to place.

The Sleep Council recommends that the average working adult should be getting between 7 and 9 hours sleep per night. See their useful website for advice and follow their 7 simple steps to a more rewarding night’s sleep. For another insight on the affects of sleep on the mind and body see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41666563