We have always been told about how important sleep is. Professionals have been emphasizing that we all need 7-9 hours of sleep. However, in our hectic schedules it is difficult for most of us to clock in even six hours as we have enough responsibilities at work and at home. As a result, we always think about compromising our sleep in order to meet our requirements. We often start our day with a kick of caffeine and don’t necessarily understand how tired, exhausted our body actually is. We feel that we are managing our work fine, but don’t necessarily understand the detrimental effect poor quality sleep has on our work and also on our health. 

Sleep deprivation has shown to impair brain function.  This therefore affects our overall level of concentration and productivity at work. It slows down both physical and cognitive reaction time and accuracy. Poor sleep and fatigue also contributes towards productivity losses. It overall reduces our ability to stay focused at work. We also under estimate the role sleep has towards our memory. Restful sleep is extremely important towards forming long-term memory. 

Research has further suggested that sleep deprivation has an impact on behaviour and alertness, which then has an impact on decision making and our overall problem solving ability. This can affect our work to a great degree. It further can hinder our prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for our creative mind. This is important as it leads to the various innovations, etc. one develops at work.

Lack of sleep also makes us tired and feel fatigued. This can result in poor muscle control. Furthermore, it hinders our ability to stay cheerful and be able to work in a collaborative manner along with a team.  Lack of sleep makes us moody, cranky and less tolerant towards our colleagues. It affects our communication with our team members and also our working relationships with them. This therefore then affects the overall dynamics of the workplace. It disrupts the workplace by causing overall inefficiency and lack of job satisfaction. The workplace needs to have a balanced environment and a night of good sleep, helps each individual in achieving so. 

In addition, poor sleep overall affects our health in many ways. It is linked to higher body weight, imbalanced metabolism, lowered immunity, increased inflammation, greater risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and depression. Each of these could affect our life individually and drastically, which would then impact our overall work dynamic and efficiency. 

It is therefore extremely important that we take our sleep seriously. Poor sleep not only leaves us tired, but also inhibits us and our work quality in various ways. It therefore is recommended that we pay serious attention to the amount and quality of sleep. I actually think its actually healthy and beneficial to tell someone; “Sleep on it!”