Royane Real

It’s no secret that life today is hurried and stressful.  Many of us work long days, and when we finish work, we work hard at home too.  We often find that we just can’t get everything done that we’re supposed to.  Something has to give, and all too often we end up making the choice to cut back on hours of sleep.  . 

Many of us just aren't getting enough sleep at night.  We are definitely sleeping less than our parents and grandparents on average.

But is it really true that cutting back on sleep will help us become more successful in our lives?

Some popular success gurus will advise you that if you want to be more successful, you need ti cut back a couple of hours of sleep each night.  They tell you that those extra hours you spend sleeping are a waste if time.  They say that while you are sleeping longer, someone else is grabbing the success you could have had.

Here are just some of the ways that cutting back on your hours of sleep could hurt your chances for success, instead of helping you.

Many experiments have been done to discover the effects of sleep deprivation on humans.  Science has shown that even a few days of cutting back on sleep hours results in a negative impact on a person’s capabilities to work effectively.  People who have experienced sleep loss find it more difficult to focus mentally.  Their decisions take longer and their creativity declines.  They make more mistakes.  Learning new information becomes harder.  

 

If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll find it difficult to handle complex machines.  In fact, you may be more likely to make mistakes when handling machines and you may be more likely to have a serious accident if you are tired. 

 

Sleep deprived people are not as cooperative in the workplace as those who are well rested.  Very tired people are less able to come up with creative solutions to problems.  When people are sleep deprived, they are more likely to be short tempered and they may have more mood swings and more depression. 

 

Many well documented cases have shown that a lack of sufficient sleep has contributed to such major disasters as the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the near catastrophe at Three Mile Island, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.  People who aren’t sufficiently rested don’t make good decisions. 

 

Add to these examples, the many thousands of lesser known accidents that are caused each year by sleep deprivation.  It will become clear that cutting down on our hours of sleep may not really be the boost to productivity that we are seeking.

 

While it is true that some people can function perfectly well on just a few hours of sleep every night, these people are a minority of the population.  The rest of us need to have seven to nine hours of high quality sleep each night if we want to be at our best the following day.  

Why not try to rearrange your schedule for a few weeks to see if you are one of the people who will benefit from having a few more hours of sleep each night?  You may discover that you will be much more productive in your work, and much happier in general.