Stay Healthy: Lack Of Sleep Is Killing You And Your Productivity – 7 Little Twists You Can Make To Sleep Better

Sleep deficit is the number one performance killer.

Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor

Forgoing sleep is like borrowing from a loan shark. Sure you get those extra hours right now to cover for your overly-optimistic estimation, but at what price? The shark will be back, and if you can’t pay, he’ll break your creativity, morale, and good-mannered nature as virtue twigs.

Now we all borrow occasionally, and that’s okay if you fully understand the consequences and don’t make it a habit. I did that the other night. I pushed through the system update of our product with the team, which had me working until 1:30 AM. That wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t because I got woken up at 5 AM to help deal with an issue that arose. But the costs the following day were typical, numerable, and high:

• Stubbornness: When I’m really tired, it always seems easier to plow down whatever bad path I happen to be on instead of reconsidering the route. The finish line is a constant mirage and I’ll be walking in the desert for much longer than is ever a good idea.
• Lack of creativity: What separates programmers who are 10x more effective than the norm is not that they write 10x as many lines of code. It’s that they use their creativity to solve the problem with a tenth of the effort. The creativity to come up with those 1/10 solutions drops drastically when I’m tired.
• Diminished morale: When my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders, it loves to feed on less demanding tasks. Like reading my RSS feeds for the 5th time today or reading yet another article about stuff that doesn’t matter. My motivation to attack the problems of real importance is not nearly up to par.
• Irritability: If you encounter someone who’s acting like an ass, there’s a good chance they’re suffering from sleep deprivation. Your ability to remain patient and tolerant is severely impacted when you’re tired. I know I’m at my worst when sleep deprived.

These are just some of the costs you incur when not getting enough sleep. None of them are desirable. Yet somehow it seems that our society still celebrates a masochistic sense of honor about sleep deprivation. At times it sounds like bragging rights. People trying to top each other. For what? To seem so important, so in need, so desired that humanity requires you to sacrifice? Chances are you’re not that special, not that needed, and the job at hand not that urgent.

Working on a project is rarely a sprint, but mostly a marathon. Multiple marathons, actually. So trying to extract 110% performance from today when that means having only 70% performance available tomorrow is a bad deal. You end up with just 77% of your available peak. Bad trade.

This is why I’ve always tried to get about 8 1/2 hours of sleep. That seems to be the best way for me to get access to peak mental performance. You might well require less (or more), but to think you can do with 6 hours or less is probably an illusion. Worse, it’s an illusion you’ll have a hard time bursting. Sleep-deprived people often vastly underestimate the impact on their abilities, studies have shown.

So get more sleep. Stop bragging about how little you got. Make your peak mental capacity accessible.

7 hacks to get more sleep

1. Wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day. This will allow your body to get in to a rhythm, making it easier to both fall asleep and wake up on time.
2. Avoid screens such as phones or computers before bed. Many screens have been shown to display a type of light that may cause restlessness.
3. Avoid work or other stressful activities close to bed time. Instead, try relaxing activities such as reading or spending time with friends or family.
4. Don’t do work in your bedroom. You don’t want to have your bed associated with the feeling you get from work. Keep your bedroom as your place of relaxation.
5. Don’t drink caffeine too close to bed time.
6. Drink water right before you go to sleep. When you wake up you’ll have to go to the bathroom, which will make you want to get up and prevent you from falling back to sleep. However, try to avoid excess amounts of water within the few hours prior to going to sleep, as at may cause you to wake up in the middle of the night.
7. Leave your blinds open. The sun will make you up in the morning and give you energy.

This article is adapted from Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor written by DHH.

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