“But any faults this book [24/7] has are convincingly outweighed by the things it says that are good…”
“Sleep is a way of getting rid of the memories in a way that is good for the brain.”
“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
- | Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
“You know, think about it, when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up…”
- Reed Hastings, quoted by Aatif Sulleyman in Netflix’s biggest competition is sleep, says CEO Reed Hastings
“Whenever a new technology comes along, we inevitably blame it for ruining our sleep.”
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Pagan Kennedy, The Insomnia Machine
“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
- Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Best Way To Increase Innovation And Productivity? Tell Your Staff To Come In Later.
Turns out that a long list of negatives — decreased innovation, reduced productivity, mood changes, and difficulty in focusing — are linked to people not getting enough sleep. Not to mention the links to obesity, high blood pressure, and a host of other health issues.
Why do people cut back on sleep? Work.
So-called short sleepers (those who get less than 6 hours per night) spend 1.5 more hours at work than normals, according to the American Time Use Survey.
The highest likelihood for longer work hours was with those that hold multiple jobs.
And the survey found that for every hour that the start of work was pushed back, people gained 20 minutes more sleep.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Mathias Basner, said
Potential intervention strategies to decrease the prevalence of chronic sleep loss in the population include greater flexibility in morning work and class start times, reducing the prevalence of multiple jobs, and shortening morning and evening commute times.
So, one solution to the negatives involved with short sleep is to push back the time for people to start working. Note that 80,000 car accidents every year are attributed to drowsy drivers, and a possible 1,000 deaths.
The president of the American Academy of Sleep, Dr Timothy Morgenthaler, said
Getting at least seven hours of nightly sleep is essential to be at your mental, emotional and physical best for whatever you will pour yourself into, either at work or at home.
Note that the self-employed are most likely to get enough sleep.
So pushing back the workday an hour or two is good policy, even if the early morning types will get up and work anyway. For the night owls, the benefits are overwhelming.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
How are smartphones and sleepy bosses alike?
Both demonstrate sleep disruption is bad for business
There is a large body of evidence showing that insufficient sleep causes all sorts of problems in the workplace. For example, poor sleep hygiene has been linked to cyberloafing, work injuries, and unethical behavior.
One of the newest causes of poor sleeping in our connected world is the smartphone, especially when used after 9 p.m. Researchers Christopher M. Barnes, Klodiana Lanaj, and Russell Johnson believed the blue light emitted by smartphones could inhibit the production of melanin, the sleep-promoting hormone.
They tested the hypothesis by having 82 mid-level managers complete multiple surveys per day over a two week period. They compared each participant’s responses only to that person’s data on other days. In that first study they discovered that, yes, late-night smartphone use cut people’s sleep time, and they were less engaged the next day.
In a second study, they had 161 employees from a variety of occupations — both managers and non — complete the same surveys as in the first test, with added questions about late-night TV, laptop, and tablets. Smartphones still stood out as having the biggest impact on work engagement.
The best counter is for people to establish predictable time off. For example, deciding to turn off the smartphone at 9 p.m., and not turn it on until 6 a.m. (Of course this is specifically bad for people like me, since I read on my smartphone at night, prior to going to sleep.)
And new research into the sleep hygiene of managers reveals what may be unsurprising, in retrospect. Again, Christopher Barnes and fellow researchers Lorenzo Lucianetti, Devasheesh Bhave, and Michael Christian wondered what makes bosses abusive, and — lo and behold — sleep is important for restoring a person’s capacity to exert self-control, so sleep disruption should lead to bad bossing.
In this study, they conducted a field study with 88 leaders and their direct reports. Again, the managers were surveyed about their sleep the night before and their perception of their self-control at that moment. The subordinates filled out surveys during the same two weeks about any abusive behavior from their bosses. Again, these were within-individual analyses, using data from the given leader and subordinates.
In this case it turns out that sleep quality — not quantity — had the greatest effect on abusive behavior, so a leader with a poor night’s sleep was more likely to be a jerk. And that behavioral change on the part of the leaders causes their subordinates to be less engaged.
So, bosses — and maybe everyone — should be careful with sleep hygiene, and to turn off that smartphone before 9 p.m.
This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. To learn more about tech news and analysis visit TechPageOne. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.