Margaret Thatcher: two words that tend to elicit strong and divergent feelings among British people of a particular age. Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, however, it’s fair to say that she’s unlikely to frequently feature in your daydreams, which is why this week’s been a strange one. Whereas, last week, I had Pete Campbell stuck in my mind, this time it’s Maggie turn, dangling in my subconscious like a gangly Spitting Image puppet.
Why that shocking image, you ask? A heady mix of sleep deprivation caused by sciatica (and with that, ironically, a lack of actual dreams), medicated with a cocktail of prescription drugs. Indeed, I may look back on this newsletter in a few weeks and wonder why on earth I wrote this. In the spirit of Mastermind, though, I’ve started, so I’ll finish.
My thoughts over the past few days have inevitably focused on how to mitigate a lack of sleep and still maintain not just my sanity but a high level of performance at work; something for which Thatcher was, of course, famous (hence the reference, in case you were wondering).
The received wisdom is that sleep, along with a healthy lifestyle, are critical components not just for a positive mindset but also to achieve success at work. The thing is, as, with most parents of young kids, my default setting is extreme tiredness, so this kind of talk has always concerned me. And this week’s 3 am starts have taken things to another level.
Here are three things I’ve learned that have helped me and may help you during those periods of child/pain-induced nights of interrupted sleep.
There’s no glory in not sleeping.
While you can get away with a lack of sleep by ‘switching it on’ for individual meetings and work interactions, it does leave you cognitively impaired, which increases the chances of making mistakes and producing lower quality work in the long run.
As Amie M. Gordon and Christopher M. Barnes write in the Harvard Business Review:
“Although our sleep tends to happen at home, we bring the consequences of poor sleep into the workplace, too. Leaders who report sleeping worse tend to engage in more abusive behaviors toward their employees (such as yelling at them in front of their colleagues) and have damaged relationships with those employees. Sleep-deprived leaders are also less charismatic and generally less effective in their leadership roles. Research indicates that overall, businesses benefit when employees are well-rested.”
So during those periods where lack of sleep unavoidable, try the following.
- As far as possible, stick to more routine tasks, rather than those that require creativity and innovation, which are more vulnerable and likely to lead poor decision-making.
- Explain the situation to friends and colleagues. You don’t need to bore them with it, but most people understand and are willing to help out and share the load. Plus, this is the sign of a great team; one that works together during great and more challenging times.
- Lean on the advice of others to sanity-check your ideas (perhaps something I should have done before writing this newsletter!)
The amount of sleep you get is important cumulatively, but you don’t have to get it all in one go.
In his book, Wild Nights, Benjamin Reiss wrote:
“Sleep is both a universal need and a freely available resource for all societies and even species. So why is it the source of frustration for so many people today? Why do we spend so much time trying to manage it and medicate it, and training ourselves—and our children—how to do it correctly? And why do so many of us feel that, despite all our efforts to tame our sleep, it’s fundamentally beyond our control?”
He believes the issues result from our obsession with the concept of a ‘good night’s sleep’, which conflict with many people’s natural circadian rhythms. When we don’t get our ‘8 hours’ suddenly this creates anxiety, thus reducing our chances of sleeping well the next night – a vicious circle. The truth is, the body is very resilient and can cope well with periods of little sleep. However, it’s essential to allow yourself the time, where possible, to make a dent in that deficit.
Napping is the way forward
Despite my best efforts, I have, historically, never been a napper. However, I have recently introduced a daytime sleep into my life, wherever possible (one advantage of lockdown and the gradual increase in the number of days I work from home is my proximity to a bed). It has been my saving grace over the past couple of weeks because although it can’t replace the total number of hours lost at night, it gives me a sufficient boost to get through me the afternoon productively, rather than just clinging on for dear life.
I follow Dan Pink’s ‘Nappuccino’ technique (see below), the trick of which is to limit sleep to no less than ten minutes and no more than twenty. Also, immediately preceding the nap with a coffee or cup of tea gives you a double kick when you wake up as the caffeine takes around twenty-five minutes to kick in.
Lunch, Read, Coffee, Sleep, Wake, Bang, away we go!
Thankfully, we’ve largely moved on from employers considering taking a break at work ‘time theft’. Why not now encourage people to take a ‘power nap’, where appropriate? After all, it’s proven to have positive effects on alertness and clear thinking that last nearly three hours.
Sleep is turning into big business with significant moves into the space by big tech businesses like Apple, Google (who own Fitbit) and the founders of Twitter who’ve invested in Oura, a sleep ring. As this article in The Economist suggests:
“It is hardly surprising that techies are not getting enough sleep, given the industry’s culture of long hours, and the widespread notion that for a true entrepreneur, everything else in life is secondary to succeeding at work. The enthusiasm for sleep-tech also fits a larger pattern of using technology to fix problems that the industry itself has created. Is your smartphone too addictive? Here’s an app to help you monitor and track your usage. Are the streets of your city clogged with Ubers? Try an electric scooter instead. Seen this way, the embrace of sleep-tracking is an indictment of the whole culture: it tackles the symptoms of sleep deprivation, but not the disease.”
So many areas of our work-lives are rapidly changing, let’s reconfigure our attitude to sleep too. As Alex Soojung-Kim Pang wrote in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less:
“If you want rest, you have to take it. You have to resist the lure of busyness, make time for rest, take it seriously, and protect it from a world that is intent on stealing it.”
Thanks for reading. I’m off for a lie-down.
Ollie
Any other business:
On a more serious note, this chart from The Economist shows the effect of losing your job on sleep.
Whether it causes you to sleep too much or too little, it’s bad for your health. They report that:
“Poor-quality sleep can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease and depression, among other grim conditions, adding to the worries that come with unemployment.”
This Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall, but you do get one free one a month so worth a read if you can. It discusses how managers and leads can help give employees the boost they need with some well-considered and thoughtful gestures.
It also emphasises the need to rethink meetings, something for which I’m a great advocate. The first thing to ask yourself is whether the meeting is even necessary, and if it is, how quickly can we achieve its goal. The key to the latter is often in the preparation, which is critical to avoid the scourge of meetings to your business.
If you’re interested in music, podcasting, or anything audio-related, listen to this a16z podcast. Gustav Söderström, Chief R&D Officer at Spotify, discusses the convergence of music and voice in the platform’s newest feature. Amongst other things, the guests talk about how giving creators the right tools improves both fan engagement and increases monetisation possibilities.