A lack of sleep at night can make you cranky, a good night sleep is incredibly important for your health. Getting an optimal amount of sleep does not just boost your mood, but also infuses your body with extra energy. When well rested, your brain and body functions are at their very best, giving you better memory, stronger skills, and endurance that will enable you to think clearly, make better decisions, regulate emotions, engage more efficiently with others, improves concentration and productivity, and it helps improve all sorts of issues.
Benefits of sleep
Faster stress recovery; when it comes to our health, stress and sleep are nearly one and the same, and both can affect cardiovascular health. Sleeping less than six hours each night is one of the causes of on-the-job burnout. Stress pile up from the work day becomes more evident with sleep deprivation which could lead to a mental and physical breakdown if unattended. Sleep can definitely reduce level of stress and with that people can have better control of their blood pressure. Get into the habit of snoozing more now to raise the odds of having a long career and enjoying your job.
Improves focus and memory; your mind is surprisingly busy while you snooze. During sleep, you can strengthen memories or practice skills learned while you were awake(it’s a process called consolidation) when you are sleep deprived, you will have more trouble refocusing on the task at hand after a disruption, compared with someone who is well rested. Also getting enough rest is keys to cementing what you have learned during the day, if you are sleep deprived, you have higher chance of forgetting things easily.
Improves decision making; sleep improves your ability to make accurate on the spot decisions, even if you are moderately sleep deprived , you will have 50 per cent slower response time and a lower accuracy rate on simple tasks than someone who is under the influence of alcohol. While it may not sound like much, it will go a long way to determine how much impact you make at your work place.
Curb inflammation; inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Research indicates that people who get less sleep of six or fewer hours a night have higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins than those who get more. C-reactive protein which is associated with heart risk is always higher in people who got six or fewer hours of sleep a night.
Cultivating a sleeping culture:
- Take nap between work hours; take a quick nap of about 10 to 20 mins in-between work. This helps you restore alertness, heighten sensory perception, prevent burnout, and makes you more productive.
- Adopt a natural sleep circle; your body has a natural sleep routine that if you keep to it, will enable you to recover from stress. Create a strict sleep schedule and commit to it every day.
- Turnoff gadgets before bedtime; make sure your TV, computer, and smartphones are turned off before you go to bed, the bright light that comes from these devices triggers your brain to wake up and be more alert when in fact you are trying to calm it down and get ready for sleep.