How A Good Night’s Sleep Can Supercharge Your Business

The benefits of a good night’s sleep are widely documented and are known for increasing mental and physical health, improving energy and leading to better brain functioning.

For business owners and entrepreneurs, it can be tempting to sacrifice sleep and spend more hours of the day working. Many of the world’s key businesspersons subscribe to this way of thinking with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi and former President Donald Trump all accrediting their success to an average of 4 hours sleep per night.

Whilst more hours in a day can maximise your time working, if you are not sleeping enough then these extra hours may be less efficient. Here we share why more sleep might be crucial for supercharging your business. There are also, more ways that ever to upgrade your sleep; from investing in better bedding, like a Hungarian goose down duvet and a better mattress, or even just simple blackout blinds, every little helps when upgrading the quality and depth of your sleep.

1. Boosts Immune System

When your body gets the right amount of sleep, it improves your whole immune system as your immune cells get the rest needed to combat any illness. Those couple of hours a day of extra work you are doing are going to mean nothing when you have to take more sick days or extended periods of time off work due to being run-down. It is better to get the right amount of sleep and avoid long-term illnesses and multiple days out of the office.

2. Better Mood

When you sleep well and feel more well-rested, both your energy level and overall mood is higher. It is no secret that lack of sleep has been linked to anxiety and depression – not only is this detrimental to the individual, but it can impact anyone they come into contact with.

As an entrepreneur, a crucial aspect of that is maintaining good relationships within your team. Excusing your behaviour due to being tired does not cut it when you have a team to lead. If you are irritable and angry as a result of sleep deprivation, it can have detrimental effects on how you communicate with and motivate your colleagues.

Most importantly, better sleep has been linked to the ability to stay calm under pressure – a key skill when running a business. In order to portray yourself as an effective leader, you need to demonstrate the ability to remain calm in challenging situations rather than lashing out and losing your cool.

3. Increased Productivity & Concentration

It is time to put to rest the argument that more hours spent working leads to a more productive day. In fact, better quality sleep has been linked to increased productivity meaning that the hours you spend working really count.

A study analysing over 4,000 US workers found that those who slept less had significantly worse productivity and job performance, with a shocking $1,967 loss in productivity per worker.

In recent years, there has been more focus on how to work shorter, more productive hours, rather than sacrificing sleep in order to work longer, and usually less productive, hours.

4. Improved Memory & Cognitive Performance

A lack of sleep has been linked on multiple occasions to memory impairments. For entrepreneurs, CEOs and business owners, their schedules are typically hectic and present many problems and challenges. Poor memory and cognition can negatively impact this.

Not only might you miss important meetings, forget key pieces of information, or lose your train of thought during meetings, poor memory means less efficiency in your job and poorer consolidation of the day during your sleep.

A study carried out by the Harvard Business Review found that entrepreneurs who operate on fewer hours of sleep are less able to evaluate complex business decisions. When making important decisions such as investment proposals and hiring decisions, it is important to ensure that you are making the right choices for the long-term success of your company. If you are not getting enough sleep, you will not be able to properly analyse these decisions.