In our fast-paced world sleep is often seen as the ‘gap’ in our productive hours, after all – it is 7 or 8 hours of unconsciousness - unable to work, or socialise with friends, workout or polish our newest hobby, so why would you care?
We find ourselves in the era of flexible working, 4-day work weeks and overall rethinking of career paths, but at the same time facing revenge bedtime procrastination and mental health pandemic… This begs the question – how does sleep come into all of this? And what can we do, to ensure that our lifestyle and our mental and physical health are supported in the best way?
Why is healthy sleep so important for us? What is its value in society today? In a nutshell, society today is not wired and created for quality sleep and recovery. Scientists estimate 1 out of 3 adults worldwide is sleep deprived, but the real numbers could be much higher. You would be surprised how many people struggle to get good sleep – we are talking about a global sleep pandemic.
Sleep deprivation is not something to be taken lightly – it is linked to depression, burn out, diabetes and is a major co-factor in development of those and many other conditions. We all know the famous Snickers slogan “You are not yourself when you are hungry” – I think it’s more relevant to say “You are not yourself when you don’t get enough sleep”. After all, we die from lack of sleep much faster, than from lack of food.
What is quality sleep and how do we get it?
There are 3 main pillars to quality sleep. Society (or mindset), nutrition and movement.
In terms of society, we are in a bit of a pickle, because we are the only species that deprives itself of sleep on purpose. An animal will just sleep when they are tired (unless they are hunted at that moment) – but human lives are filled with things that disrupt our circadian rhythms – device screens, working schedules, illumination, just to list a few. It’s about recognising these disruptors and limiting their impact.
Nutrition is an important part of sleep, as sleep is a chemical process. A lot of what we take into our bodies disrupts our quality sleep – caffeine and other stimulants, sugars, alcohol. The classic night cap is a myth – even if you fall asleep easily afterwards, it deprives you from a refreshing night of recovery. You need to take nutrition into consideration when you are looking to build better sleep quality.
Lastly, movement – this is very interesting and important. Our slogan is ‘sleep to move’, but you can also turn this around as ‘move to sleep’. Have you ever noticed how well you sleep after an active day? But if you lack movement, you will often find yourself sleepy during the day and wired up at night.
Who should care about us getting quality sleep?
First, you yourself should care, but actually society at large. It’s not just an individual’s problem but it impacts entire economies.
It is estimated that the US economy loses 1.3 million productive working days due to employee’s lack of sleep, which leads to lower performance. That is a smashing 411 billion dollars of economic loss per year.
Of course, this does not just happen in the US, as we see similar statistics popping up for countries like UK, Germany and Belgium, and this is not counting impact from absences from depression and burn out.
There is a need for more information and tools to help people prioritise sleep and recovery, and as a result it will benefit us across the board – as individuals, as employees, organisations and governments.
