The BIGGEST Bottle Neck For CEO's & High Level Executives That's Destroying Your Performance, Revenue & Growth ??

That's a bold statement.. I know.. But it's also a true!

Poor sleep costs companies over $136 BILLION a year in LOST Productivity!

A large study by the National Sleep Foundation found that tired workers cost more than $136 billion annually in lost productivity. Another McKinsey study found that over 43% of business leaders did not get enough sleep.

Another study found that just one night of sleep deprivation was enough to impair executive function leading to problems with goal maintenance, mental flexibility, problem solving and novel thinking.

Now I know what you're going to say.. but Dr. Luke, I'm different and there are lots of very successful people out there that make do with 3-5 hours a night. We often hear that exceptional achievers tend to sleep?very little?— with?Indra Nooyi needing just 4-hours of sleep per day, and Tom Ford merely 3.

Ari Onassis once famously quoted: “Don’t sleep too much or you’ll wake up a failure. If you sleep three hours less each night for a year, you will have an extra month and a half to succeed in.”

However, don't let this fool you! Such anecdotes are NOT backed by science —and the plural of anecdote is NOT data. So, what do we know about the actual connection between sleep and performance?

And it's NOT just performance we should be thinking about either. Long term sleep deprivation will take years off your life, not to mention add these to the list:

1. Serious Health Problems:

• Cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and heart attacks
• High blood pressure & strokes
• Diabetes

2. Sex Drive Killer:

• Sleep specialists say that sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex.
• Testosterone can plummet in men and women can have hormone imbalances (this is because Deep Sleep imperative for hormone regulation)

3. Depression:

• Over time, lack of sleep can contribute to the?symptoms of depression. In a 2005 Sleep in America poll, people who were diagnosed with depression or anxiety were more likely to sleep less than six hours at night.

4. Weight Gain:

• ?According to a 2004 study, people who sleep less than six hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely to become?obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.

5. Dumbs You Down:

• Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.
• Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.

6. Executive Functioning:

• Reducing your night time sleep by as little as 1.5 hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32 percent, along with a huge decline in critical thinking, decision making and overall problem solving.

The study of the consequences of sleep-impaired leadership has been heavily researched, and is shown to ALSO drastically affect those around you, including your workforce.

• Increased risk-taking?– A?sleep study showed how participants who were sleep deprived changed their decisions and were inclined to opt for more monetary risk.
• Mood & Memory– a study looking at the effect of one night’s sleep loss in subjects saw?significant increases on both hostility and anxiety scales?as well as heightened tension, confusion and fatigue.
• Team effectiveness & performance?– as creativity and complex thinking are stifled with sleep loss, the team’s effectiveness and thus performance suffers and can in the long run compromise the company.
• Less inspirational and motivational?– leaders who are sleep deprived will have a more difficult time to inspire their workforce and bring out the best from their colleagues and subordinates.
• Family & work-life imbalance?– workgroups who feel sleep is less regarded at the workplace, and putting in hours is what’s expected, will most likely find it difficult to detach from work during their free time and at night time as well. The anxiety or insomnia caused from this, can further exacerbate the low quality sleep workers may already be experiencing.?
• Circadian rhythm disruption?across workgroups?– The circadian system contributes to health and disease. An out of sync body clock in leaders and workgroups will in the long term likely reflect in absenteeism and increased sick leave.?

So... Where does this leave YOU?

Well I know that it's not as easy as just going to bed earlier and waking up later. And to be honest, to tell you to simply do that would be insulting. So what is the answer...?

The answer is to build HIGH Performance Habits and Systems f0r sleep and your sleep environment, and then sprinkle in the magic of science and data to effectively increase sleep efficiency

You see there are 2 main areas to your sleep: Deep Sleep (for your body) and REM sleep (for your brain). And each are vital for your body and brain to regenerate, refuel, heal, repair and rest for the next day. Ideally you want to hit about 2 hours of REM sleep and at least 90 minutes of deep sleep minimal each night.

So many people and clients when they come to me are hitting between 7-9 hours of sleep, but their Sleep Efficiency is poor! This means that even though they are getting adequate amounts of sleep, their deep and REM sleep times are only around 30 mins and 40 minutes respectively.

When this happens day in and day out, over months and then years.. this is where your bottle neck occurs! When we are younger we may get away with it, but when we reach our 40's and above, being smart with your sleep efficiency is one of the most fundamental thing a CEO or high level executive can do for themselves, their business and their family.

But don't just take my word for it... Some of the world's biggest hitters are also now prioritizing their sleep for health, performance and to avoid decision fatigue. Some of these big names are Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Ariana Huffington, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Bertolini.

IF anyone would like to know more about improving their sleep efficiency, or even know more about how to improve their sleep scores, their sleep environment or simply to improve cognitive performance and function - then please drop me a "more sleep" comment in the comments below and I'll reach out and share some cool stuff with you.