How I sleep my way to success (it's not what you think)

Sleep makes people happier, healthier and is proven to lead to financial gains - and the best thing is, you can do it.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved sleeping. My love for the horizontal began early. I loved going to bed, even as a kid. Some of my most cherished memories are of my parents reading me bedtime stories. Later I became an avid reader myself and spent entire school days dreaming about going to bed so I could binge on a few more chapters. 

Things aren't much different today. Anyone who has ever slept in the same apartment or hotel as I will confirm that I, quite literally, celebrate going to bed with happy squeals and the occasional song (the lyrics are very simple, in fact, they are more of a sing-song than anything else - "I love my bed! Guess where I'm going? I'm going to bed. I love my bed!" And so forth, repeated about 7-9 times for maximum effect). 

I'd still choose a bedtime reading session followed by an early lights-out over Netflix any night and more often than not, bedtime reading wins over evening social engagements. Oops. 

But I'm not socially awkward, exceptionally introverted, or some kind of bed-witched freak (come on, that's an awesome wordplay right there), I believe I've simply always known that sleep is where all the magic happens. And I know myself. I need a solid 8 hours (btw, did you know most humans need at least 7-8 hours? *1) and I give it to me, baby as often as possible.

Most people need 8 hours of sleep every damn night. Yes, you are most people!

I attribute a lot of my greatest successes to sleep. My favourite poems. My best presentations at work. My fastest sprints and heaviest lifts. After a good night's sleep followed by an undisturbed morning, awesome things happen. And for a long time, I didn't think much about it. I thought sleep was only a minor, potentially neglectable factor when it came to my success stories. Out of curiosity, I eventually started reading up a bit and girls and boys, I couldn't have been more wrong. 

Sleep is a mighty beast that I owe so much more than beauty to.

In fact, I'd go so far as saying I think sleep is the main reason I'm good at stuff. Yup. It's out. I wrote it.

People often ask me How do you do it? by it they refer to all the things I do - like running a (dare I say) successful business, having several pets, writing poetry and stories every single day, doing CrossFit 6 days a week plus all the stuff other people also do, like you know, sleeping. Except I don't do that like most other people. I sleep plenty. Usually, at least 8 hours. More if I can. Less only ever if I absolutely can't help it. 

To convince all of you to sleep more and sleep better, I put together some of my favourite facts about sleep. And yes, they are all backed by science. 

Dreams help you cope with emotions.

Ever woke up from a good night's sleep feeling a lot better about something bad that happened the day before? Well, that's because dreams help you process information and emotionally detach from it *2. In our sleep, we disconnect our thoughts, emotions, and experiences. This makes it easier for us to cope with traumatic events, lowers anxiety and helps us operate from an emotionally neutral point of view the next day. Yup, you may not remember them, but you owe getting over your latest breakup primarily to your dreams. It also means we got it all wrong. It's not time that heals all wounds. It's sleep! *mic drop*

You solve problems in your sleep.

It gets even better: our dreams match all our experiences in various ways. This allows us to look at problems in a different light. While you sleep, your brain rearranges your thoughts *3. Many poets and scientists (unconsciously) knew about this and claim they had their best aha-moments in the early hours of morning - right after waking up. Apparently Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones even slept next to his guitar and claims he wrote some of his finest tunes right after he woke up. Pretty cool, right? 

Sleep deprivation destroys your body, from weight gain and heart disease to Alzheimer’s. It also kills people.

You’re very bad at objectively assessing your decrease in performance under sleep deprivation. Here's a scary fact: sleep-deprived driving kills more people than drunk driving *5. Especially if you look at the times when drunk driving is most likely to happen: at night. Yup, most drunk drivers are, in fact, drunk AND sleepy. The worst of both worlds.

I got more bad news: nothing is reported to be beneficial about sleep deprivation. Nothing. Sleep deprivation (and yes, that starts at only a few hours - anything below your naturally required 7-8) means: higher mortality, increased risk of cancer and heart disease, weight gain, impaired immune system, significantly higher risk of Alzheimer’s, irritability, and inflammation, lower productivity, higher social fluidity, impaired rational decision making, loss of memory and emotional control, hormonal imbalances...I could go on forever. 

Honestly, it's not worth it. Just skip the party.

You can't catch up on sleep.

Sleeping only a few hours during the week and planning to catch up on sleep on the weekend? Zonk! That's actually not possible *4. In fact, even one night of bad or too little sleep seriously messes with your immune system. If you can't avoid it, experts suggest you take a short midday nap instead of trying to catch it all up on the weekend. Or, you know, do as I say and just sleep every night. Yay!  

Still not convinced sleep is directly linked to success? Let's look at sleep in a work context.

Why do we love to talk about employee well-being, engagement, and safety yet sleep is still seen as a necessary evil, even a success hinderer? Why do so many employers tolerate insufficient sleep and colleagues pride themselves with long nights and early mornings? 

(Oh, by the way, no Garry, I'm not impressed by your 1 am emails and the fact that you're in the office before me anyway. Get a grip!)

To answer my own questions: the reason sleep is still kind of uncool at work is that many leaders believe that time-on-task equates productivity. By now you've learned that's absolutely false. 

Less productive, creative and liked. But extra lazy!

Insufficient sleep is not only linked to lower productivity, engagement, and creativity; studies have shown that underslept employees constantly select under challenging problems and tend to be disliked by colleagues *6. But they're not just lazy, they are also the most likely to lie and act immorally. This includes the practice of social loafing which essentially means that when part of a group project, this person tends to consciously make less of an effort *7. Yes, it's that guy!

Underslept leaders = Kiss engagement goodbye.

No surprises here, managers' and leaders' capabilities drop just as much with sleep deprivation as all of ours. But their sleep deprivation is still worse for everyone else: research proves that employees perceive underslept leaders as less-charismatic and inspiring. And we all know what that means: a drop in engagement. Plus, as insufficient sleep leads to a lack of emotional control, underslept leaders are far more likely to act out and seriously mess up their teams. Please sleep, boss!

Sleepy yet? Let's calm down a little and end this on a high note.

Sleep makes people happier, healthier and is proven to lead to financial gains *8 - and the best thing is, you can do it. Maybe you'll need some help or to prioritise things a little differently, but YOU CAN DO IT. Anytime. Almost anywhere. For real. It's not some miracle cure that a guru is trying to sell you. Sleep can make your dreams come true. 

Don't be dumb. Sleep!

Good night.

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Article sources:

I tried to find online sources for most of the facts stated here, however, I will admit that there's somebody who has done a much better job: Dr. Matthew Walker who wrote a great book called Why we sleep. He talks about most of the things I mention (and many more) and provides direct studies in the book. Obviously, I don't have space for that here so look at these links more as a point of departure:

*1 https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/its-official-a-massive-sleep-study-of-44000-people-shows-exact-amount-of-sleep-you-need-each-night.html

*2 https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/experimentations/201801/how-suppressed-emotions-enter-our-dreams-and-affect-health

*3 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201508/solving-problems-in-your-dreams

*4 https://time.com/5541101/how-to-catch-up-on-sleep/

*5 https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-blog/2016/12/drowsy-driving-worse-than-drunk-driving

*6 W. B. Webb "Effects of spaced and repeated total sleep deprivation", Ergonomics 27 (1984)

*7 C. Y. Hoeksema-van Orden "Social loafing under fatigue", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1998)

*8 https://www.wisebread.com/how-getting-more-sleep-helps-your-finances