Stress Less, Sleep More!

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day -- Mother Nature's best effort yet at contra-death.” according to Professor Matt Walker, neuroscientist and sleep expert. He goes on to explain that “The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. Finally, the human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived.”

Lots of interesting food for thought there and whether you are a “5 hours is enough for me” or “Without 9 hours I simply cannot function”, it is fair to say that we recognise that insufficient sleep does affect us.

March is National Bed Month, organised by the Sleep Council, intended to remind us of the importance of sleep to every human system – whether cardiac, digestive or mental health – and encourages us to look at our habits and sleep hygiene so that we are getting whatever we personally need. As an employer you cannot control what time your employees go to bed, whether they are eating a diet that isn’t good for sleep or whether their noisy neighbours wake them, so what has this got to do with you?

Well, there are many factors that can interrupt quality sleep – whether the Full Moon or simply needing a new bed – but here I am going to focus on the impact that stress and anxiety can have on quality sleep, an issue that as an employer or manager you SHOULD be interested in!

Stress and anxiety will affect our sleep which then has a knock-on effect to our energy, mood and performance over the next few days AND can have significant impact in the workplace on concentration, engagement and even accident rates. Did you know that more vehicular accidents are caused by drowsy driving than the number caused by alcohol and drugs combined?

Stress can affect both our physical and mental health and is often cited as a significant cause of poor quality sleep. Perhaps you cannot get to sleep because your mind is racing, busy and stimulated, or you find yourself waking in the middle of the night with thoughts that simply can’t be settled?

Stress can come in many forms – whether it is anticipation of an event such as a driving test, performance review, job interview – or it can be an ongoing state where we are not getting the chance to settle and re-calibrate – an experience lots of people have had as a result of the Covid pandemic (working from home, no family support, children home-schooled, worried about job security, finances, physical health). And stress will be different to different people. It will affect us differently, some more than others, and often it is the perception of the issue that we have rather than the issue itself, which causes the stress response.

The HSE tell us that “Stress is a major cause of sickness absence in the workplace and costs over ￡5 billion a year in Great Britain” and reminds employers that they have a duty of care to protect employees from stress – but whilst you cannot be responsible for problems at home, breakdown of relationships, worry about children or the need for a new bed – you absolutely do have a responsibility for stress that is work-related AND need to understand how work can also exacerbate mental health disorders.

Let’s take a quick look at work-related stress and see exactly what we can influence.

According to the HSE, the are two main factors cited by respondents as causing work-related stress, depression or anxiety. The first is workload pressures, including tight deadlines and too much responsibility and the second, a lack of managerial support. As a manager, you can absolutely influence or control both issues, and, especially right now with so much uncertainty in the outside world, we need to do all we can to create a work environment where stress is absolutely minimised!

Lots of organisations are facing challenges right now – possible redundancy, different ways of working, bringing people back to work following a lengthy period of working from home or furlough, maybe – and if you are a manager, keen to understand more about stress and how to keep YOUR team safe, you will benefit from signing up for our FREE webinar on this very subject, Thursday 1st April HERE.

The webinar is aimed at Managers who are keen to take care of their teams. making sure you are doing all the right things legally and morally, especially now as we move back to a world that is slowly opening up again.

Recognising that if stress becomes distress, then performance, attendance, results and relationships can be significantly damaged – so from a practical perspective (no candles or sandals required!) – what can we do to keep our team safe and away from that slippery slope?

Join me on 1st April and find out more!

“Practice does not make perfect. It is practice, followed by a night of sleep, that leads to perfection.” - Matthew Walker (Why We Sleep; The New Science of Sleep and Dreams).