How Sleep Loss Affects your Job

Exhaustion

Lack of sleep can first and foremost cause a sleepy feeling that is very difficult to ignore and extremely difficult to fight off. Indeed, a study from 2009 found that close to 40% of Americans found themselves unintentionally falling asleep during the daytime. Even more common are so-called “microsleeps”, defined by one academic study as periods of between .5 to 15 seconds characterized by complete failure to respond to stimulus accompanied by slow eye-closures.

Microsleep episodes can have results ranging from wildly dangerous (such as when they occur in professional pilots, drivers, aircraft controllers, or process workers in a plant or factory) to simply annoying (trying to remember a train of thought while composing an e-mail, or asking a coworker to repeat what was just said in a meeting). At minimum, exhaustion can add seconds and minutes to tasks, resulting in a loss of productivity.

Memory and concentration

Even without lapsing into microsleep, insufficient sleep can make concentration more difficult even when theoretically wide awake. Concentration difficulties can lead to errors or prolong the time it takes to do even simple tasks, which, again, can result in a loss of productivity.

Furthermore, lack of adequate sleep can lead to poorer decision-making, and all that might arise from that. Moreover, a 2013 study suggested that the sleep-deprived are less likely to be motivated, and especially less inclined to learn new tasks.

Sleep deprivation can also affect memory, and here, too, consequences can range from the bad, such forgetting to do a task or forgetting a deadline, to the mildly irritating, such as forgetting a password or forgetting where something was put. Here, too, is a potential loss of productivity and a lowering of performance.

Workplace attitude

Sleep loss can also have a significant impact on a person’s general demeanor. It can, for example, lower the threshold for frustration and irritability, which can influence how the sufferer behaves around co-workers and customers. Sleep-deprived persons might also see an increase in the severity of underlying mental conditions like depression and anxiety, which can diminish the ability to perform tasks and lead, once again, to loss of productivity.

Illness

Lack of sleep is also directly related to a heightened tendency to become ill and can make existing physical ailments worse. A 2009 study showed that persons getting less than seven hours of sleep were approximately three times more likely to develop the common cold, and potentially have to be absent from work to recover from it.

Moreover, prolonged insufficient sleep has been shown to have a direct bearing on hypertension and coronary heart disease, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. It can also lead to insulin resistance in diabetics. These outcomes can lead to death at the very worse, and at the very least to hospitalization, which can likewise cause extended absence from work.

Proper sleep and work

There is a direct connection between adequate sleep and high levels of functioning at work. Whether it manifests itself in the truly horrific, such as a car crash or industrial accident, to the merely inconvenient, such as taking an unduly sharp tone with a co-worker, lack of sleep can definitely play a role in poor performance at one’s job.

There are a few things that can help those who perhaps did not sleep enough. If possible, a quick nap during lunch can do wonders for concentration. Caffeine, too, can help with focus and alertness. Recent studies also suggest combining the two. Sleep reduces the amount of a chemical called adenosine, which causes sleepiness. Adenosine competes with caffeine in the brain, so coffee before a nap simultaneously reduces sleepiness and allows for the caffeine to start to work.

Coffee and naps can help with the effects of sleep insufficiency. A better route, however, is to address its cause. Making sure to increase sleep can eliminate all of these difficulties. If they persist even with 7 to 8 hours of sleep, it might be wise to investigate whether or not sleep apnea has developed. If so, sleep apnea can be treated with surgery, machines, oral appliances, and even lifestyle changes.

Getting more sleep can help one give the very best effort at work, which can lead to handsome rewards reaped in the long run.

Sleep Disorders in Jeffersonville, Shepherdsville and Louisville

With offices in Jeffersonville, Shepherdsville, and Louisville, Exceptional Dentistry proudly serves the greater Louisville area. To make an appointment, call (888) 918-3336.