If you\u2019re an entrepreneur, corporate boss, or ministry leader, chances are good you\u2019re not getting enough sleep. In fact, I\u2019d bet money on it.<\/p>\n\n
The national average is short of seven hours<\/a> a night. And that number, already below the recommended eight, is probably overstated. Why do I think that?<\/p>\n We usually report how much time we spend in bed, not how much time we\u2019re actually sleeping. Research shows we get about 20 percent less sleep<\/a> than we think. That pushes the national average down to about five and half hours a night.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the average! Leaders often brag about getting much less.<\/p>\n Donald Trump boasts about functioning on only a few hours a night. He\u2019s not alone. Leaders at PepsiCo, Southwest, Fiat Chrysler, Twitter, and Yahoo have all claimed<\/a> to thrive<\/a> on half the recommended amount of sleep\u2014sometimes less. The bragging rights go up as the time in bed goes down.<\/p>\n It creates a self-imposed expectation among leaders at every level. If you want to be among the best and brightest, you\u2019re supposed to be superhuman.<\/p>\n Of course, perception is not always reality. Remember that time Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer crashed before a high-profile business meeting<\/a>? Talk about embarrassing. She left marketing executives twiddling their thumbs while she got the sleep she kept avoiding.<\/p>\n But my point isn\u2019t ridicule. Mayer\u2019s story is an extreme picture of what affects countless leaders in this country.<\/p>\n Two thirds of leaders surveyed by Nick van Dam and Els van der Helm<\/a> admitted being \u201cgenerally dissatisfied with how much sleep they get\u2026.\u201d And quantity isn\u2019t the only issue. More than half were also dissatisfied with the quality.<\/p>\n This kind of sleep deprivation is costing us far more than we think, especially when it comes to the health of our organizations.<\/p>\n Effective leadership depends on high executive functioning. Unfortunately, the part of the brain responsible for that functioning\u2014the prefrontal cortex\u2014can\u2019t manage when we short our sleep. That means our organizations suffer when we decide to burn the midnight oil.<\/p>\n Van Dam and van der Helm detail four reasons skimping at night causes our leadership to suffer all day.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, \u201csleep deprivation impairs this ability to focus attention selectively.\u201d Keep it up, and you\u2019ll start performing as poorly as someone legally drunk.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Facing the day with inadequate sleep is like shipping a product without all the parts. \u201cSleep-deprived people come up with fewer original ideas and also tend to stick with old strategies that may not continue to be effective,\u201d says neuroscientist Penelope A. Lewis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Gaining perspective.<\/strong> Leaders need perspective to make the right call in challenging situations. Skimping on sleep limits our ability to do that.<\/p>\n Research shows that insufficient sleep impairs our ability to make decisions when financial rewards are on the line. The reason is that being tired blows our judgment. We\u2019re less emotionally stable and more willing to take bad risks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Supporting teammates.<\/strong> Emotional stability affects other areas, too. Teams depend on high-level emotional engagement. \u201cIn a sleep-deprived state,\u201d say van Dam and van der Helm,<\/p>\n \n your brain is more likely to misinterpret these cues and to overreact to emotional events, and you tend to express your feelings in a more negative manner and tone of voice. Recent studies have shown that people who have not had enough sleep are less likely to fully trust someone else, and another experiment has demonstrated that employees feel less engaged with their work when their leaders have had a bad night of sleep.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When we cheat our sleep, we are undermining our ability to navigate the relationships that make our organizations work in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t\tSleepy Leaders<\/h3>\n
Not as Glamorous as It Seems<\/h3>\n
Why Cheating our Sleep Costs us All<\/h3>\n
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