NYC Sleep Specialists Explain How to Be More Productive This Year – Get Better Sleep

Have you ever tried to impress your boss by saying, "I stayed up all night writing this report for you" or "I've been working so hard that I only sleep 4 hours a night?" Well, if your boss knew what NYC sleep specialists know, instead of being impressed he would tell you to start getting more quality sleep.

Sleep deprivation leads to "presenteeism," which is as bad as absenteeism

If you haven't had enough quality sleep, your body might be at work, but your mind really isn't. The problem with getting insufficient sleep or poor sleep is that workers think they're being productive when they aren't. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), over 40 million American workers (30% of the total work force) don't get sufficient rest. The CDC calls this phenomenon "presenteeism" – people showing up for work but operating at subpar levels because they haven't had enough quality sleep. This phenomenon cost U.S. companies $63.2 BILLION dollars in lost productivity last year.

The myth that skipping sleep makes you "productive" is just that – a myth

While employees who stay up all night working on a report might think that this is making them "more productive" at work, research says otherwise. One recent study, for example, found that for every hour of poor or interrupted sleep they got the previous night, workers spend an extra 8.4 minutes online wasting time by checking email, surfing non-work websites, etc. In a related animal study, mice who were deprived of sleep actually lost brain matter as a result, losing 25% of the neurons in their brains associated with wakefulness and cognitive processes.

Lack of sleep affects workers' productivity, but it also affects their attendance, because long-term sleep deprivation leads to more on-the-job and commute-time accidents and health problems such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's. Poor sleep patterns are becoming recognized by both doctors and employers as a public health risk – in one study conducted by the CDC on nearly 75,000 adults, over 35% reported getting fewer than seven hours of sleep a night, 40% reported falling asleep during the day at work, and 4.7% reported falling asleep or nodding off while driving to work.

The science is conclusive – to be more productive, get more and better sleep

Back in the early days of Silicon Valley, the "rule of thumb" for employers was "If your company parking lot is empty at midnight, your employees aren't working hard enough." Science has proved this to be dangerously untrue. An employee who is getting less than seven hours sleep a night or who is getting impaired rest as the result of sleep disorders is less productive, not more.

If you would like to sleep better, and thus improve not only your productivity at work but your ability to better enjoy your off-work hours, call the NYC sleep doctors at New York Sleep-Wake Center today, at 646-233-1838. They will schedule a sleep study in their Manhattan sleep center and work with you to find a solution to your sleep problems, so that you can both overcome any sleep disorders that are plaguing you and become more productive at work. This is what we specialize in, and what makes us one of the best sleep centers in NYC.

Author Bio

NYC sleep specialists and Sleep Center Manhattan explain how workers can become more productive by getting more and better sleep, not less.