How does lack of sleep impact your health and success for Director Magazine:
An inability to get to sleep or stay asleep is more than just frustrating if you run your own company or have a demanding executive role. The negatives attached to insomnia are plentiful. For one, sleep plays a key role in cognitive processes, which means that a lack of it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning and problem-solving. But that’s not all.
Lack of sleep impacts health and success and can put us at a distinct disadvantage if we hold a position of responsibility and manage a team, says health and confidence expert Rhona Clews. “When we’re wired we tend to get snappy and intolerant and it’s very hard for us to be ‘present’, as we need a certain amount of energy for that.” With mindfulness becoming a buzzword in corporate environments, more and more people are noticing when we’re present – and when we’re not. “It’s more important than ever to demonstrate that you’re present and that you’re listening and being authentic, that you’re with everyone in the room – and that’s really hard to fake,” she adds.
About 21 million people in Britain suffer from insomnia and the NHS spends almost £50m on sleeping tablets a year.
If you’re a chief executive the impact of insomnia can run even deeper – it can affect everyone you employ. “You’re the pack leader and everyone’s looking to you for approval and validation,” says Clews. “Employees look to you for guidance – you’re the role model, so if you’re slipping up on the basics it’s going to have a detrimental effect on team energy. Your team will think, ‘If the leader’s not committed why should I be?’ And that’s going to affect respect and your team relationships.”
Read the full article here
Image by Rhona Clews. Words by Marina Gask
