According to Charles Czeisler, a specialist in sleep deprivation at Harvard Medical School, lack of sleep can be as bad for productivity as drinking too much alcohol.
"We now know that 24 hours without sleep, or a week of sleeping four or five hours a night, induces an impairment equivalent to having alcohol level in the blood," says Czeisler. "We would never say, 'This person is a great worker! He's drunk all the time!' ...yet we continue to celebrate people who sacrifice sleep for work."
And Corporate America does promote workaholism amongst its ranks - pushing exec's to work marathon-100-hour-workweeks, encouraging employees to take red-eyes and land with fast-feet running to the office, rather than catch needed shut-eye and re-energize.
Dr. Czeisler warns that burning candles at both ends actually does not justify the productivity ends. Indeed sleep deprivation creates the antithesis to high performance.
"With too little sleep," Dr Czeisler says, "people do things that no CEO in his or her right mind would allow."
For this reason, Dr. Czeisler suggests companies now start to incorporate new sleep policies which oppose employees working beyond a 16-consecutive-hour period, and prohibit working or driving immediately after late-night or overnight flights.
Dr. Czeisler comments how it's interesting that companies have rules to protect employees against smoking and sexual harassment -- yet companies promote self-destructive workaholism behavior.
I suggest you keep Dr. Czeisler 's report in mind the next time you have a choice between working too long versus getting some needed sleep.
In fact, I suggest you sleep on all this information.
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The vast majority of people with these disorders are completely unaware that they have them. Occasionally a bed partner may say something but that is usually to complain about the noise that is interfering with their own sleep. Even those people who seek regular medical care are usually unaware of their problem, because few physicians regularly ask patients about the quality of their sleep. Those people who do get a diagnosis are routinely prescribed a therapy that as many as 50% refuse or fail within the first six months of treatment. Those people who remain undiagnosed and those who are diagnosed and untreated go on to live shortened lives of diminished quality with health care costs doubling those who are diagnosed and well managed.
This is a public health care dilemma of monumental proportions. What is desperately needed is more professional and public awareness about oral appliance therapy, a well validated and effective alternative therapy for those patients who refuse or fail CPAP (continuous positive air pressure).
Unfortunately, the medical profession routinely ignores their own practice parameters and makes no mention to patient about the availability of this life-saving treatment.
(Sorry, I am a little grumpy tonight...)
Personally, I am chronically ill (undiagnosed, really -- but I have been sick everyday for 15 years -- lyme disease, fibromyalgi, chronic fatigue syndrome, heavy metal toxicity..... all of the above?) and yet I am raising my 5 year old. Everyday is a HUGE challenge. My husband is a teacher and works 20 hours per week for no pay. The level of excellence he provides his students is expected of him, who cares how many hours it takes!
Oh, back to sleep. It is a cornerstone of physical and mental health. But not only do we not sleep enough, we also go to bed too late which means we miss out on a certain deep sleep you can only get the first part of the evening (before midnight). Add enormous stress, lack of time for play and family and hobbies and travel, and then our horrible diet. Wow.
We will not be a strong (or sane) country until we address these issues BIGTIME!
I'm voting this for funniest comment of the year. : )
Then I can work another 5 hours or so, and feel totally good.
It's not that I want to work 12 hours or more a day, it's that I really have to. When(if) I get tenure, I expect things will lighten up at least a little.
I rarely drink before going to sleep---I used to have a glass of wine. But now I find, as I am getting older, it causes me to wake up at about 4 AM with rebound anxiety, so it's jsut not worth it.
I do have a bok of NY TIMES crosswords by my bedside. I find that working on those for about ten minutes before bedtime in bed, makes me drowsy and I fall gently asleep.
My problem is annoying birds who wake me up way earlier than I have to. How do you get the birds to knock it off?
Residency is ridiculous. We were encouraged to ignore our need for sleep even as we had to perform at a high level in order to save lives.
Idiotic..
Corporate American doesn't "promote workaholism." It demands it and factors it into its project plans. Those who object frequently find they have lots of time to catch up on their sleep after their work hours cut back to zero.