Do you sleep well? (Part I)

Key takeaways:
– About 75% people don’t sleep enough;
– Chronological sleep deprivation causes health issues and affect work efficiency;
– Track your sleep and form a sound bed-time routine to improve sleep quantity and quality;
– You will improve your health and work productivity by sleeping better!

While waiting for picking up my son from a Jiu Jitsu class, I had a chat with a father who was also waiting there. I asked how his shoulder had recovered as he had some chronological injuries from regular boxing. I suggested him to do less boxing from three times to twice a week and sleep more. Sleep more?

He seemed to be surprised by the idea of ‘sleeping more’ in order to fix his shoulder issues. “I thought I should see my physio regularly”, he said. Then I asked how his sleeping quantity and quality had been for the previous two weeks. He said he probably should have slept more. (So obviously, he didn’t reckon he had enough!)

Although I’m not a medical doctor, it’s not difficult to find some medical research to support the link between health issues and inadequate sleep. Consequences are not able to recovery from injuries or sickness faster, and not be able to concentrate on works; hence, lower productivity.

I quickly explained the ‘theory and medical evidence’ behind my suggestion to this father. I also noticed that he wore a Fitbit. So I suggested him to monitor his sleep patterns for the following two weeks. I told him: “you could heal your shoulder injury simply by visiting a physio (so proper treatment is done) and sleep more”.

The next time I met him a few weeks later at the Jiu Jitsu class again, he told me that his shoulder had improved a lot. He now does two boxing sessions per week so to allow more time to recover. He also showed me his sleep patterns on his iPhone. That’s typical patterns I saw from my coaching clients: lack of sleep and poor sleep quality. He said that after seriously monitoring his sleep patterns, he noticed that he had, on average only 6.5 hours sleep. He then cut his evening TV time to ‘make room’ for going to bed earlier (because he can’t choose to wake up later in the morning because of young children. I know! >_<). Over one week trial, he found ‘sleeping therapy’ very effective and it’s free!

When my client wants to improve his/her productivity and health, the first question I always ask is: do you sleep well? Sleeping is a ‘task’ that takes almost 1/3 or our human lives and is more important than another other things you do. Quality sleep will improve your health, give you a good mood, let you concentrate on works and improve your relationship with others. And, it’s free!

Dr. C. Richard Wu @ REEAConsulting.com