It’s amazing how often some of the leaders I work with look at sleep as a luxury at best and an unnecessary inconvenience at worst. It’s as though they see sleep as an interruption to the important work they’re doing. Some have actually bragged to me about how little sleep they need and take for themselves, as though this is a badge of honor of some kind.
Let me suggest to you two reasons why sleep is a vital leadership requirement.
First, a physiological reason. Good leadership requires creativity and curiosity, both of which come from deep thinking. And the practice that most profoundly enhances deep thinking is the practice of daily adequate sleep.
In sleep, our brains clean out toxins, process the day’s experiences, and work on problems that have been occupying our waking minds. (Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, “Rest", p. 140.)
And look at what happens what we don’t get enough sleep.
Being chronically tired to the point of fatigue or exhaustion means that we are less likely to perform well. Neurons do not fire optimally, muscles are not rested, and the body’s organ systems are not synchronized. (A study from the Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School)
This is a no-brainer when we stop long enough to think about it. Sleep is an absolute requirement for those who want to be effective and transformational leaders. Our bodies are designed during sleep to recover, rebuild, restore, and reignite the most important parts of our selves needed to empower successful leadership. We simply cannot use the excuse of multiple and challenging demands at work to deprioritize regular sleep.
And second, a financial reason. The lack of sleep among both leaders and employees is having a deeply negative outcome in the workplace and in the company. The actual financial costs being generated from sleep deprivation is staggering.
Today, so many of us fall into this trap of sacrificing sleep in the name of productivity. But, ironically, our loss of sleep, despite the extra hours we put in at work, adds up to more than eleven days of lost productivity per year per worker. This results in a total annual cost of sleep deprivation to the US economy of more than $63 billion, in the form of absenteeism and presenteeism (when employees are present at work physically but not really mentally focused). (Arianna Huffington, “The Sleep Revolution”)
Leaders who think they can get away with little to no sleep on a regular basis are deluding themselves and by their example are costing their companies millions of dollars. So much for fiduciary responsibility.
Contrary to some opinions, regular sleep isn’t just some luxury for those who have the time and leisure. It’s not an experience that the high performers and uber-productive people in our midst can simply choose to neglect or cut corners on. Sleep, as the original strategic stop, is a fundamental and vital aspect of maintaining necessary human resilience. And as leaders, we need this priority for ourselves, for our employees, and for our organizations.
