In a fast-paced and highly competitive modern world, we have to be always in “switch-on” mode at our work and spend extra hours at work to either complete the pending tasks or stay ahead of schedule. In this race against time, we tend to ignore one of the important things that is vital for our mental and physical health, sleep. As per some experts, most of the professionals are suffering from some sort of sleep disorder which can be detrimental to our overall health. It is not only those extra hours that you put in office that can be the reason for sleep deprivation but there can be other factors like, poor sleep habits, poor sleep environment, unhealthy food consumption, lack of exercise, etc.
A bad mattress can be one big factor for your poor quality of sleep. Sleep deprivation may happen because your mattress cannot support your body properly and is not making you comfortable while you are asleep. Depending on your sleep needs, you should opt for a better mattress that supports your body, keeps your spine, shoulders, hips in neutral alignment and prevents the creation of pressure points so you wake up relaxed and energetic to face the rigors of a new day at work.
Some people suffer from sleep deprivation because they continue to use their old mattress that they have outgrown and are reluctant to invest in a new and better mattress. If that is the case, you should immediately buy a new one, depending on your body structure and sleep needs of you and your partner, you can opt for twin beds, queen-size, king-size, etc.
Better sleep habits, a perfect sleep environment, increased physical activity, and consumption of healthy foods and avoiding caffeine-laden foods and drinks are good for improving your sleep health.
Here are 5 ways sleep deprivation can kill your career.
1. You become irritable and angry quite often
Amygdala in the part of the brain that experiences negative emotions like anger and rage. It has been found that sleep deprivation increases activity in amygdala activity and part of the brain that can control these negative emotions and how you react to them gets by-passed.
Sleep deprivation can harm how you react to situations that may not be going well for you. Sleep deprivation can increase your negative mood, and make you irritable, angry, and hostile.
Not being able to control your negative emotions can lead to even a trivial matter resulting in a big hostile situation and repeated hostile situations are going to be bad for your career.
2. You show up at work but aren’t mentally there
Sleep deprivation can leave you mentally exhausted and you may show at work but are not being able to perform your tasks optimally. You may be physically present there at work but your mind is not able to support you to perform your job and your productivity suffers.
Constant dip in performance is not going to make your boss happy and which can ruin your career prospects.
3. You become prone to accidents
Chronic sleep deprivation leaves a person mentally and physically exhausted. The major reasons behind most of the accidents at work are mental and physical exhaustion. The lack of sufficient good quality sleep can impair your motor skills and make you incapable of running heavy machinery, and prone to other kinds of accidents. Sometimes, even a simple activity like picking a coffee cup may become a hard task if you are sleep deprived and may end up scalding yourself and some colleague who is in the vicinity.
Accidents at work are not only bad for the health of workers but can have a serious impact on the economic side of the business as well.
4. You end up falling sick quite often
Sleep deprivation makes you prone to physical and mental ailments. Sleep deprivation makes your immune system weak and you can catch diseases like common flu, digestive disorders, etc. very often and will have to call in sick quite often.
Chronic Sleep deprivation can lead to serious physical health problems like, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and mental problems like depression, low self-esteem, etc. which can be bad for your career in many ways.
5. You make a poor impression
Sleep deprivation can make people behave as if they are intoxicated, your reaction time gets reduced and you lack self-control as well. Whether you are handling a presentation within the team or attending a critical business meeting with a client or your bosses, and you end up exhibiting this kind of behavior can leave a poor impression on your team, client and your bosses.
Unimpressed clients and bosses are not good for your career. If you are managing the team or working in a team then your team members are not going to have high regard for you.
Conclusion
Sleep deprivation is bad for your mental and physical health, it also can be detrimental to your successful career as well. You should practice healthy sleep habits to avoid sleep deprivation which in turn can ruin your career.
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