3 Reasons Entrepreneurs Need Sleep

Written by: Martha Lewis, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

You wake up with a start to your alarm blaring next to your head. All you want to do is go back to sleep since you went to bed late and didn’t sleep well. But you think of everything you have to do and so you push yourself out of bed, stumble to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and start your day in an exhausted daze.

Sound familiar?

Many entrepreneurs see burning the candle at both ends as a necessary part of being successful. One of the hardest parts about working for yourself is that your to-do list never ends. You’re the boss and so you hold yourself accountable. Plus, your family and your business all depend on your success. So you keep going, keep putting in the hours, keep going to bed late and waking up early to get it all done.

What if sacrificing your sleep can actually sabotage your success?

Here are three reasons why getting a good night’s sleep can help you achieve the success you want:

1. You’ll make better decisions

People who sleep 5 hours a night are more likely to make riskier decisions than those who sleep 8 hours a night, according to a recent study. Twice a day, participants were asked to choose between receiving a certain amount of money or gambling the money for a higher amount with the possibility of losing it all. “At the start, less sleep didn’t influence the participants’ decisions, but as the sleep-deprived nights added up, more and more of them took the bigger risk.” Even more interesting is that they didn’t see any difference in their decision making as they got more and more sleep deprived. So they didn’t perceive that they were taking bigger risks even though they were.sleep-deprived

2. It’s easier to learn new tasks

As an entrepreneur, you’re constantly learning how to do new things. From marketing to selling to networking, you’re doing it all, especially in the beginning. So being able to easily learn new tasks is crucial to being successful.

Lack of sleep makes it harder to learn and solve problems. As an example, one study found that trying to learn a new software program at work is up to three times more difficult when a person is not well-rested.

Getting the sleep you need will make learning new things easier and will save you precious time.

3. You can solve problems and be more creative

Entrepreneurs need to be able to look at problems and situations from a fresh perspective. In other words, you need to be creative and innovative to solve problems in your business.

During deep sleep, your brain transfers new information into long-term storage. In REM sleep, also known as dream sleep, your brain catalogues those new memories and links them to other pieces of information. This function of REM sleep allows your mind to make connections and come up with new solutions to your problems.

So instead of staying up late to keep trying to solve a problem, I suggest going to sleep instead. Let your brain do the work for you while you get to refresh yourself. In the morning, you may have the answer waiting for you. As John Steinbeck wisely wrote in Sweet Thursday, “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.”

When you get a good night’s sleep, you make better decisions for your business, you’re better able to learn new tasks, and you can solve problems and be more creative.

How to get the sleep you need

First of all, make sleep a priority. Try a 30-day challenge, where you commit to going to bed on time and allowing for 7-8 hours of sleep. Know that the first 10 days will be tough and then it will get easier after that. After 30 days, you can see the impact that getting sleep has on your work, mood and productivity and you’ll be motivated to continue.

Secondly, manage your stress during the day by taking breaks, spending time in nature and doing relaxing activities like meditation, yoga or deep breathing. If you’re constantly stressed and your stress hormone levels are always high, cortisol will still be high at night which will keep you from falling asleep easily and staying asleep all night.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, then take some steps to solve your insomnia. The good news is that you are innately meant to sleep well. If you have trouble falling asleep or you wake up in the night, there’s likely something going on in your body that is causing this. You can find out why by downloading the “What’s Causing Your Insomnia” checklist from https://www.thecompletesleepsolution.com/.

Arianna Huffington passionately writes in The Sleep Revolution, sleep “gives us strength, energy, power, and creativity. It makes us happier, less anxious, more productive, and more able to handle the everyday stress of our lives.” I’m sure she would agree that a good night’s sleep is much better for your business than working too hard and burning out.

Martha Lewis, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Martha Lewis is a sleep consultant to people who want have tried everything and still can't sleep. As a certified sleep expert and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner, she addresses both body and mind with stress resilience techniques and testing for hidden health issues to get to the root cause of her clients’ insomnia. She goes beyond the basic sleep advice you read about everywhere else and addresses what’s happening in the body that causes insomnia. She has been featured in numerous publications, such as Thrive Global and the Jackson Hole News & Guide, and various podcasts around the world and is also a passionate speaker on the topic of sleep.