Many of us race down the superhighway of life, rushing to meetings, squeezing in family obligations, and meeting deadlines. To get everything done, many people choose to sleep less. If this happens to you every once in a while, you’ll probably be okay. Life happens. We get it. But frequent nights of less than seven hours of sleep can have a dramatic impact on everything in your life. But before you get tucked into bed, spend a few minutes reading this article to learn how losing sleep can jack your performance.
Losing Sleep Impacts Your Work
Sleep deprivation negatively impacts both the quality of your work and the amount of work you can perform. Cognitive and memory functions are at risk when we regularly skip as little as 30 minutes of sleep a night. A study published by the Advanced Sleep Medicine Services reports working professionals experienced diminished decision-making ability, creativity, and control over their emotions. Additionally, they reported a decline in processing and learning skills. These functions affect your performance on the job, as well as your relationships with co-workers. And the higher someone climbs the corporate ladder, the more likely they are to sleep less. Workers with senior management responsibilities reported that their physical, emotional, and social well-being were negatively affected more often than lower-ranking employees.
Cutting Zzzzs Affects Your Workouts
What you do in the gym is important. The exercise sequence, the number of reps, your form, and stretching combine to deliver fitness results. Many people put a lot of thought and planning into their workout regimens, but many don’t realize sleep plays a vital role in their ultimate success. According to W. Christopher Winter, MD, President of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine, without sleep, exercise will not be beneficial. Sleep gives your body time to recover, conserve energy, and heal from the wear and tear of exercise.
But the great thing about exercise is that it can actually help you sleep better. According to Winter, “Physical activity creates more adenosine in the brain, and adenosine makes us feel sleepy. The harder we work out, the more we are driven by this chemical to sleep.”
The Sleep and Mood Connection
Lack of sleep affects your mood and, as a result, can damage your relationships. A lack of snooze time can cause irritability and stress. Chronic insomnia may increase the risk of developing anxiety or depression. Damage to social relationships could have the greatest impact on overall health and well-being. Social connections are the greatest predictor of long-term happiness, so sleep deprivation can cause a downward spiral of fewer and fewer social interactions.
Problems in the Bedroom
As if this wasn’t bad enough, all this awake-time can result in the loss of drive and increased infertility and dysfunction. According to Psychology Today, “The body becomes stressed when experiences sleep difficulties. The brain suppresses sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone in favor of stress hormones like cortisol. It diverts attention away from pleasurable pursuits as it concentrates on conserving energy.
The Performance Edge
Getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night is vitally important to performance at work, in the gym, and the bedroom. Therefore, it’s is important to schedule sleep consistently and make it a priority. Sometimes by doing a little less, you can be more effective and gain a performance edge. Game Changer Products offers other ways to get a performance edge. We offer the highest quality enhancement products designed to keep you performing at your best. We’ve recently expanded our sampler pack options. They are an easy way to try something new and discover what Game Changer can do for you. There is never a risk with our money-back and price-match guarantees. Plus, we offer free, same-day, and priority shipping options, and an easy-to-use, secure Paypal payment portal. Life demands performance. Game Changer delivers it, so you can too!