There are famous ones People, which increases their productivity increasethat they sleep little. But many people sleep badly Anxiety. What are the implications? A self-experiment.

Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®

4 hours of sleep a night - is that enough?

Hand straight to the heart: did you wake up feeling exhausted this morning, did you feel tired in the Office towed - and secretly waiting for the weekend? Maybe you're one of those people who can't sleep properly for fear of job stress.

Some people even do this to themselves voluntarily. It has been reported from various German scientists that they slept only four hours a night or only two hours a week and Tricks like cold water or a block of wood on their leg, to get through their workload.

Sleep like Marissa Mayer?

The books on the subject (advertising)

Tip: You can also use this text as a PDF or an eCourse on the subject download. You can also find it in the shop exciting inspiration to experience your success, plus offers & news in Newsletter ! (Advertising)

By ex-Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer and ex-Google employee, now co-founder of the AICompany Lumi Labs, is told that she only needs four hours of sleep a night. But when she sleeps less, it becomes critical, as one of her former colleagues quotes her as saying:

“I met her once at dinner in New York; she was literally falling asleep in her soup. She said, 'Normally, I can get by on 4 hours of sleep a night, and I thought I could get by on 3. But I can't. ”

Sleepless for fear of the job?

For the majority of people, insomnia is not self-chosen. Unfortunately, many people apparently cannot sleep - due to fear and job stress. The Online-Karriereportal Monster.de wanted to know from 24.000 participants worldwide: Are the thoughts of the coming week so dominant among employees that you cannot fall asleep on Sunday evening?

A lot of the employees seem to know this phenomenon only too well. About 40 percent of the respondents plague every Sunday night with the thoughts of the next day. Another 19 percent sleep badly several times a month, because they are already thinking about the upcoming working week.

17 percent have restless sleep in the run-up to important projects, and a good fifth of the employees use the weekend until the last minute and never have any sleep problems. In detail, the question was asked: "Are you sleeping poorly on Monday night because you are already thinking about the coming working week?". And these were the answers:

Southern Europeans and Scandinavians are doing very well

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

The employees in Southern Europe and Scandinavia can do particularly well: in each case 31 percent of the Norwegians and Danes as well as almost 36 percent of Spaniards have no sleeping problems on the night of Monday.

By contrast, especially the British and Eastern Europeans sleep badly before the start of the week: in Hungary, 58 percent of respondents are awake every Sunday night. Nearly half are in the UK and Poland and 41 percent in the Czech Republic.

40% of Germans are sleeping badly because of the job

Even the Germans are not immune to sleeping problems: 40 percent of the interviewees can not sleep well every Sunday because of the upcoming working week, another 19 percent is more than once a month.

Only about a fifth of German employees know this Problem not. It's a similar story for Americans: 51 percent of them struggle with sleep problems right at the start of the week, only 18 percent don't start thinking about their work until Monday.

Permanently little sleep in the self-test

Personally, I think little of artificial sleep deprivation to increase productivity - and try to avoid stress-related insomnia as much as possible. When I'm tired, I want to sleep. That's also because I'm not a good sleeper:

Especially if I'm on a longer term Projects sitting, I'm often up in the morning before dawn and then have an extremely high adrenaline rush for the rest of the dayspiegel. This is only good for a few days.

Can you work well despite lack of sleep?

And can that work in the long run? Can you do more if you sleep less? An involuntary self-experiment thanks to jet lag. Some time ago I was in western Canada for two weeks. That means 8 hours of time difference in Alberta and 9 hours in British Columbia. It was the first time for me that I had been exposed to such a huge time difference for so long.

In my experience, 5 or 6 hours are good for me to digest. Anything beyond that gets stressful. In addition, I was not there for vacation; This also means all sorts of appointments during the day. Result: For two weeks, I had a greatly reduced sleep rate of no more than 4-5 hours per night.

6 tips for productivity despite little sleep

What does it do with the body and productivity? And how can you be productive, even though you did not sleep well? 6 tips that came out of my self-observations.

  1. Problems with the sleep rhythm: There are numerous tips against insomnia. One of them: a regular sleep rhythm. And that's exactly what was my undoing in Canada. Because of course my body reported in the middle of the night, albeit a little later every day: "Get up".
  2. Movement helps: Sport actually helps. Not just at bedtime but also when falling asleep again. So I went jogging around 3 in Banff at night. But when I was warned about stray pumas, I let it go.
  3. Insomnia initially makes you more productive: What I liked in the beginning was that I actually got more done. I had more hours each working day 4 or 5 hours, in which I could devote myself to my communication, before my actual day's work began in Canada. Disadvantage: Of course it also makes you much more tired.
  4. eMails work off in one fell swoop: Really that was mine eMails could almost immediately work through in one fell swoop. When I woke up in the morning to 4 or 5, then it was already afternoon in Germany and the first eMailStorm over. And all eMailOne day, I suddenly found it more practical than drop by drop.
  5. The fatigue increases: Despite increased adrenalinespiegel Logically I got more tired every day. Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, that is, midnight our time, my eyes started to water regularly. And a certain basic tiredness set in.
  6. Stress and irritability increase: After a few days of sleep reduction, I also felt much more irritable and prone to stress. I was more nervous than normal. And I started to look forward to the home and the usual sleeping patterns.

Little sleep in self-experiment - conclusion:

Such a radical one change of the sleep-wake rhythm is the pure one for me personally Stress. If it can be avoided, I will fast don't do it again. Of course, there are numerous tips against jet lag:

For example, forcing yourself to live with the time on site immediately. Unfortunately, that only worked to a limited extent for me. Fresh air, sun and exercise, however, help the melatoninspiegel adapt. However, sleep deprivation actually has advantages for productivity. Whether this is healthy and what productivity looks like for a longer period is another matter.


Top books on the subject

Read text as PDF

Acquire this text as a PDF (only for own use without passing it on according to Terms and conditions): Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de, we will then send the PDF to you immediately. You can also purchase text series.

4,99Buy

Advice on success, goal achievement or marketing

You have Ask about career, Recruiting, personal development or increasing reach? Our AIAdviser helps you for 5 euros a month – free for book buyers. We offer special ones for other topics IT services

5,00 / per month   Book

Book eCourse on Demand

Up to 30 lessons with 4 learning tasks each + final lesson as a PDF download. Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de. Alternatively, we would be happy to put your course together for you or offer you a personal, regular one eMail-Course - all further information!

29,99Buy

Skate eBook as desired

If our store does not offer you your desired topic: We will be happy to put together a book according to your wishes and deliver it in a format of yours Choice. Please sign us after purchase supportberufebilder.de

79,99Buy