The importance of a good night’s sleep
Failing to be well-rested causes you to be more stressed and irritable at work, writes James Adonis.
experience.
One of my favourite stores in Raumati is a perfect example of what modern shopping should be. The owner knows my name, what I’ve bought before, even my colours.
Shopping there is like a teenage sleepover - you get to play dress ups without pressure to buy. But it’s so much fun, buy is exactly what you do.
It’s in the interest of sales assistants to provide a shopping experience. There are predictions 10 per cent to 20 per cent of salespeople, especially those who are selling a simple product with a short sales cycle, will lose their jobs in the next 20 years.
I shudder to think what our communities would be without shopping areas as the centre. We need to support our traditional retailers, but, in turn, they need to meet our changing needs.
I was one of many who visited David Jones in its first weeks of opening. I tried on some trousers that looked great on the hanger and hideous on me.
‘‘At least now you know,’’ the sales assistant said. ’’That’s why you shouldn’t shop on line.’’
Touche.
Cas Carter is a marketing, branding and public relations specialist.
Two months ago, I stopped setting an alarm clock. The intention was to wake up at whatever time my body thought it best to wake up. I was curious to see what impact that would have on my life, especially on my work.
The benefits were immediate. No more yawning throughout the day. Less stress, less irritability. The wall I hit every afternoon with a ferocious thud stopped presenting itself. My decisions became more carefully considered.
Of course, it’s possible none of it’s related to the extra sleep. It may have all been due to the peace that comes with starting each day in a manner other than the shrill of an alarm. Or perhaps it was just the placebo effect.
Whatever the cause, it was working. And so was I – more productively and positively than ever.
The inspiration for that move was Arianna Huffington’s latest book, The Sleep Revolution, which shocked me into heeding the hundreds of studies proving the harmful effects of sleep deprivation. But of most fascination was this:
‘‘Just think about the definition of the word alarm: a sudden fear or distressing suspense caused by an awareness of danger … So an alarm, in most situations, is a signal that something is not right. Yet most of us rely on some kind of alarm clock – a knee-jerk call to arms – to start the day.’’
And so it is that where once I prided myself on getting by on five hours a night, I now get eight.
Of the myriad studies in Huffington’s book, two are absent due to the fact they’ve only just been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
In the first, the researchers asked leaders to deliver a presentation. Half had been kept up the night before with surveys they had to complete every hour between 10pm and 5am. When the sleep deprived delivered their talk in the morning, they were significantly more likely to be rated as uncharismatic.
In the second study, it was the employees’ turn to be analysed. Half were similarly kept up all night. The next morning, they were required to watch a video of a leader and to rate that leader’s ‘‘charisma’’. Those who were sleep deprived were more likely to judge the boss harshly because they themselves felt down and subsequently passed on those ungenerous sentiments.
Which goes to show that perceptions of leadership are influenced not only by your own sleeping patterns but also by your employees’.
As Huffington states in her book: ‘‘We’re only now beginning to come out of a phase that started with the Industrial Revolution, in which sleep became just another obstacle to work.’’
Indeed, what we’re now learning is that sleep isn’t an obstacle; it’s an enabler.
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