Mindfulness combats feelings of exhaustion

Meditation may help replenish energy when there is no time for adequate sleep

When entrepreneurs feel exhausted but don't have enough time to catch up on adequate hours of sleep, they can replenish their energy with mindfulness exercises such as meditation, a recent study suggests.

While mindfulness exercises cannot work as a substitute to the goodness of sleep, according to the researchers, the exercises might help compensate and provide a degree of relief. “As little as 70 minutes a week, or 10 minutes a day, of mindfulness practice may have the same benefits as an extra 44 minutes of sleep a night,” said Charles Murnieks, lead author of the study.

Entrepreneurs are generally defined as people involved in the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of new business opportunities, often with a stake in the ownership of new ventures. Entrepreneurship can be exhilarating, but it also can be difficult, stressful and tiring work.

“You can only work so hard for so long,” Murnieks said. Generally, when people are feeling exhausted, their drive to achieve goals is lowered, they have less desire to complete work tasks and they may find it harder to rise to and address challenges, all of which are important processes of entrepreneurship.

Exhaustion is a pervasive problem for entrepreneurs working on new ventures, but there is little existing research exploring the levels of exhaustion experienced by this group or how they handle it. In a study of 105 entrepreneurs from around the U.S., the researchers found that the entrepreneurs who slept more, or who engaged in the highest levels of mindfulness exercises, reported lower levels of exhaustion. In a second study of 329 entrepreneurs, the researchers again asked about mindfulness practice, perceived exhaustion and sleep.

The study confirmed the findings of the initial study, that mindfulness can combat feelings of exhaustion. However, in both studies, Murnieks and his colleagues also found that mindfulness exercises are less helpful if you are getting adequate sleep but still feeling exhausted.