Turn Off the Computer
Signal to your body that it's time to wind down.
Being on the computer before bed undermines sleep in more ways than one. First, any activity that engages your mind — whether it’s shopping online or redoing your resume — keeps you alert when you should be getting sleepy. Your mind can’t possibly relax and work at the same time. Plus, the computer exposes your body to light, which signals that it’s time to be awake, not asleep.
Instead, pick a time, at least an hour before bed, when you will shut down the computer, no matter how many emails you still have to answer. They’ll have to wait until morning. Better yet, don’t turn on the computer at all after dinner.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Avoid the Afternoon Coffee Break
Caffeine suppresses chemicals in the brain that induce sleep — which might seem like a good thing right before your 3 o’clock meeting. But it’s also a stimulant, which means it can raise blood pressure, heighten anxiety, cause nervousness and dizziness, and increase alertness — none of which you want when you crawl into bed.
You know enough not to drink coffee at night. But caffeine has a half-life of about six hours. So that tall macchiato you had midafternoon is still in your system at midnight. (Note: Tea has roughly half the amount of caffeine as brewed coffee, while soda has roughly one quarter the amount. Decaf coffee contains very small amounts of caffeine.)
Instead, have your last cup of coffee or tea with lunch — meeting or no meeting. Avoid drinking decaf at night, too, since trace amounts of caffeine can still have an effect.
Turn Your Bedroom Into a Cave
Avoid any unnecessary disruptions.
Many forces in your bedroom conspire to keep you awake: the TV, the riveting book on your nightstand, your laptop. But the biggest problems are light, heat, and noise.
Any light that seeps in, whether it’s from the master bath or the TV room down the hall, will trigger the wake sensors in your body. “Even the light from the alarm clock can fool the brain into thinking it’s not sleep time,” says Dr. Carol Ash, medical director of Sleep for Life in Hillsborough, N.J.
Being overheated is equally disruptive. Your body temperature naturally falls when you sleep. When the room is too warm, it interferes with your body’s need to cool off. And noise? Just another disturbance when you’re trying to sleep.
The solution is to turn your bedroom into a sleep den. Keep it dark and cool. Turn your alarm clock to face away from the bed. Wear as little as possible to bed, while still being comfortable. And ask everyone else in the house to turn it down.
Nitty Gritty
The Sleep Deficit
The good news about sleep loss is that if you’re just pulling a couple all-nighters, you can reverse the symptoms fairly quickly. After one full night of sleep (7-8 hours), your cognitive abilities bounce back, and after two nights, your mood and emotional control return to normal. The bad news is that when you consistently deprive yourself of sleep, you incur a “sleep debt” that could make it harder for you ever to recover your peak abilities, even if you think you’re doing fine.
If you shorten your sleep by two hours a night during the week, for example, you’ll be in the hole for 10 hours by Friday. You’d have to sleep 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday to restore your performance to peak level. And what if you keep this up for 20 years?
Long-term sleep debt has been linked with obesity and heart problems; it’s hard to imagine it does your career any good, either. “People think you can make up for bad habits,” says Dr. Ash. “But it’s like only brushing your teeth on the weekends.”
Set a Schedule and Stick to It
Train your body to go to sleep on time — every night.
“The body loves conditioning,” says Dr. Donna Arand, clinical director of the Kettering Medical Center Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio. “It functions well with regular schedules.”
So instead of going to sleep and waking up whenever you feel like it, set a fixed time to wake up every morning, and don’t sleep beyond that, even if you’ve gone to bed late. Once you’ve done that, set a fixed bedtime that allows for seven hours of sleep.
Then create a routine that conditions your body to wind down and get ready for sleep. Stop whatever work you’re doing — laundry, bill paying, etc. — at the same time each night. Take a hot bath or shower (when you get out and your body cools down, it simulates the temperature drop you experience during sleep).
Crawl into bed with a book, or watch TV for a set amount of time. Just don’t watch horror movies or crime shows. They could overstimulate you and keep you up. Besides, aren’t you getting enough horror show just watching your company stock?
Technically Speaking
Insomnia vs. Sleep Deprivation
If you have trouble falling asleep, or you’re up half the night fretting, you’ve got insomnia. You can’t help it; your body just won’t let you sleep. Insomnia leaves you feeling tired and miserable during the day but, amazingly, still able to go through the motions.
If, on the other hand, you choose to limit your sleep — staying up past midnight to finish a project, or waking before 6 to get to work early — that’s sleep deprivation.
Whether you’ve got insomnia or are sleep deprived, you’re crippling your ability to perform your best at work, and you need to take steps to fix the problem.
For more career tips, check out the MoneyWatch After Hours blog
