If There’s A Will, There’s A Way, And Your Willpower Can Play An Important Role In How Productive You Are After Not Getting Enough Sleep
How do we get our day going after a night of tossing and turning? Do we drink endless cups of coffee, jog in place for endorphins, or take a midday siesta?
Scientists link sleep to effectiveness and productivity. But it’s not necessarily in the way you might think.
A study from Trinity College Dublin shared some insight into this puzzle. “A lack of sleep affects employees’ work effectiveness by reducing their willpower—the ability to control impulses, emotions, and desires,” the study said.
Evaluating the factors that make us successful in our jobs also requires naming the behaviors that detract from productivity. These include getting distracted, not following through on tasks, and procrastinating.
So, what do we already know that the study confirms? Well, it references “a steep increase of sleep difficulties among the working population.”
So, working 40+ hour weeks often means not getting the sleep we need and can make working the next day more challenging.
Many studies have examined “malleable” or changeable factors, such as caffeine intake, compared with non-malleable ones, such as personal self-control.
Trinity’s study used diaries to measure participants’ ability to affect one crucial malleable factor—their perspective on their energy.
What did they find? Ultimately, it all comes down to willpower. Either we believe in a “limited theory of willpower”—that our energy for the day is finite and cannot be renewed or altered.
Pixel-Shot – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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Or, we believe in a “non-limited theory of willpower”—that we can re-energize and recover from feeling drained (even during a post-lunch slump).
The Dublin study shows that this distinction can tell us a great deal about sleep and its effect on potential employee output.
So, just believing we need a lot of sleep to be productive can actually make things harder for us when we don’t sleep well? Exactly.
These authors believe that “individuals who hold a limited resource theory rely more strongly on sleep as a recovery process.”
So, when you count on sleep to give you mileage the next day, you might have less energy than your more optimistic, equally sleep-deprived counterparts.
Also, you might conserve your energy to “protect remaining resources”—i.e., you put less energy into your work from the start since you’re afraid of running out.
In summary? We can conquer that day-after sluggishness if we deal with our negative perspective; if we expect more mileage out of our bodies, they will give us more.
Still, this isn’t a justification for working into the wee hours every night and expecting your willpower to pick up the slack at work the next day.
And if you’re still struggling with energy loss at work following a poor night’s sleep, it’s also worth putting effort in to rejuvenate yourself.
You can meditate, take micro-breaks, or even go for a walk during lunch. So, there you have it—sleep is not necessarily the key to our success. But it sure doesn’t hurt.
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More About:Human Interest