Sleep – the Dark (and absolutely critical) Third.
This morning’s Independent newspaper reports the return to work of Lloyd’s Chief Executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, after a period of sick leave caused by insomnia. In this blog I would like to bang on again about the foolishness, nay the absolute insanity, of believing that we can compromise on sleep without suffering serious consequences and the short-sightedness of a corporate culture that demands staff prove their worth by working unsustainable hours.
Horta-Osorio was signed off work and entered rehab about six weeks ago to recover. He talks of how, although he attempted to sleep, he struggled to do so and often managed to grab only two or three hours a night. In Horta-Osorio’s case it does not sound as if he was unable to set aside time to sleep – rather that sleep simply would not come to him during those hours. This is slightly different from those workers (often in highly paid City jobs) who simply cannot set aside the time for sleep if they want to be seen as having career potential.
I mentioned in a blog some time ago a client of mine in a City institution who for days on end would leave home for work in a taxi at 8:30am (let’s assume he got up at 7:30am to shower, shave, dress and grab a bite to eat) and would leave the office the following morning at about 3am (perhaps getting to bed at 4am if he was lucky!) This schedule, even if he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, would permit him a maximum of three and a half hours sleep per night. And this was ongoing! And he was working on critically important business paperwork! And this was considered normal!
This type of schedule, which is seen as a badge of honour and viewed with macho pride, is in actuality the institutionalisation of lunacy.
The effects on physical health, mental health and performance of sleep deprivation are well know and alarming. Horta-Osorio echoed a point I made in my previous blog when he commented:
“I know now why they use sleep deprivation to torture prisoners.”
Not only is it extremely distressing, sleep deprivation also scrambles an individual’s ability to make balanced and reasoned decisions, such as – in an interrogation situation – whether to disclose information and how to assess the tactics and manipulation being used by the well-rested interrogators. In short, decisions made by sleep deprived people are lousy, short-sighted decisions. Yet, we ask people to make crucial business decisions and perform detailed tasks in circumstances where they will almost inevitably be rendered sleep-deprived. Make sense? No, of course it doesn’t, but we do it nonetheless.
In a blog to come, I will look a little more at this subject which is addressed, along with a number of other useful perspectives on our Working Patterns for Maximum Efficiency course, offered in London, Cheshire and Belfast.
Tags: balance, sleep, stress, stress management, working patterns
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