There’s a reason why 86% of our agency answered “sleep” when I polled the question, “What will you do with the extra hour this weekend?”
If you think about it, this was an open-ended question that could have delivered a wealth of material not fit to put into this blog. In an agency where there are many witty people, I would have expected at least one witty answer.
However, the majority answered, “sleep!” Not just sleep. Sleep!
As part of our practice in CP Wellness, we are constantly looking for ways to analyze what wellness means to our clients’ brands.
Sleep is a big issue in wellness that is often overlooked. Let me tell you why…
We are faced daily with the expectation to multitask. We read our email off our phones as we walk in and out of the building. We are thinking about brands, juggling our jobs and lives, and picking up kids from school – all at the same time; it’s endless.
What’s the one thing that gets sacrificed? Sleep. Because in our minds, we can function on 5 hours sleep and still perform our duties as professionals or parents or whatever else we do. It’s the one thing that constantly falls under the radar in our overtasked schedules.
But here’s the interesting thing, not only did the parents answer “sleep,” but the younger 25-30 year old employees with no kids answered “sleep,” as well. In fact, I think those are the answers that had the most exclamation points.
Sleep is a “primary food” (along with relationships, personal passions, etc.). It’s just as important to our health as the food we put into our bodies. There are several scientific studies that give us validation that we all need roughly 8 hours of sleep. The most interesting thing I’ve come across is that there is a direct correlation with the frontal lobe of your brain in relation to sleep deprivation. That part of your brain is associated with speech, as well as novel and creative thinking.
We are an idea-driven business that relies on novel and creative thinking. Perhaps slurred speech isn’t enough of a barrier to be concerned (we do have a bar in the center of our office, after all). But what this tells me is if you don’t get enough sleep, you cannot be creative.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all forced the ideas out. It takes a little more to get there, but you get there. But what if there was a state of mind where ideas happened freely and creativity was fluid? And according to these studies, all we really need is a bit more sleep? Fascinating.
Clients: get ready; Monday is going to be a highly productive day.