by Randy Murray

It’s tempting when you work independently or as a freelancer to drive yourself and work as many hours as possible. You fuel up on caffeine and sugar and keep at it. But there’s a psychosis that sets in after you’ve driven yourself like this for some time. You’ll begin to think you’re doing better and better work.

Trust me, that’s an illusion. Your work will suffer and become much more error prone. And your customers will notice. Or you’ll end up spending much more time reworking before you can submit your work. Either way, you’re losing out.

I’ve worked with people who claim they can work for days straight or get by on only two or three hours of sleep a day. And I’ve seen the claims online from supposedly successful business people that say, “sleep when you’re dead!” The intentionally sleep deprived can’t see it, but everyone around them can: they’re temporarily insane.

I typically get by on around seven hours of sleep and I do much better on eight or nine. And I really benefit from a short nap late in the afternoon. I find that when I’m rested, I do my best work. And I always need to be doing my best work, so it’s a business necessity to for me to stay rested and healthy.

And sleep plays a critical role in our problem solving, thinking, and memory. Students do better if they sleep before a test rather than cram. And most of us find that we have more creative ideas and solutions to problems after we sleep and dream. Why rob yourself of this valuable opportunity just to say you’ve put in a few more hours of work?

Here are five things to consider in improving your sleep and your work:

It doesn’t matter when you sleep, but you need a regular schedule. Sleeping at different times of the day doesn’t work well.

Cut out caffeine at least five hours before you’ll sleep. Even if you get to sleep after a strong cup of coffee, you won’t sleep as deeply with your system artificially energized.

Don’t sleep with the TV or music on. Sleep isn’t just to rest the body; it’s the time for your mind to process information and rest. External stimulus, like TV, will give you weird dreams and slow the processing and storing of information.

Find a way to wake naturally. This is tough for many people, but if you work on a regular sleep schedule, you’ll find that you typically and naturally wake at the same time, daily. I wake up, on my own without an alarm, at 6:11 AM almost every weekday. It’s strange, but that’s how it works for me.

When you wake up, get up. Welcome the morning (or whenever you wake) and get immediately out of bed. Lingering, snoozing, and delaying won’t improve your mood or productivity.

Sleep is one of the great joys of life. And sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique, a way of programming inductees in cults. Why would you torture yourself, diminish your mental capacities and do inferior work?

Get some sleep!

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About the Author

Randy Murray is a writer and marketing consultant and lives just outside of Columbus, Ohio. He publishes on business marketing, writing, technology and other issues five days a week at First Today, Then Tomorrow and you can follow him on Twitter.