Slashdot: Expert Says You're Deluding Yourself If You Think You're Productive On Six Hours of Sleep

Expert Says You’re Deluding Yourself If You Think You’re Productive On Six Hours of Sleep
Published on October 04, 2017 at 05:20PM
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Chicago Tribune: Getting through the workday on little sleep is a point of pride for some. But skimping on shuteye could be shortening your life and making you a less than stellar employee, according to Matthew Walker, founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Underslept employees tend to create fewer novel solutions to problems, they’re less productive in their work and they take on easier challenges at work,” said Walker, author of “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams,” out Tuesday. Operating on short sleep — anything less than seven hours — impairs a host of brain and bodily functions, said Walker, who is also a professor of neuroscience and psychology. It increases your risk for heart attack, cancer and stroke, compromises your immune system and makes you emotionally irrational, less charismatic and more prone to lying. When asked, “What do you say to people who sacrifice sleep to work?” Walker said: “I often ask the question in return, ‘Is the reason you’ve still got so much to do because you haven’t gotten enough sleep and so you’re inefficient while you’re working?’ We know that efficiency and effectiveness are increased when you’re getting sufficient sleep and it will take you longer to do the same thing on an under-slept brain, which means you end up having to stay awake longer. So goes the vicious cycle.”