I have to be honest: this is a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ article this week! This time of year is always insanely busy for me (as it is for most of you I am sure!). As a result, I end up working late at night and consequently, I am not getting anywhere near enough sleep. Aside from the obvious negative effects of a lack of sleep (being tired and cranky!), did you know there are also some quite serious health problems that can result, such as heart disease/heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes? There are also serious consequences for your business. Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep affects attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning and problem solving. So if you are attempting to make decisions, either for the short term or longer term, lack of sleep will impact on the effectiveness of those decisions. Lack of sleep affects your ability to remember what you’ve learnt and generally makes you forgetful. Memory storage occurs mostly when we sleep. Importantly, lack of sleep can affect our interpretation of events and impacts on our ability to make good judgments. You may unwittingly be making decisions that are not the best choices for your business. You are likely to waste time because you are not alert and you also increase the likelihood of mistakes and accidents. It seems that we can convince ourselves that we need to stay up late to meet a deadline and that it won’t have consequences beyond a grouchy demeanour the next day. But looking at the evidence above, it is a great deal more serious to have a regular pattern of sleep deprivation. So hit the pillow!

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender