More Answers... (9/7/25 Newsletter): Sleep as a Strategy

Hi Everyone,

Here's the blog version of the Sunday Evening "More Answers..." to get a friendly boost to setup your work week! 

Remember to sign up for the newsletter for bonus material!! (https://www.askchrista.com/newsletter/)

Good Sleep is the Ultimate Life Hack...

You know how we often talk about the levers that make our teams sharp, creative, and resilient—strategic alignment, psychological safety, energy, curiosity?

Life hacks, too, which I'm not a fan of because you know what? Most basic things in life are our life hacks. We just don't put enough priority on them, so we think a short cut or "new way" of doing it "more efficiently" is better.

But it's not better, it's really just us taking a 'round-about way to do the things we SHOULD be doing anyway, and I put sleep at the top of that list.

Sleep gives us the incredible power to perform, collaborate, and crack the tough problems we tackle as individuals, and more importantly, together within a team. 

So this week, let’s reframe sleep as the ultimate life hack.

Sleep Powers Individual Performance-- FULL STOP.

Let’s start with the most straightforward power we get from sleep: improved individual performance. Top athletes talk about their sleep routine the same way they talk about their food chemistry and workout programs while preparing for competitions, but even in an "off cycle" time when they are maintaining, they typically stay on some kind of program with sleep as a primary focus.

Of course, during a work day we aren't competitive athletes, but... aren't we, though? 

There are times when we have to hustle, where we are on our last-10 push to get something done, or we're involved in a big project that needs everything we've got. In essence, those are our athlete days, and all other days are the days when we have to maintain.

And yet, during a time when we need the best sleep (notice I didn't say "the most," but "the best" sleep), is typically when we get the least.

The problem is that sleep loss, especially chronic sleep loss, gets us off track when it comes to our focus, patience, ability to solve problems, how we work with others, and even our memory (Lim & Dinges, 2008). It impacts our aptitude, too, and by "aptitude," I mean the things we should be able to do effortlessly.

Dreamwork Makes the Teamwork...

Beyond the individual aspects of sleep, teams function more effectively, too; they are more in tune with each other and can see patterns and "connect the dots" together more efficiently, which enables successfully solving problems equally as efficiently (Good Managers Are Conscious of ‘Sleep Leadership,’ Study Shows, 2021). 

With the lack of sleep, we not only start the day feeling tired and distracted or unwell, but (whether we know it or not), we are also under a physiological strain while experiencing and cognitive stress. We tend to become less flexible in our thinking, less adapting in our behavior, and less open to different and/or new points (Smith, 2022).

It begs the question about the lost opportunities for higher performance in organizations if companies simply adopted various support benefits to enable better sleep health: new parents, employees dealing with a family member who is dealing with a sickness, aging parents, and other issues that arise in our personal lives.

But it also begs the question about the every-day stressors that can encroach on our sleep: working long hours, dealing with a bad manager, working in an unethical environment, a high workload, chronically tight deadlines... while it's easy to look to our personal lives as part of what may draw time and attention from good sleep, there are plenty of (unfortunate) modern-day workplace norms that equally encroach on our sleep.

Teams struggle more with collaboration and unity any time they chronically deal with sleep deprivation (Greer et al., 2022). 

Breaking the Habit of Revenge Bedtime Procrastination...
(or maybe not...) 

I do this. RBP. (no joke, it's an actual thing)

OK-- I don't do it ALL the time. In order to truly be a member of the RBP Club, you have to be putting off sleep in order to BALANCE the work part of your day with things that feel like leisure-time things. 

For me, after a long day and after the house is finally quiet, which means both girls (ages 15 and 10) are sleeping, both dogs are in for the night, lights are out, house is tidy, the last email is checked and I'm setup for the next day... that's the first time every day that I get time to myself.

Here's the problem: it's also usually around 11pm, and that (according to best sleep habits) is when I should be falling asleep.

And yet, I feel like that's also the FIRST time during the day when I finally get to do some of the things I love to do: catch up on my nerdy-news, scroll through cute/funny animal vids, review and repost / boost up great business-related content on LinkedIn for my community, research and read through upcoming articles I'll be writing or sessions I'll be having.

It's not about binge-watching something or even settling into a movie; it's about exercising my brain in a completely different way from what I was able to do during the day because of various OTHER life responsibilities. Working my brain in ways that feel indulgent to me helps me feel like the day was more productive, and as a result, I put off going to sleep. I feel like I still have things to do, and those things are for me. 

According to studies, this is OK to do if it doesn't become habitual AND I don't force myself to stay awake because I feel I have to compensate for fun time lost after a 16 hour day of all-other-responsibilities.

But the truth is, I do this more than I want to: stay away to balance out the energy of my day, and while it doesn't impact my performance at this time (being a solopreneur means I generate a lot of creative energy and analytical / communicative direction on my own every day, so I need a hefty recharge on some days more than others), it's something I have to watch.

I'm working on it by reducing my work AND responsibilities-for-other-people two days each week (Sleep Corner: Revenge Bedtime Procrastination, n.d.).

But my guess is I'm not alone, and I know as well as all of you know: sleep is important. 

Tips and Tricks...

According to best practices, here are some ways to create and enforce boundaries, many of them related to how YOU think about sleep:

• Avoid late-night or early-morning demands that undercut rest.
• Encourage flexibility at work for you and for your team, and let them know it's because of how much you value sleep (like how anyone might value learning or keeping up with work skills).
• Normalize “brain rest” during the day where you block out time in your calendar to let your brain settle (I do this every day and there are enormous gains, especially with problem solving).
• If and when possible, talk openly about sleep habits as a major success factor to good and consistent work AND team work.

BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK!!!  

Fifteen Years and Counting of Deeper Sleep Studies

This week's video is nearly ten years old, and every bit as powerful and relevant, focused on the effects of sleep deprivation. Up to the point of this TEDx talk (with Christopher M. Barnes, at the time an Associate Professor of Management in the Foster School of Business of the University of Washington), there were a lot of sleep studies that supported the various effects of sleep deprivation we are all aware of. But over the last fifteen years or so, there has been A LOT of additional studies about sleep deprivation in the workplace, specifically as it relates to leadership and team effectiveness.

I think you'll find this a fascinating TEDx (I've been focused more on TEDx these last few weeks because of the topics). 

And remember, if you have a business challenge or workplace issue... Ask Christa! 

REFERENCES

Good managers are conscious of ‘Sleep leadership,’ study shows. (2021, November 1). https://carey.jhu.edu/articles/news-research/good-managers-c...

Greer, E., Matthews, R., Owen, M., Grosser, L., Roma, P., & Banks, S. (2022). O063 Impact of sleep deprivation on distributed team performance and cohesion. SLEEP Advances, 3(Supplement_1), A26–A27. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleepadvances/zpac029.062

Lim, J., & Dinges, D. F. (2008). Sleep deprivation and vigilant attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129(1), 305–322. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1417.002

Smith, M. (2022, September 1). Want to build a high performing team? Start with better sleep. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewsmith/2022/09/01/want-to...