Waking up to the value of a good sleep

While leaders like to boast how little shut-eye they get, poor sleep affects professionals across all levels of an organisation, according to a new study.

Younger people are more ready to admit the negative effects of poor sleep on their physical, cognitive and social well-being. Paul Bradbury / Getty Images

Many of the world’s most successful leaders like to boast about how little sleep they get each night.

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive, only has four to six hours’ shuteye, while Donald Trump says he gets by on just three to four.

“The hype is that leaders are not getting enough sleep, but is that really the case?” says Vicki Culpin, the global dean of research at Ashridge Executive Education at Hult International Business School.

This was the question posed in a recent study she led into the impact of sleep on well-being and leadership.

The study surveyed almost 1,100 professionals at all levels. As it turns out, no one questioned sleeps particularly well, with the average being just six hours, 28 minutes a night.

Yet those in the most senior roles only slept around nine minutes less on average compared to people in junior positions.

Ms Culpin says that younger people were more ready to admit the negative effects of poor sleep on their physical, cognitive and social well-being.

This could be because of one of three reasons, she says .

Either leaders are more politically savvy and therefore less ready to admit the effect poor sleep has on their abilities. Alternatively, leaders are able to “survive and thrive” on less. Or those in more junior roles are more affected by stress.

“These are a group of individuals at lower levels under a huge amount of pressure; they have very little control over how they manage their day-to-day work life,” she says.

Ms Culpin plans a follow-up study using gadgets such as Fitbits. She also hopes to run a UAE-specific survey.

“The 2020 vision talks about well-being and happiness in Emiratis and there is lots of discussion around sleep quality, particularly during periods around Ramadan when the whole sleep cycle is messed up. So it would be really interesting to see what is going on with that group of people,” she says.

q&a manage your snooze wisely

Carole Spiers, a self-confessed stress guru with clients in the UAE, gives Gillian Duncan tips on how to sleep well:

How common are sleep problems among your clients?

Clients say they go home and by the time they slump into a chair there is no time to do anything else. They fall asleep, usually in front of a TV, which is broken sleep and no good, struggle up the stairs at midnight and if you are in the Middle East you are probably up at 6am.

How can we sleep better?

Plan your time for going to sleep, meaning if you want to sleep at 10.30pm then you need to wind down at 9pm by getting ready for bed. This doesn’t mean writing a report at 10pm and thinking you can switch off your body at 10.30pm, because you can’t. Many can’t sleep when they get to bed because they haven’t switched off. Do not take any of your electronics into your room. Your bedroom is your bedroom. It is not an office.

How do you wind down?

Don’t eat late. If you get back late from work, prepare your food in advance. Don’t eat packaged or prepared foods because there is a lot of additives in prepared food. It is not necessarily going to help you to sleep either.

Are apps and gadgets that help to monitor sleep a good idea?

They are not the answer, but it does give you a way of monitoring yourself. At the end of the day you have got to be responsible. It is about how you take control of your life rather than life taking control of you.

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