Email  Print 

more best practices articles

• Cost Cutters: Fighting Fuel Costs
• Quick Tips: Making Up With Clients
• Hit the Highway
• Starting Up: Choosing a Bank
• Surviving a Seasonal Business

WHEN IT COMES TO getting shut-eye, how do you turn off your "work brain?"

Lindsay Olson started executive-search firm Paradigm Staffing in New York in 2001 and has been struggling ever since to sleep through the night. While she can successfully connect clients with talented employees, she's not so adept at "disconnecting," particularly when it comes to shutting down at the end of the day.

"I don't think like an 'employee' anymore," she says. "I've given my everything to build this — my heart and soul — and put everything on the line for this. When you start thinking like that, it changes a lot of things, including how well you can sleep at night."

For many business owners, a good night's rest is a luxury. Some say sleep just falls to the bottom of the priority list, and describe the typical schedule as "go to bed too late, get up too early." Others say they really want to catch 40 winks, but that rigorous schedules, stress about the bottom line and pressure to perform prevents them from getting a full eight hours a night.

Especially in the start-up phase, business owners can lose more than 700 hours of sleep a year — similar to the amount a parent loses in the first year of a newborn's life, according to James B. Maas, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who conducts research on sleep and sleep deprivation.

When it comes to hours of rest each night, "most entrepreneurs are lucky if they get six," he says. "If we operated heavy machinery like we operated the human body, we would be accused of reckless endangement."

Way back when — before electricity — most people slept about 10 hours each night, Maas says. While it depends on an individual's health and genetic make-up, most people require between seven-and-a-half to nine hours a night to function well, he says.

A big problem, he says, is that business owners don't recognize that sleep is a necessity, and think they can "get by" on a few hours. "Eventually, you are going to crash," he says. "You are going to make mistakes." Lack of sleep affects a person's ability to multitask and solve problems, and also contributes to depression, weight gain and health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer. "It makes you clumsy, stupid and it shortens your life," he says.

Nancy Kirk of Omaha, Neb., has learned that she can't cut corners when it comes to sleep. Kirk, whose company Kirk Collection provides expertise on restoring antique quilts, typically sleeps shorter nights but carves out time in the afternoon for a one- to two-hour snooze. "I got back into napping because I had a heart attack," says Kirk, a veteran entrepreneur who had bypass surgery a year ago. "I was forced to literally slow down."

In fact, she now schedules naptime on her daily calendar, something she advises other business owners to do. "When you make an appointment to do something, you are no longer taking away from some other activity that's more important," she says. "It gives it legitimacy."

But making time for sleep isn't in the cards for entrepreneurs like Michelle Soudry, who started public-relations firm Gab Group in Boca Raton, Fla., in 2004. Two nights a week, she works promotional events that keep her out until 2 a.m. "It's a tough thing to be able to function the next day," says Soudry, who usually begins her day at 7 a.m. But she feels the sacrifice is worth it to build her company. And besides, "I make up for it on weekends," she says.

Cheating on sleep accumulates a "sleep debt" that you can pay back on weekends, although that's not optimal, says Mark Rosekind, chief scientist at Alertness Solutions, a Cupertino, Calif., firm that advises companies on how to prevent fatigue-related human error. "It's kind of like fasting and binging — it's not physiologically great but it's better than not recovering," he says.

Like Maas, he recommends that business owners do everything they can — whether that's adopting relaxation techniques, or adjusting their attitudes — to get the rest they need each night, as losing two or more hours of sleep quickly leads to impairment.

For instance, if you need eight hours of sleep, but only get six, you'll perform the next day as if you've had two to three beers, says Rosekind, a former board member of the National Sleep Foundation. If you lose four hours, it's like having five to six beers. "Would you do your start-up on five to six beers?" he says.

Yet, the attitude of many is, "it's just sleep so who cares," he says. "People are always looking to jam more things on the list, but when you're sleep-deprived it will impair potentially every aspect of your capabilities."

Tips for Getting a Good Night's Sleep
The experts interviewed for this story say entrepreneurs first need to accept the fact that a lack of sleep will do more harm than good, and potentially create problems in the business. Here's how to make sure you get your rest:

* Have a short period of "worry time" at some point prior to bed. Jot down what you need to accomplish the next day, and then let it go.

* Be sure to have a "disconnect" period for at least 30 minutes before bedtime, allowing yourself time to read, meditate or relax in some manner.

* Keep technology (such as BlackBerries or other work-related devices) out of the bedroom.

* Limit alcohol and caffeine intake three hours before bedtime.

* Get plenty of exercise, and eat healthily.

* Make sure your bedroom is "quiet, dark and cool," recommends Maas. "And have a really great pillow."

Didn't Get Enough Sleep? Tips for the Morning After
* Use caffeine strategically. A cup of strong coffee or caffeine tablets will give you a boost within 15 minutes to a half-hour after ingesting, and last three to four hours. Plan your intake for maximum benefit, such as shortly before an important meeting.

* Take a nap. A study by NASA found that a 26-minute nap increased pilots' performance by 34%. But even if you've only got 10 minutes, "even a short nap can boost your performance," Rosekind says.