Sleep –> Productivity

In “Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer” (Harvard Business Review, October 2006), Bronwyn Fryer interviews Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In answer to one of Bronwyn’s questions, Dr. Czeisler says:

In a study our research team conducted of hospital interns who had been scheduled to work for at least 24 consecutive hours, we found that their odds of stabbing themselves with a needle or scalpel increased 61%, their risk of crashing a motor vehicle increased 168%, and their risk of a near miss increased 460%. In the U.S., drowsy drivers are responsible for a fifth of all motor vehicle accidents and some 8,000 deaths annually. It is estimated that 80,000 drivers fall asleep at the wheel every day, 10% of them run off the road, and every two minutes, one of them crashes. Countless innocent people are hurt.

Sleep is a biologic necessity. You cannot cheat it, get around it, evade it, ignore it, without bad consequences. Please sleep. You will be better for it.