Trouble Sleeping? How to Cope with a Lack of Sleep at Work & Tips to Sleep Better

Trying to work when you haven’t had enough sleep is hard. It’s difficult to concentrate, you feel easily distracted, and your brain just feels like it’s operating at half its usual speed.

Whether it’s due to a big weekend, a child keeping you up at night, stress or any other reason, when you’re not sleeping well, you’re not able to give your best efforts to your work.

Adults typically need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. However, research has shown that sleep deprivation is common - up to a third of people get less than seven hours.

Nearly one in four Clearhead users say poor sleep is the main issue that affects their mental health. The main sleep issues are having a poor quality of sleep, struggling to fall asleep and waking up in the night.

Not getting enough sleep can have a very real impact on the brain, as well as your overall physical health and your mood.

Whether you’re a routinely bad sleeper or if you’re just dealing with a period of little sleep, this is a guide to dealing with a lack of sleep at work.

How a lack of sleep affects the brain:

There are two types of sleep deprivation:

• Acute sleep deprivation is when someone has a short-term interruption to their usual sleep pattern. For example, you stay up late cramming for a test or bingeing a TV show (even though you know you shouldn’t).
  
  
• Chronic sleep deprivation occurs when someone has inadequate sleep for a prolonged period of weeks, months or even years.
  

A lack of sleep can have a variety of effects on the brain and body, both short term and long term. These can include:

• Diminished ability to think rationally, plan effectively and make sound judgements, due to less activity in the prefrontal cortex in the brain.
  
• Trouble concentrating and slower reaction time, similar to the effects of being drunk.
  
• Difficulty carrying out instructions, due to trouble with placekeeping - remembering and executing the steps in a process.
  
• Forgetfulness. Without a combination of deep sleep and lighter sleep, the part of the brain that stores short term memories and consolidates learning to memory is diminished. This can also impact creativity.
  
• Anxiety. Just one sleepless night can trigger a 30% spike in anxiety levels.
  
• Greater emotional instability. The irritability you feel when you’re tired is the result of an overactive amygdala, which is the part of the brain that is triggered by fear, leading to the fight or flight response.
  
• Weight gain. Many people use sugary foods to give them an energy boost when they’re tired, which can lead to putting on weight.
  
• Greater risk of developing mental health disorders such as anxiety or depression, as well as dementia, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, heart attack, diabetes and a weakened immune system.
  

Chronic sleep deprivation has even been linked to a higher likelihood of dying in a workplace accident.

Being short on sleep can be much more than an inconvenience - it can have very significant health implications.

On the flip side, when you regularly do get enough sleep, you not only avoid these negative effects of sleep deprivation, but you have improved mental health, mood, creativity and productivity, as well as an improved long term health outlook.

Coping with a lack of sleep at work:

When you’re tired, it can feel like an uphill battle just getting through the day. Sometimes, the reason you haven’t slept well is due to stress around a big event, such as a big test or career highlight. In these instances, you want to be able to perform despite being tired.

But there are things you can do to cope with not sleeping well.

1. Take a power nap during the day. Even a 20 minute nap on your lunch break can help to feel fresher. Be wary of sleeping too long - anything longer than an hour can leave you feeling worse when you wake up.
   
2. Go for a walk outside. The sun and fresh air has a rejuvenating effect. Sunlight also helps your brain to produce melatonin during the day, which then helps you to feel tired at night and gives you a better chance of sleeping well.
   
3. Exercise. 30 minutes of activity helps to release endorphins and raise your core temperature, both of which make you feel more awake. It also improves your chances of sleeping at night.
   
4. Manage expectations. Tell your manager or colleagues that you’re having difficulty sleeping, and may not be at your best.
   
5. Postpone important or difficult work where you can. Tackling challenging work when your judgement is impaired and your decision-making is impacted by a lack of activity in the prefrontal cortex is not ideal.    
6. Structure your day around your circadian rhythm. Do the hard tasks when you’re typically more productive - most people find their energy rises in the mid-morning, dips after lunch and peaks again later in the afternoon or early evening.
   
7. Coffee. Caffeine provides a useful short term energy burst, but be wary of drinking too much coffee, particularly later in the day, as it can compound the issue by making it difficult to sleep at night.
   

How to sleep better:

One of the frustrations people can have when they’re tired is trying to figure out how to sleep better. Generally speaking, it’s not for a lack of effort. The harder you try to fall asleep, the more annoying it can be, and this just keeps you awake longer.

But there are things you can do to set yourself up for a good night’s sleep. You may not be able to do all of these, but even some of them can help.

1. Have a night time routine. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. This trains your body to know when it should be asleep.
   
2. Make sure your room is cool and dark. A warm, light room is more difficult to fall asleep in.
   
3. Reduce screen time shortly before bed. Try to avoid your phone or laptop for at least an hour before trying to sleep.
   
4. Try relaxation techniques at night. Meditation and practising gratitude are both good for winding down at the end of the day.
   
5. Have chamomile tea after dinner. It helps to relax before bed.
   
6. Minimise alcohol or caffeine, particularly late in the day. They can both disrupt your sleep.
   
7. If stress is impacting your sleep, deal with the cause of that stress.
   
8. If poor sleep persists, see your GP. It may be the result of an underlying health issue such as obstructive sleep apnea.
   

Getting help:

If you’re struggling with getting enough sleep and are constantly tired, there is professional help available.

EAP users of Clearhead can access our sleep tool to help with relaxation and winding down at the end of the day, leading to a better sleep routine.

Or, you can book an appointment with a sleep specialist on Clearhead. A trained sleep expert can recognise problems that may be disrupting your sleep and prescribe solutions that are tailored to the issues you’re experiencing based on your sleep study.

These resources are just two of many available on Clearhead’s intuitive online platform. Find out more about how Clearhead offers both proactive mental health support and accessible, user-friendly counselling to businesses and their employees.

Resources:

For further scientific analysis on the impact of sleep deprivation, we recommend these sources that have been used in the formation of this article:

1. Liu, Y., Wheaton, A. G., Chapman, D. P., Cunningham, T. J., Lu, H., & Croft, J. B. (2016). Prevalence of healthy sleep duration among adults–United States, 2014. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 65(6), 137–141. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26890214/
   
2. Van Someren, E. J., Cirelli, C., Dijk, D. J., Van Cauter, E., Schwartz, S., & Chee, M. W. (2015). Disrupted sleep: From molecules to cognition. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(41), 13889–13895. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26468189/
   
3. Dawson, D., & Reid, K. (1997). Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature, 388(6639), 235. https://www.nature.com/articles/40775
   
4. Stepan, M. E., Altmann, E. M., & Fenn, K. M. (2020). Effects of total sleep deprivation on procedural placekeeping: More than just lapses of attention. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 149(4), 800–806. http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/xge0000717
   
5. Spira, A. P., Chen-Edinboro, L. P., Wu, M. N., & Yaffe, K. (2014). Impact of sleep on the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 27(6):478 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25188896/
   
6. Eti, S. et al (2020) Overanxious and underslept. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0754-8
   
7. Sleep loss linked to psychiatric disorders https://newsarchive.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/10/22_sleeploss.shtml
   
8. Greer, S. M., Goldstein, A. N., & Walker, M. P. (2013). The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature communications, 4, 2259. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23922121/  
   
9. Akerstedt, T. et al. A prospective study of fatal occupational accidents -- relationship to sleeping difficulties and occupational factors https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11869429/