Hey guys my name is Jamie and I am a first year
emergency medicine resident
And today I wanted to talk to you guys about sleep and productivitiy
One of the frequent questions I get on this channel is how to deal with sleep deprivation.
Take this comment from one of my videos.
Jackie asked, “Do you have any tips for dealing with sleep deprivation in such a calm
and collected manner?
When I don’t sleep I get cranky and it would be hard to study the next day.
I commented back saying the best way to deal with sleep deprivation would be to sleep more.
In today’s video, I wanted to expand on that a little bit so I wanna start by explaining
the negative effects of sleep deprivation, then talk a little about what happens during
sleep and finally how sleep or the lack of sleep affects how we learn and other cognitive
functions in general.
Sleep is important!
Lack of sleep has a lot of negative implications.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving drowsy was
responsible for 72 thousand crashes, 44 thousand injuries and 800 deaths in 2014.
And in a separate study done by Triple A, there is a correlation with crash rate and
the amount of sleep you get: the less sleep you get, the higher the crash rate.
And people who got less than 4 hours of sleep have more than 11 times the crash rates!
In addition, other studies have shown that long term sleep deprivation is associated
with lot of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, lower life expectancy, obesity,
depression and stroke.
When we sleep, our bodies go through a restoration process.
It gives our body a chance to rest, it lets our muscles recover and it also helps to boost
our immune system.
To put it simply and not to get too technical, when we’re awake, our body accumulates neurotoxic
waste products and when we sleep our brain is able to remove these waste products faster.
When it comes to working, studying or trying to get more things done, naturally the first
thing to go is usually sleep.
Some students sacrifice sleep in order to keep up with the coursework or to get ahead.
Other students sacrifice sleep because they want to be able to do everything, AKA FOMO,
which is fear of missing out, so they take time away from sleep instead.
When it comes to studying or just about anything else in life, getting enough sleep should
be a priority.
Let me explain!
A few years ago, there was a study done on the effects of sleep deprivation.
In this experiment, the participants were subjected to either 8, 6, 4 hours of sleep
per day for 14 days.
The results were really interesting!
People who slept for 6 hours or less, had a significant decrease in cognitive functions.
(And cognitive functions is defined as brain functions that leads to knowledge so that’s
acquiring information, reasoning, memory, attention, language and attainment of information)
What’s even more interesting is that the participant were unaware of the of the decrease
in cognitive function based on the sleepiness ratings.
So while it may seem like it’s appealing to sacrifice sleep for school, ultimately
it is counter-productive over time because of the decrease in cognitive function.
It’s just like Jackie said, when she doesn’t get enough sleep, she finds it hard to be
productive the following day.
Personally I find it hard to concentrate and my productivity suffers as a result.
I think that’s true for most people.
In another study called “Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep” they found that
“sleeping one extra hour per night on average increases wage by 16% This 16% increase in
wage is more than what you would get by an additional year of education.
The paper also goes on to argue that when it comes to determining productivity, sleeps
ranks in at 3rd just behind human capital (which is your collective skill or knowledge)
and ability.
I found this to be mind blowing and at the same time it makes a lot of sense because
sleep deprivation comes with a lot of negative consequences in learning like decrease in
attention span, memory loss, and ability to concentrate.
So if you guys are having trouble with your school work or you think that you are not
performing to your academic potential then maybe, MAYBE! one of the first thing you should
consider is whether or not you’re getting enough sleep.
It could be the reason that’s holding you back.
So that’s it for this video.
Before I close the video, I want to thank SkillShare for sponsoring this video.
Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes in design, business,
technology, and more.
If you have a premium membership, you can have unlimited access to high quality classes
from experts working in their fields so you can improve your skills, learn more, and do
the work you love.
I’m always looking for new ways to learn about maximizing productivity and getting
more things done so I love going to the productivity section of Skillshare classes and listening
to new ideas and discovering new ways to better manage my time.
This week, something that caught my eye are these two classes from Michael and Brian.
Michael is the CEO of Skillshare and his class is about maximizing productivity, crafting
an ideal work week, and building short-term systems for long-term success.
Brian is a product marketing manager at Trello and his class is all about how to strategically
prioritize and execute your goals and personalize your workflow so you can be more effective!
I think you guys would enjoy both these classes.
Skillshare is affordable at less than $10/month for their annual subscription.
And I have a link in the description box you guys can use and the first 500 people will
get 2 months of skillshare for free.
So check it out!
http://skl.sh/strivetofit2
I hope you guys found this video informative.
If you haven’t already please subscribe so you’ll never miss a video.
You can also follow me on instagram, snapchat and twitter at THESTRIVETOFIT and I’ll see
you next time!
Byeee :)