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When work keeps you up at night, what do you do?
Losing sleep can be a drag. Especially, since we know sleep deprivation drastically impacts the cognitive functions so crucial to work in architecture. Things like judgment, critical thinking, problem solving, planning, and organization, are but a few of the influenced aspects of our mental health, writes Rebecca Zucker in her Harvard Business Review essay entitled How to Stop Thinking About Work at 3am. In the piece, Zucker offers some strategies to combat one of the causes of sleep deprivation — thinking about work when we should be sleeping. Here are 3 of her pointers:
- Make a to-do list: According to research by Baylor University and Emory University, makings a to-do list for the following day helps us fall asleep faster, writes Zucker. Many times, our preoccupations with work at home are due to uncompleted tasks. Writing them down acknowledges them, putting them out of the mind.
- Engage in physical activity: Exercise and overall physical fitness help in our mental performance. When it comes to sleep, adequate exercise undoubtedly contributes to our sleep quality and the time it takes to fall asleep, Zucker explains in her essay.
- Practice meditation: "...even small amounts of mindful meditation (10 minutes before and after work for two work weeks) helped calm racing minds, improve sleep quality, and sleep duration," says Zucker.
The onset of insomnia can come from many factors, but if work seems to be a recurring cause, embrace some of Rebecca Zucker's tips and see if they might enable you to recharge more fully and perform at your best in the workplace.
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5 Comments
Two very different things:
Sleep Hygiene is very important, both for work and the rest of your life.
these lonely hours in the middle of the night are great for catching up on celebrity news and posting on archinect
usually listen to podcasts and pretend I’m not fully working
tell that to the interns at OMA, who pull 48 hours shifts cutting foam. 70% of them wash out
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