By Carla Marcela Barrantes Vasquez
For some team leaders, the idea of having a full night’s rest seems to be an unreachable goal as their activities, meetings, and report deadlines fill out their day. Sleeping at least 7 hours does not seem to be compatible with their work–lifestyle schedule.
Let’s consider the following scenario. You and your team have just completed a long day at work, tirelessly preparing for the annual reviews. You return home to rest and recharge for the next day, but instead, you decide to check your favourite social media platform to have a well-deserved moment of entertainment or maybe to check that important presentation until late at night. The following morning you feel fatigued but manage to present your report without apparent difficulty. You might believe that reducing your sleeping hours has little effect on you and gradually adopt a pattern of insufficient sleep. Does this sound familiar to you?
What many people fail to recognize is how sleep deprivation significantly impairs their decision-making abilities. It is a less-understood fact that sleep deprivation impacts our mental and physical well-being. Over the years, several studies have revealed the adverse consequences of poor sleep habits. Sleep-deprived team leaders tend to take on greater risks to avoid losses, exhibit reduced effectiveness in assessing opportunities, and experience difficulties in forming interpersonal connections. What is even more disconcerting is that they often remain unaware of the extent of impairment brought on by sleep deprivation. In fact, having a bad night of sleep or consecutive nights of partial sleep is considered to have the same effect as being drunk (Enders et al., 2022).
As Enders et al. (2022) mention, after two weeks of just five hours of sleep a night, you are as impaired as you would be if you had gone 36 hours straight without sleep. Also, if someone is awake for at least 20 hours straight, you can be as impaired as if you were drunk.
This condition is far from ideal when seeking optimal results and effective team management.
We can categorize sleep deprivation into two types: Total Sleep Deprivation, characterized by the absence of sleep in a 24-hour period, and Prolonged Partial Sleep Deprivation, a more prevalent condition in industrialized societies due to extended working hours (Salfi et al., 2020). Team leaders who prioritize late-night phone usage over adequate sleep are likely to experience both short-term and long-term memory impairment, as sleep deprivation hampers their ability to comprehend, retain, process, and recall information.
In a study carried out by two institutions – the Laboratory of Sleep Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neurosciences, and the Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences of the University of L’Aquila – it was found that Total Sleep Deprivation (TSD) and Partial Sleep Deprivation (PSD) increases the expectation of winning and attenuation of loss aversion (Salfi et al., 2020).
The experiment for Total Sleep Deprivation had a sample of 32 university students with a mean age of 22 years, and 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Participants were asked to stay awake for a night at the laboratory without smoking, exercising, or drinking coffee. For the Partial Sleep Deprivation experiment a sample of 42 university students with a mean age of 24 years and the same hours of sleep per night was used. This group was asked to sleep no more than five hours per night for five consecutive nights and was required not to increase their intake of coffee during the experiment.
To assess the initial status of their sleep habits, participants filled out the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. At the beginning of the test, each participant took the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale to determine how sleepy they felt after the experiment. To analyze if their decision-making process has been affected, the study used 2 tasks: the Mosaic Task (to evaluate if participants collect and evaluate information before making a decision), and the Columbia Card Task Cold version (a card game used for assessing behavioural risk-taking tendencies) (Salfi et al., 2020).
Figure 1: Risk-taking per sleep condition, Columbia Card Task cold version results. Adapted from “Effects of Total and Partial Sleep Deprivation on Reflection Impulsivity and Risk-Taking in Deliberative Decision-Making” by Salfi et al.2020, May 27, Nature and Science of Sleep, 12, p.310.
In Figure 1, we can see the results of the Cards Task Columbia cold version in both experiments. In both Low Risk-Taking subgroups, we can see an increase in the number of turner cards compared to the number of cards turned over in a Regular Sleep condition (RS). This means that reduced sleep hours or the lack of sleep affect the most to those who normally make low-risk decisions and that Partial Sleep Deprivation is more detrimental than a night of Total Sleep Deprivation.
Let’s go back to the initial example. For those who believe that sleep deprivation is not a genuine concern because they can pull an all-nighter, it’s important to note that only 2% of the world’s population have a genetic mutation that allows them to function at their highest level when sleep-deprived(Enders et al., 2022). Also, we must consider that only one day of Total or Partial Sleep deprivation is not enough to affect our capacity for data gathering or decision-making progress.
Recommendations for Team Leaders: What should You Do?
To prevent poor decision-making, it is essential for leaders to delegate activities equally among their teams. This not only safeguards the team from inadequate sleep but also ensures optimal work performance. Establishing realistic deadlines, reducing workloads, and implementing mindfulness exercises to reduce stress are some of the activities you can promote in order to prevent sleep deprivation among your team members.
If we aim to enhance our awareness of risks and avoid unfavourable outcomes when making decisions, it is advisable to prioritize a full night’s sleep. This enhances our ability to recall both short-term and long-term memories, which can serve as valuable inputs for making well-informed decisions.
References
Salfi, F., Lauriola, M., Tempesta, D., Calanna, P., Socci, V., Gennaro, L. D., & Ferrara, M.
(2020). Effects of Total and Partial Sleep Deprivation on Reflection Impulsivity and Risk-
Taking in Deliberative Decision-Making. Nature and Science of Sleep, 12, 309-324.
https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S250586
Enders, A., Barnes C., Walker, M. (2022, April 6). A good night’s sleep will help you to make
better strategic decisions. IMD.org.https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/magazine/a-good-nights-
sleep-the-best-decision-youll-
evermake/#:~:text=That%20is%2C%20a%20lack%20of,for%20making%20informed%20
strategic%20decisions.
Carla Barrantes is a seasoned marketing and communication expert with experience in market research for product development. With a proven background in marketing, sales, and customer service, she has led several research projects in Peru in the financial sector. Her passion for customer service and research led her to move to Canada to enhance her knowledge at Humber College and gain her co-op at Generation1.ca.
This blog-article was selected as a winner of the Fall 2023 best research blogs contest Generation1.ca sponsors at Humber College. Read all about the contest and winning blogs.
