Improving or finding a manageable work-life balance can help you sleep better. In return, catching up on more sleep can impact your ability to function effectively at work or affect your presence at home.
However, sleep can be challenging to accomplish when you’re trying to juggle your work life and personal life. Maybe you’re feeling the weight of the responsibilities on your shoulders, and you find yourself thinking about what needs to happen the next day. Whatever it is that’s keeping you awake, you will feel the effects of sleep deprivation in all areas of your life.
Sleep plays a significant role in our mental and physical health. If you’re waking up fatigued each morning, listen to your body. It’s time to make a change to better not only yourself but your relationships at work and home.
Dangers of Not Getting Enough Sleep
Not sleeping enough at night can lead to many negative outcomes that in turn affect work and home-life. Researchers found that insomnia is responsible for 274,000 workplace accidents and errors each year. These errors include vehicular accidents while on the job or causing an assembly line to be shut down.
Sleeping less than the recommended seven to nine hours a night impacts you more than just making you feel cranky, groggy, and unable to focus. Physical complications include weight gain, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. Further, sleep deprivation is associated with increased heart rate and higher levels of certain chemicals linked with inflammation, which may put extra strain on your heart.
The Link Between Sleep and Mental Health
Sleep problems can also lead to long-term mental health concerns and the development of mental health disorders like clinical depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). About 75% of those with depression show symptoms of insomnia, and evidence suggests that poor sleep may induce or worsen depression.
Sleep stages also play a crucial role in brain health, enabling better thinking, learning, and memory. If you’re trying to get your work-life balance back on track, then it’s essential to find a way to detach after hours so you can get a good night’s rest.
Improving Your Work-Life Balance to Improve Sleep
There are several ways you can work towards improving your work-life balance, including:
#1. Unplug After Hours
This may seem like a no-brainer, but making yourself unavailable once you leave the office so you can relax or spend time with your family will do your mental health wonders. Delete your email from your phone, do not respond to text messages, or make a point to leave your laptop at the office. Unplugging after hours will require some planning ahead so you can fully disengage the second you get home.
Our motivation to succeed professionally can cause us to push self-care or personal relationships to the side. It is crucial to be careful about letting work take over your home life.
#2. Prioritize Projects
If you have a deadline coming up or a number of projects to complete before the end of the week, try to dedicate the mornings to those so you can leave on time. Don’t set yourself up to have to stay late to get caught up.
#3. Never Be Afraid to Say No
Saying no to extra work obligations can be one of the most challenging yet most important things you can do. It’s a significant step to take to achieve a healthy work-life balance. This can help you prevent burnout. Only take on what you know you can accomplish during work hours, so the additional stress doesn’t take a toll on your sleep.
Balancing Home-Life and Work-Life
We’ve all found ourselves struggling with catching up on work at home then attacking several chores past our bedtime. Take the glass ball theory by author Nora Roberts. She states, “the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are made of plastic, and some are made of glass.”
The takeaway of her analogy is that sometimes it’s okay to let the plastic balls drop to save a glass ball from shattering. Plastic balls may include baking cupcakes from scratch for the kids to take to school or staying up until midnight checking your email. These balls will bounce back with no harm done if they fall.
Sometimes it can feel like you’re juggling a thousand things at once that fit into the categories of “work” and “life:” children, friendships, exercising, deadlines, meetings, cleaning, errands, appointments, etc. When it comes to doing it all, sometimes you have to sacrifice a ball from time to time, and that’s okay.
Juggling work and home life priorities can result in sleep deprivation if you can’t find a suitable balance. Work-life balance is a mental health issue and one that’s often overlooked. Taking on too much responsibility throughout the day can stress you out and, in turn, prevent you from sleeping at night as you battle your racing thoughts. Achieve Concierge can offer you the necessary tools to help you overcome sleep deprivation or mental health disorders so you can feel your best at work and home. Take a step away from your everyday stressors to hit the reset button on your mental health. Our treatments include therapeutic measures, support groups, nutritional infusions, and more. Our Premier Members enjoy unique services such as same-day appointments or telehealth appointments to help achieve convenient and accessible care. To learn more about the services we offer and how we can help you, call Achieve Concierge today at (619) 393-5871.