3 Reasons Why Sleep is Essential for Leaders and Founders

I remember I used to take pride in my ability to withstand a busy call night as a resident working my overnight hospital shift without sleep.  Chugging multiple cups of strong coffee, fighting against the hazy feeling in my brain, I did my very best to perform and take good care of my patients.

Would I call those nights periods of peak performance?  No, but it was what had to be done, and I could count on adrenaline and training to do what I needed to do.

Now fascinated by optimizing performance, I have become a true believer in the power of sleep. And so should you.  

As a busy leader, high-stakes decisions are routine, and maintaining peak mental performance is crucial. While decision-making, communication, and strategic thinking are often emphasized, one vital factor that is essential for all of the above is sleep. Quality sleep has far-reaching effects that goes beyond just feeling well-rested. Here, we’ll explore three research-backed reasons why good sleep is essential for you as a leader.

1. Sleep Enhances Cognitive Function and Memory Consolidation

Sleep plays a pivotal role in cognition and memory—key elements of executive performance. During sleep, particularly deep and REM stages, the brain consolidates memories and organizes information gathered during the day. This process aids in better recall and efficient processing of new information. Research suggests that sleep directly impacts both procedural and declarative memory, enhancing skills required for complex problem-solving and critical thinking (Stickgold & Walker, 2013).

For founders, this means that good sleep helps with retaining essential information, integrating new insights, and using stored knowledge to drive strategic thinking. Without it, cognitive performance declines. Sleep-deprived individuals scored lower on tasks requiring flexibility, complex decision-making, and the ability to update and reframe information (Nilsson et al., 2005). 

Takeaway: Small cognitive lapses due to lack of good sleep, minor as they may seem, can have compounding effects on executive-level responsibilities over time, repeated day in and day out

2. Sleep Regulates Emotional States and Stress Resilience

Emotional resilience and stability are essential for handling the demands of leadership, from high-stress situations to interactions with diverse stakeholders. Poor sleep disrupts the regulation of emotions and can heighten sensitivity to negative stimuli, making leaders more susceptible to stress. Sleep deprivation amplifies activity in the amygdala, the brain’s emotional processing center, while reducing connectivity with the prefrontal cortex (Yoo et al., 2007). This impaired connectivity means that sleep-deprived individuals may have heightened emotional reactions and a reduced capacity to regulate those emotions logically and calmly. For executives, good sleep provides a buffer against emotional volatility, enhancing the ability to remain poised under pressure. 

Takeaway: Although everyone knows you are under a lot of stress, you don’t have to appear as though you are under a lot of stress. Lack of sleep will make that more likely.

3. Sleep Sharpens Decision-Making and Risk Assessment

Executive roles are filled with countless decisions, often made under conditions of uncertainty. Sleep is essential for optimizing decision-making and risk assessment. Sleep-deprived individuals are more likely to make riskier decisions, exhibiting impulsivity and less foresight into potential consequences (Killgore et al., 2007). On the flip side, inadequate sleep can also disrupt the balance between reward-seeking and risk-avoidance behavior, making leaders more prone to overly cautious choices that fail to capitalize on opportunities.

Sleep allows for greater insight and a stronger ability to assess long-term outcomes in decision-making (Venkatraman et al., 2007). For executives, this means that quality sleep contributes to a more balanced, strategic approach—critical in steering a company or team in the right direction.

Takeaway: Sleep helps balance decision-making in the face of uncertainty and risk, allowing you to be a more strategic leader and make the right choice at the right time.

For executives who want to maintain their edge, prioritizing sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. By improving memory consolidation, emotional resilience, and decision-making skills, good sleep creates a vital foundation for peak mental performance. As the demands of leadership grow, so too should the commitment to getting the sleep required to excel.

References

• Killgore, W. D. S., Balkin, T. J., & Wesensten, N. J. (2007). Impaired decision making following 49 h of sleep deprivation. Sleep, 30(3), 335–343.

• Nilsson, J. P., Soderstrom, M., Karlsson, A. U., et al. (2005). Less effective executive functioning after one night’s sleep deprivation. Journal of Sleep Research, 14(1), 1–6.

• Stickgold, R., & Walker, M. P. (2013). Sleep-dependent memory triage: Evolving generalization through selective processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(3), 181–192.

• Venkatraman, V., Huettel, S. A., Chuah, L. Y., Payne, J. W., & Chee, M. W. (2007). Sleep deprivation biases the neural mechanisms underlying economic preferences. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1121(1), 245–253.

• Yoo, S. S., Gujar, N., Hu, P., Jolesz, F. A., & Walker, M. P. (2007). The human emotional brain without sleep: A prefrontal amygdala disconnect. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(37), 10183–10187.