EP142: Part 1, Expansion: Alarm Clocks Must DIE!

Check Out the Full Episode: https://www.youtube.com/live/LRd1qkxns_4?feature=share

At the beginning of the episode I jokingly (maybe) asked my audience if we could eliminate one person from history who would that be? My answer – Levi Hutchins, the inventor of the alarm clock. Perhaps you are wondering why I would want to eliminate Levi and the awful alarm clock? The answer is simple – it is one of the top reasons you aren’t performing at your peak.

There have been many sleep studies and I’m sure there will be many more. One of particular note is from the National Institute of Industrial Health out of Japan which summarizes the evils of the dreaded alarm clock. When we are sleeping, we are at our most vulnerable. When the alarm clock goes off we have a tremendous influx of adrenaline into our system, because our body goes into fight or flight status. The study concludes that over time the persistent fight or flight every morning leads to long-term stress, depression, and cardiovascular issues..to name a few.

As a leader I am truly concerned about the well being of the people I’m charged with managing and developing. If you are awoken by an alarm while you are in deep sleep you will fall into sleep inertia. Sleep inertia = BAD NEWS! In a study performed by Hilditch and McHill when you are awakened from deep sleep you will suffer mental and physical performance loss, poor decision making, disorientation, muscle weakness, and short-term memory loss for as long as 4 hours after you are awakened. This means you potentially lose up to 37.5% of your employees' productivity per day.

We need to start treating our people better so we can get maximum performance out of them and ourselves. Manage to results not to the amount of hours we are at our desks. Stay tuned for more thoughts from Episode 142, until then, destroy the alarm clock like it was a printer from The Office.