How sleep affects work
Today is a World Mental Health Day and I'd like to touch this topic with my own experience and with a post about the importance of a sleep and work balance. Let's make mental health a priority worldwide together by staying humans at work and in a community. Where are many coworkers may feel reduction in productivity resulting from a pressure to work. Many circumstances can lead to alienation between people, because not everybody can share, talk about own problems or hardships. Here's simple understanding and endorsement can play a decisive role in person's future. Help just by understanding someone is something that everyone can give for free. Just be prepared and have an open mind. For someone it's a skill to learn, but everyday routine will help acquire it.
While health topics are usually uncovered by professional resources, it's important part of efficient creative workflow. It's good to work in a calm environment at night, when nobody is bothering by calls or messages. Sometimes it can save your project's Deadline. But at which cost?
Working late night is a typical thing for freelancers outside the US. Because of timezones it's needed to shift your worktime to match an american (usually) time what can result in a difference in 7-13 hours. So late night projects is a normal type of thing. But is it really helping to achieve a long-run efficient workflow? Living in a stress is a serious mistake which usually remains unnoticeable until there will be already significant problems with the health. Fatigue, illness, weakness. Something that stopping you from doing regular tasks. At this momment the body requires a really deep relax and recovery. But very often, almost always people are continuing to push forward, until it will be even worse or too late for fast solutions.
What happens on these stages is a part of clinical research and some medical treatments. But what is more easier to track and understand is a circumstances that led to this situation. The easiest way, if you're (most probably) a healthy person without any serious deseases like diabetes, asthma, etc. is to organize your sleep-work routine.
If you think that one hour before you go sleep is the same as one hour after you wake up, that's correct only in time measurements. In reality when you giving your body a necessary sleep, when it expects this, your mind and body are working together on more efficient recovering. And in the morning there's signifficantly more energy at your disposal. So the hour at night with 30% of energy is not the same as an hour with 100% fully charged battery in terms of productivity and efficiency.
"The day is over" and you have to agree with this, and turn your computer off to the sleep mode, and do the same with the computer in your head. But it's always arising subconsious alerts there, like waaaait you still haven't done everything, where are you leaving, you can do more, don't leave it for tomorrow if you can do this today. And the other self-judgment stuff, that was growing with you during the life. You just have to go by the road of rationality in this case. And say to yourself, that "tommorow I'll do much more". In this case you're agreeing that tomorrow you're ready to become 1% better than today. And as an investment you're sacrificing that 30%-energy hour, and going to bed a little bit earlier.
It's important in the morning to mark for yoursself this feeling that you're recovered and then remember at which cost it was done. You are owing one hour of work for yersterday. So it's needed to start right now and do what was needed to do yesterday, or start new tasks for today, but immediately without any delay. This will help you start your day faster, and then later in the evening to go sleep earlier.
Morning routine is also very important part in this conjunction. So it's easier to start efficient day if you remember quickly what you did in the evening, or what was planned to do in the morning. Every day is a continuation and another attempt for improvement, and investement into your mental stability.
Screen time. Even if new displays already don't have direct influence on a sight health they can increase eyestrain. Also, there are many suggestions everywhere to avoid displays before a sleep and in the morning. I'm agreeing with such tips, and compared many times how my eyes are sensible when starting the day by watching mobile or watching youtubes till finally decide to sleep. Avoid that. It doesn't help so much, that you can use somewhere in your life. But instead it decreases the quality of your rest and later affects the efficiency during the next day. And then another one day. And another. Through your whole life. Some sight safeguarding tips can be found here - Harvard Health.
Why this important? About 100% of work of a motion designer is dependant on sight. If you wish a better attention to details, comfortable work, longer, emotionally positive and more productive working day, and simply bright, not red eyes it's needed to have sufficient time for a sleep and less time spent in front of the screen.
Looks like simple advices, but is it really easy to implement in a everyday work? When you have to sit and work a whole day. Agree, it can be difficult sometimes. But if you will be switching activities, when you have small breaks, when you have calls with friends or relatives, writing your thoughts with a pencil, for example planning or even listing you further steps, that you have to do in After Effects, and then implementing them much faster while working with a computer. Small physical exercises, cleaning up your desk, looking into the distance - taking any break to make a small present to your eyes. And then return with a fresh look onto your project and completing it in time, with relatively comfortable feeling after the long working day.
Smallest changes are building your lifestyle. It's impossbile to switch fast. Even if you do everything right once, it will be not sustainable. Especially when you're working on a computer and additionally if you're playing games your attention will be suffering. I know not so many people who can still feel OK after long working day. It's a marathon distance for many of us so it's needed to be trained. But it's not necessary to kill yourself just to try do more. You can do more, just control the process, don't let the process control you. Life is still going on and you have to live, not just to be a physical continuation of the computer. If you're for long time with a motion design - it's more about your passion and love towards your work, rather than working just for earnings. If you wish to survive in this long run, you have to feel this every moment of hardest project as a moment of temporary unique opportunity to touch and learn something new. Just don't take it too serious like maybe it was a moment of disapointment. It will be a test, and tests are always everywhere. Don't get too serious if you don't understand something. It will uncover later, just keep going.
I just want to let you skip many unpleasant moments, just by keep moving forward and learning, experiencing something new. And what helps here a lot is a healthy routine and healthy sleep. Every day and every night. Partying, late night films, late night working is what makes efficiency degrading. But it's life, a balance between joy and work is also what's needed to learn. At least you'll be thinking about alternatives when choosing between a good sleep and a good time at night. Something important like sleep can improve your efficiency and earnings, and then it will be much easier to have a greater fun later. All depends on many circumstances, but there are good sayings like "Who works well, rests well too", "Work Hard, Rest Well", "Work Hard, Partying Harder" all the same. But feels that Rest here is having equal weight. So I guess if you work 8 hours a day, 8 hours have to bqe for a sleep at night. (Usually it's less) And if you work up to 10 and more hours, try to find more moments for short breaks.
Stay mentally healthy and friendly! Keep creating great things and meet new soul mates in design and motion.
Resources
The Handbook of Stress and Health: A Guide to Research and Practice
This book has a great research about the sleep. A lot of resources to check in a table of contents, but it's just to prove my thoughts of how sleep and recovery are important for anyone. For the Mograph and other creative fields especially.
Just check the "Sleep" section (it's possible to register with an email quickly)
Or for example here is a nice collection of Books.
Share your thoughts and stories in comments below!