Business Owners Need Sleep

Owning a business can be one of the most satisfying and rewarding experiences of our lives.  However, it can also be extremely stressful!  Keeping the cash flow positive, making sure we make payroll, taking the risks necessary to grow and expand, dealing with personnel challenges, keeping customers happy, on and on.

One of the key ways we process stress is through good, healthy sleep. Business owners need sleep!

Our bodies do many important things while we sleep.  As darkness approaches our bodies naturally respond by increasing the sleep hormone called melatonin.  As we allow ourselves to “wind down” from our day and fall asleep, melatonin continues to rise.  Our body temperature drops and our body rests.

However, while our body rests our brain, circulatory system, and immune system are working overtime!  They are literally “repairing” you physically, mentally, and emotionally.  They are preparing you for another day.

As the repair process comes to an end, our melatonin levels drop and our body temperature begins to rise.  As the melatonin drops, our body begins to produce another hormone, a stress hormone called cortisol.  When this normal reparative process is complete, we wake up, refreshed and ready for another day.

When this normal sleep process is disrupted we suffer from sleep deprivation.  Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a multitude of illnesses including insulin resistance, which then can lead to hypertension, cancer, dementia, osteoporosis, and a host of auto-immune disorders.

Poor sleep can also significantly affect your mood, your perspective, and your ability to make good decisions.  I cannot over-emphasize how important good sleep is to us as business owners.

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Brian Sekula for his personal mentoring and coaching in this area.  To learn more about how you can improve your health or how you can help your employees improve their health, check out Becoming Indestructable.