How to Optimize Sleep for Focus and Productivity

We all want to feel smooth energy and “laser-focused” at work– like our work tasks are challenging and stimulating but well within our mental capability.

There are many pathways to finding this feeling: mindset, nutrition, supplements (maybe), mindfulness, exercise, and even hydration, but one of the easiest ways to boost your focus and productivity is actually by SLEEPING well.

Dr. Marissa was LIVE on LinkedIn on September 13, 2024 to teach you how you can power up your focus and productivity by optimizing your sleep.

Watch the full recording to dive into the details and keep reading below for the highlights.

1. Recognize the incredible boost that sleep gives your mind.

The sooner we appreciate the many ways sleep can make us superhumans, the better we can prioritize it, so we can avoid relying on caffeine for energy to get through our work or life tasks.

Think of sleep like a battery-recharge for your mind and body. . .if you’re never fully recharging, you may find yourself perpetually operating in “Low Power Mode” where your mind cannot fully access its potential due to low energy reserves.

Full nights of high quality sleep give your mind the ability to focus intensely on a task. If we are under-slept, parts of our brain have to find time during the day to rest, leading to “micro-sleeps.” During a micro-sleep, we may find ourselves staring off into the distance, unaware that we lost focus on our original task, and these only get worse as fatigue accumulates.

Sleep also changes how we perceive effort. If a work task normally feels like 3/10 difficulty, poor sleep might make that task feel like a 5/10 difficulty. This makes the entire day feel much more draining. From a different perspective, imagine how easy your days might feel if you bump from 6.5 hours per night of sleep to 8.5. . . What problem might you solve? What activity might you have more energy for?

2. Design your day (and your space) to generate the deepest sleep at night.

Sleep science has taught us that the best strategies to get the best night’s sleep start with our nutrition and exercise (easy-ish), include the environment (easiest), and hinge upon our ability to wind down our minds (hardest).

Low effort tweaks you can make to your environment include:

• Sleep cool at 65-68 degrees
• Sleep dark: no illumination from clocks, LEDs, street lights
• Sleep quiet (white/brown/pink noise) to prevent wake-ups
• Get bright sunlight or outdoor light in the morning to fall asleep easier

Moderate effort tweaks you can make to your nutrition include:

• Avoid all caffeine or stimulants after noon
• Limit alcohol, which disrupts your REM (dream) sleep, even as little as one drink.
• Eat nuts and seeds to help your body produce melatonin
• Include high-fiber choices in your dinner meal
• Avoid high sugar food and beverage choices

Moderate effort movement goals:

• Hit your daily and weekly exercise goals: 20-30 minutes aerobic exercise daily
• Hit your step goals: 8-12k steps per day
• Incorporate resistance training at least 2 days per week

3. The most important skill for sleeping well is learning to settle your mind

Unfortunately, one of the biggest levers you can pull for optimizing your sleep involves training your mind to “downshift.” In our daily lives, we are often constantly responding to big and small crises ALL DAY: urgent emails, health conditions, missed meetings, unanswered text messages, childcare disruptions, heavy traffic, getting low on groceries, etc.

It keeps our minds in such a constant state of stress that by the time we lay down at night, our brains are unable to disconnect from the day and so automatically begin reflecting, ruminating, and planning for the next day or the next problem that might arise. We have essentially trained our brains for 16 hours to operate in “crisis mode” or “problem solving mode,” so it becomes hard to break that cycle and shift to “rest mode.”

Yet a smooth transition to “rest mode” is what allows us to successfully handle the crises of the next day.

Here’s where to start:

• Practice “downshifting” for 10 minutes each day
• Choose from: breathwork, meditation, guided relaxation hypnosis, progressive muscle relaxation, or yoga nidra
• Practice “downshifting” for 10-20 minutes leading up to your desired bedtime
• Learn to access “rest mode” for brief moments during the daytime (scrolling news or social media is not “rest mode”)

Then notice the effects on your sleep, daily function, focus, and productivity.

Bottom Line: Dial in your sleep to boost productivity and focus for high-level performance and smooth energy.

How to dive deeper?

At Movement Rx, we are in the business of creating teams that lead and work better from a place of wellbeing. Because if you don’t make time for your wellbeing now, you’ll have to make time for disease later. Let us help your team build and leverage their well-being.

Schedule a Well-Being Strategy Call.