The holiday season is officially under way and your stress level is about to go into overload. When we’re overly stressed bad things happen to us mentally, emotionally and physically: headaches, digestive issues, eating too much, concentration problems, decreased impulse control, increased emotional sensitivity, poor planning ability and sleep disturbances.
The goal for a lot of people in retail is to “just get through the holidays” with the least amount of difficulties and stress, which is a reasonable objective. So, what can you do to achieve your objective? The number 1 thing you can do for yourself and your employees (as well as family, customers and friends) is to prioritize sleep.
Getting enough high quality sleep is a crucial biological need. A short term sleep deprivation of just 2 weeks can lead to memory loss, inability to focus and poor decision making skills. A long-term deficiency can cause an increased risk of heart disease, obesity and depression.
There are many things you can do to make a difference in the quality and quality of your sleep. But, one of the biggest is to stop your harmful electronics’ habits — starting now to relieve holiday stress. Poor management of electronic devices is one of the biggest problems people have in falling and staying asleep.
Our bodies produce melatonin at night to help us fall and stay asleep. A cool, quiet and dark room triggers your body to release it. The light and noise from computers, Kindles, TVs, phones and other devices interferes with this process.
The guideline is — don’t use any device 1 hour before bedtime. It gives the melatonin time to work by eliminating all the light, stimulation/aggravation and noise. It’s estimated that people who leave on even 1 device get at least 30 minutes less sleep a night than those who turn them all off. Also, they wake up more often and are more restless.
It’s important to create a good sleep routine and getting control of your unhealthy electronics’ habit is a place to start. In fact, it might be all you need to have increased energy, a better memory, improved physical well being, stronger coping skills and a calmer mood.
After all, your employees won’t care or remember what cookies you baked for the holiday party. But, they will care and remember that you were short of temper and long on criticism because you stayed up too late searching on-line for the perfect recipe.
Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 200 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.
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