One of the things I bring up quite often, especially to new writers, is how a lack of sleep makes it harder to succeed. And without a good routine, you may find yourself struggling in a myriad of ways. Today, I’ll dive a bit more into how this is a problem.
In reality, sleep deprivation can cause serious issues regardless of the type of work you do. But this post is from the perspective of a freelance writer.
Why a Lack of Sleep is Incredibly Bad for Writers
OK, before we get started, note that not everyone is affected by sleep deprivation the same way. Everyone is different and results will vary. However, there is strong evidence to support the majority of us have similar issues when it comes to rest.
And a lot of this, I am speaking from personal experience.
8 Symptoms from a Lack of Sleep
In reality, there are many symptoms that come with a lack of sleep. A lot of them are incredibly serious. But as I said, these are some of the most damaging if you’re trying to excel at being a freelance writer, or even an author.
But keep in mind that you might experience these to different extents as opposed to someone else.
1. Severe Lack of Motivation
With a lack of sleep often comes a lack of motivation. And when you’re working from home without a boss standing over your shoulder, motivation is key to paying your bills.
When you’re drained, it’s far more difficult to convince yourself to push forward. The end result is not picking up that extra order in Textbroker or putting off a private client’s task until the next day.
2. Altered States of Mood
You’ve probably heard, “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” This is usually attributed to someone waking up in a foul mood. Sleep deprivation will make this apparent.
But it’s not just anger. The quality of sleep you get can also make you depressed or anxious. If you wake up more sad than usual, there’s a good chance you had a bad night of sleep.
3. Easier to Irritate
When you’re suffering from a lack of sleep, you are far easier to irritate. Your fuse is much shorter, which makes dealing with clients quite a daunting task. It doesn’t take much to set you off, and you could lose contracts because of your reactions.
I know I am much quicker to anger when I have little sleep. Personally, I try to exercise a bit before my morning meetings with my team to offset being irritable so I don’t unjustly attack someone who said or did something I felt was stupid.
4. Impairs Your Judgement
When you’re incredibly tired, you make a lot of mistakes. And I’m talking more than just grammatical and spelling errors. You can agree to lower pay, accept jobs you wouldn’t normally, or say things that are out of character.
In fact, going too long without sleep is similar to being drunk. According to the Sleep Foundation, 18 hours of being awake is the equivalent of having a blood-alcohol level of .05, just shy of being full-on liquored up.
5. More Difficult to Concentrate
Being too tired makes it more difficult to concentrate or focus on what you’re doing. You could find yourself reading the same paragraph over and over while thinking to yourself, “what am I doing, again?”
This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I stopped writing for clients at night. It was taking too long to complete jobs and I found that I made far more errors. This often resulted in doing revisions the next day.
6. Affects How You Process Information
Your brain is one of the most important organs in your body. And when it’s not properly cared for, it doesn’t work as well. This means a lack of sleep affects how it functions overall.
Memory, capacity to learn, and how you process information are all reduced thanks to being too tired. As a freelancer, this can lead to a loss of clients or producing low-quality work.
7. Vivid Hallucinations
So, not everyone hallucinates thanks to a lack of sleep. But it is possible, and I’ve experienced it first-hand. And although some might think it would be interesting or fun, it’s dangerous when it happens at work.
Depending on the hallucination, you could cause harm to yourself or those around you. And you could make decisions that will determine if you have work the next day or not.
8. A Slew of Physical Ailments
Lastly, not getting enough consistent, quality rest can lead to a very long list of physical conditions. I’m talking about higher blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, and a weakened immune system.
The list is simply too long to add to this post, but the risks for very deadly issues are prevalent. What’s worse is how a lot of people seem to forget that part and still don’t get enough sleep at night.
Causes of a Lack of Sleep
Unfortunately, there are tons of reasons why you might not be able to get good quality shut-eye. And this is where it becomes incredibly personal. For example, my roommate can sleep through a marching band if it were tromping across his bed.
On the other side of that coin, one of my friends can’t sleep if she here’s the slightest noise in the other room.
Instead of creating a list of things that can prevent a good night’s rest, I’ll just break down some of the more common. These are things that affect the majority of people I know as well as what experts say.
So, what are some things that cause a lack of sleep to begin with?
- Stress, Depression, and Anxiety
Emotional status can weigh heavily on sleep. It can cause everything from deprivation to vivid nightmares. It all depends on the individual, but most are greatly affected by stress, depression, and anxiety. - Poor Bedding
Here is one that is right up my alley and why Serta and Sleep Number are popular. For example, my bed is WAY too hard and really messes with getting rest at night. - The Food You Eat
The types of food you eat can easily affect the quality of sleep. Case in point, spicey foods for dinner make me toss and turn all night long. And Sleep Score Labs state how junk foods keep you awake while adding to your waistline. - Bad Sleeping Environment
I know I covered the bed just a second ago. However, the overall environment can also be problematic. Humidity levels, temperature, and light can all directly link to a lack of sleep. - FOMO Mentality
And lastly, the fear-of-missing-out mentality that you see a lot in young children is also common in adults. This is when you force yourself awake because you don’t want to miss anything or waste your time. It’s perhaps one of my biggest failings – outside of having a crappy bed.
But like I said, this is just a shortlist of common things that disrupt sleeping patterns. You might be affected by a myriad of others. I know people who have to sleep in absolute darkness, and I’m someone who can sleep with the lights and TV on.
The hardest part is tracking down what affects you the most and remedy the issue.
Bear in mind that the average adult should have between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. So, it might be worth the effort to see if you can fall within that timeframe.
Get Some Rest, Improve Your Life
The more refreshed you are in the morning, the better the day will unfold. Finding ways to prevent a lack of sleep is important whether you’re a freelancer or a cashier at Walmart. Because it will eventually wear you down to the point of making serious mistakes.
What kind of things affect you while sleeping? Leave it in a comment down below. I’d love to hear from you.