#MentalHealth4SMEs: Are you getting enough sleep?

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In the first part of the series, it was discussed that poor mental health can and will have a drastic effect on a business. This week we share advice on getting enough sleep.

How do you break down the physically toughest person you know? You deprive them of sleep.

It’s fully accepted, which means it’s understood, it’s been proven, and it’s not disputed, that proper sleep patterns help with alertness, effective thinking, and emotional balance.

Your business and employees depend on your mental health. Therefore, a cornerstone of good mental health is sleep.

Are you sleeping properly? Do you have regularity in your sleep practices, such as when you go to sleep, how long you sleep for, what time you wake up, whether important phases of sleep (such as REM sleep) are undisturbed?

Alcohol and drugs can interfere with sleep phases, and the purpose of the different sleep phases is to renew your body and brain functions daily.

This week's tip

Start a regular exercise schedule. This is proven to help regulate sleep. Learn about practices that help you to sleep better.

Such examples include: avoid eating large meals close to bedtime; tick your To-Do list before you go to sleep, not the next morning; establish a pre-sleep routine that leads to relaxation, and stick to it. There are many more tactics out there. Find one that suits you.

Winston Churchill loved napping. He was a huge proponent of sleep and napping. Writing in his book The Gathering Storm, the World War II prime minister described a nap as ‘blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts twenty minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces’. His naps were an established part of Churchill’s daily routine along with an afternoon game of cards with his wife, Clementine
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There are three other components to the physical side of mental health. These are nutrition, exercise and nature (as in getting out) which we will have a look at in our upcoming articles.

Our tips are a guide to help you stay on top of things to achieve a state of well-being which we call positive mental health. We group them into physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual (PECS). These are all interrelated and can assist you, particularly in these tough conditions.

The next article in this series takes a look at Nutrition.