While I don’t go to bed at a particular time, I always aim to get 8 hours of sleep. On rare occasions, I am forced to sleep less than that which often makes me very anxious. Especially if I know I have a busy schedule the next day.
Worry of Sleep Deprivation: Anxiety that sleeping less than ideal amount will result in feeling very tired next day.
On my recent trip to Cappadocia, I had to wake up at 3 AM to catch an early flight. That meant spending a whole day of guided tours on only 5 hours of sleep. I kept worrying: “How will I enjoy the trip if I feel sleep-deprived all day?”
Digging a bit deeper
At some point, I asked myself: “What evidence do I have for this worry? If it’s just tiredness, can I not tackle it in some other way?”
This was a shift in perspective. Instead of just worrying, I decided to dig deep to figure out why I was feeling worried and how can I fix it. Suddenly, instead of worrying, I was excited!
I got a simple idea to collect evidence:
Experiment: Just note how I feel throughout the day when I am sleep-deprived.
No need to speculate! I can make a data-driven decision. And I had the perfect opportunity to try it out on my vacation.
Experiment for Impact of Sleep Deprivation
I ran a successful experiment during the Cappadocia trip. Here are the facts:
- I only slept for 5 hours. I woke up at 3 AM and surprisingly felt quite refreshed.
- I had Coffee at the airport. I wasn’t tired, but this was a proactive action to help me stay awake.
- I took two naps throughout the day: 1 in the car while driving to Cappadocia and 1 in the evening once returning to the hotel.
Overall, I had a great day. I didn’t feel tired thanks to coffee and opportunistic naps.
Conclusion: With napping opportunities, it is possible to enjoy the day with slight sleep deprivation.
It’s all about planning
I no longer worry about the sleep deprivation. I now have data to prove that one-off sleep deprivation isn’t enough to derail my day. With proper planning, I can mitigate the risk of tiredness quite effectively.
If I know an upcoming event will result in sleep deprivation, I will just plan some naps or coffee breaks to deal with it. This sounds simple, but I didn’t plan for these in the past. I tried to stay awake as much as possible to stay productive.
Now that I am aware and planning for it, I am more inclined to rest during short breaks than fiddle with my phone. The real lesson however is:
Always validate your assumptions about your worries. It might not be as bad as you think.