Sleep is the single most effective tool for improving decision-making, emotional control, and long-term health — yet most business owners either neglect it or wear sleep deprivation as a badge of honour. Research shows that quality matters more than quantity: six and a half hours of deep, restorative sleep outperforms eight hours of fragmented light sleep.
Poor sleep impairs the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for complex decisions, risk assessment, and impulse control. Sleep-deprived leaders take bigger risks without realising it, react more emotionally, and retain less information from meetings and conversations.
The most effective changes are simple: protect the last hour before bed from screens and work, keep a consistent wake time (even weekends), limit caffeine after midday, and write tomorrow’s to-do list before you switch off the light. Better sleep is not a luxury — it is a competitive advantage.
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Six short reads each week on tax, Wills, family wealth and running a business, from John Ireland. Since 1996, three decades of protecting families.