Why Prioritising Your Sleep Is Important – REALLY Important.

Today I want to talk about why we need to be prioritising our sleep when working 24/7 – which I know sounds like a bit of a no-brainer when working irregular hours, but surprisingly so many of us aren’t doing it!

Having worked with SO many clients over the years (and from observing my own behaviour)… I know first-hand that sleep tends to get pushed down the ladder of priorities in comparison to other areas of our life.

As one of my clients so openly and honestly shared with me:

“But Audra, I’ve got way more important things that I need to be doing than sleep!”

Ummm. Wrong answer!

So why is prioritising our sleep so important?

Well there are many, many reasons, but probably hands down the biggest is that your immune system is dependant on you getting sufficient quality sleep. In other words getting sufficient quality sleep is an absolute necessity to keep you healthy and well!

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HSW 80 – Parliamentary Inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness

I’m going solo again this week to announce a really exciting development here in Australia.  That being the Australian Government launching a world-first inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness, which can I say – makes me extraordinarily happy!

Given shift workers are faced with ongoing sleep and circadian disruption every single day of their lives – this inquiry cannot come soon enough.

According to the document published by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport in April 2019 (4), the Committee has recommended the following:

The development of a nationally consistent approach to working hours and rest breaks for shift workers and guidelines on how organizations should optimize rosters to minimize the potential for disruption to employee’s sleep patterns.”

All we need now is for these recommendations to be taken on board and applied into shift working workplaces, thereby setting a precedent for other countries around the world to follow suit.

Links mentioned on the podcast:

Bedtime Reading – Inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness in Australia