Take a vacation, why don't you?

Regular readers of this blog may already realize that I'm hung up on sleep, or lack thereof (see here). Perhaps it's because, with children just having emerged from the wake-several-times-a-night phase, I'm on a first-name basis with sleep deprivation. It also may be evidence of a career-long struggle to find balance in a culture that celebrates and honors workaholism and sleep avoidance.

At any rate, more good news for people who just want a rest arrived today. The New York Times's Frequent Flier column profiled consultant Mark Rosekind of Alertness Solutions , a former director of NASA's fatigue countermeasures program (now that's a job title). His assertion? In addition to getting more sleep, you also need a vacation. Says Rosekind:

I just completed a study for Air New Zealand that suggests that if people actually took their allotted vacation time, they could improve their performance by more than 80 percent.

If you still don't get the message, Rosekind includes a truly frightening anecdote about a TV reporter who, apparently out of story ideas, went without sleep for three days. What she experienced the last day will make you want to take a nap straightaway.

sleep, productivity, balance, New York Times