When you think about your work essentials, your trusty laptop, go-to software, or a quiet office space may come to mind. But chances are, you’re overlooking the greatest tool in your productivity toolkit: sleep.
As Matthew Walker, PhD, sleep scientist and Oura advisor, says, “Less sleep does not equal more productivity.” In fact, scientific evidence consistently demonstrates that sleep is not a luxury—rather, it’s a non-negotiable for peak performance.
Below, learn how sleep impacts your productivity and brain power, plus how to optimize your sleep for more sustained focus and output.
How Sleep Enhances Your Brain Power
“Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain,” Walker writes in his book, Why We Sleep. Sleep regulates an array of neurobiological processes that govern memory consolidation, emotional regulation, learning, and critical thinking.
Sleep recharges your brain’s energy levels.
Your brain is like a battery, and by the end of the day, your “brain battery” needs recharging. And sleep does just that. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of brain cells, surges in the first few hours of sleep, effectively recharging your brain battery for the day ahead.
During sleep, particularly deep sleep, the brain also undergoes processes like clearing out waste products and strengthening connections between neurons, all of which improve brain function the next day.
LEARN MORE: The Benefits of Sleep for Brain Health
Sleep sharpens your cognitive skills.
Executive functions are the cognitive skills that allow you to perform essential tasks, such as planning, focusing, recalling information, and self-monitoring your behavior. These functions rely on high-quality sleep—and without it, these critical functions receive less energy.
Plus, poor sleep lowers your motivation, which in turn makes it more difficult to complete important tasks for work or school.
Sleep consolidates memories.
“Consider the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning and memory, akin to a USB drive, in that it has finite space,” Walker explains. “Sleep transfers information from the hippocampus to the cortex, which is like putting information on a hard drive, with vastly more space.”
This clearing and consolidation of short-term memory allows for new information to be absorbed and new memories to form. In other words, creating memories isn’t just a way to remember fun times—it’s a form of encoding, or how your brain learns new information and stores it for later use.
Sleep helps you learn and retain information.
Getting a good night’s sleep before learning something new helps prepare your brain for the initial formation of memories. “Then, sleep after learning is essential to help save and cement that new information into the architecture of the brain, meaning that you’re less likely to forget it,” Walker notes.
During rapid eye movement (REM) and deep sleep, your brain strengthens and prunes synapses through synaptic plasticity. This process makes your brain more efficient, enhancing your ability to learn, retain information, and apply knowledge creatively.
Sleep helps regulate your emotions.
During REM sleep, your brain activity heightens, mimicking your brain state when you’re awake. This is the sleep stage for dreaming. Dreaming is a productive process that plays a crucial role in emotional regulation. Considered your brain’s safe place for processing emotional experiences from the current day and past, REM sleep is vital for helping you stress, anxiety, and other emotional responses effectively.
| Member Story: Since using Oura, Hemang K. learned how important REM sleep is for his mental health and emotional capacity. If possible, he adjusts his workday and reschedules stressful meetings if he sees he didn’t get enough of it. |
Sleep improves your mood.
After a good night’s sleep, it’s not surprising you feel more positive: Sleep can balance levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and regulate dopamine and serotonin levels, which are associated with healthy circadian function and positive feelings.
In addition to REM sleep processing and integrating your emotional experiences, this “balancing” of brain chemicals results in a better mood and less stress, teeing you up for enhanced motivation, social cohesion, focus, and that all-important productivity.
How Much Sleep Do You Need for Optimal Cognitive Performance?
While sleep needs vary somewhat from person to person, Walker advises getting more than seven hours per night to maintain optimal cognitive performance. And the alternative is not pretty: “After 10 days of getting only seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for 24 hours,” he notes in Why We Sleep.
| Member Tip: It’s not just the quantity, but the quality of sleep that matters—and Oura helps you track it all. Your Oura Sleep Score contains a detailed sleep graph that shows individual factors of your sleep quality, such as the amount of REM sleep and deep sleep, how long it took you to fall asleep, and movement through the night. |
How Much REM Sleep Do You Need?
REM is vital for your productivity, mood, and motivation. But how much do you need? On average, REM sleep should account for 20-25% of your total sleep time, and adults should sleep anywhere between 7 and 9 hours per night.
So this could be anywhere between 1.5 hours to 2.25 hours of REM sleep per night. On your Oura App, a REM sleep total of 90 minutes or more will result in an optimal Sleep Score. If you’ve noticed your REM sleep tends to be on the lower side, you can try to get more by sleeping for longer stretches at night—that’s because REM sleep typically occurs later in your sleep cycles.
What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?
That mid-afternoon energy slump or an occasional urge to take a cat nap at your desk is something most people experience from time to time. But true sleep deprivation can significantly impact your cognitive performance and productivity. Here’s what you may experience when you don’t get enough sleep:
- Difficulty processing and retaining information: Sleep deprivation impairs memory formation, making it hard to process and organize new information. This affects tasks like recalling words, numbers, or faces, and can lead to long-term memory gaps as the hippocampus struggles to transfer memories to the neocortex.
- Reduced motivation: Poor sleep lowers motivation and productivity. Research finds that the more frequently you wake up during the night—an indicator of poor sleep quality—the fewer tasks you’re likely to complete the next day.
| Member Tip: See how often you’re waking up during the night by looking at your nighttime movement graph on the Sleep tab on the Oura App. |
- Impaired learning capacity: Difficulty recalling and retaining information hampers learning and academic performance.
- Heightened emotional reactivity: Lack of sleep increases emotional volatility, making you more prone to confusion, anger, and frustration. This disrupts focus, decision-making, and collaboration, heightening the risk of stress, burnout, and anxiety.
- Reduced executive functions: Sleep deprivation affects reaction time, vigilance, and alertness, and over time can lead to a decline in your overall emotional health, physical well-being, and social relationships.
READ MORE: Why Sleep Matters
5 Tips to Sleep Better & Improve Your Performance
“Sleep is an investment for your tomorrow,” says Walker. Try these five strategies for better sleep and greater productivity.
1. Take time to wind down.
Working up until bedtime can keep you in an activated state. Instead, set a bedtime alarm that reminds you to start winding down. A wind-down routine can help align your circadian rhythm, increase melatonin levels, and help you feel sleepy by the time bedtime comes.
| Member Tip: Oura members receive a notification when it’s time to start winding down for bed, based on your unique body clock and chronotype. |
2. Write a to-do list before bed.
Let it out by writing it down. Studies show that writing a short to-do list before bed is a form of cognitive offloading to reduce stress and ruminating thoughts that can keep you awake. This can jumpstart your morning productivity, too.
READ MORE: How Journaling Can Improve Your Health — And How to Make it a Habit!
3. Limit caffeine.
Caffeine may help you feel more alert, but it could also cause your sleep to suffer—especially if you’re consuming it after lunch. Since caffeine’s half-life is up to 7 hours, try to limit your caffeine intake to the first half of the day.
READ MORE: Should You Delay Morning Caffeine?
4. Try progressive muscle relaxation.
Worrying about your endless to-do list or that big presentation can make you restless at night. Try progressive muscle relaxation:
- Lie in bed, close your eyes, and start taking deep breaths.
- Start by tensing your facial muscles for 10 seconds, and then release them.
- Next, tense your shoulder muscles for 10 seconds, and then release them.
- Continue tensing and relaxing different muscle groups in your body, working your way down to your feet.
A study found that people experiencing anxiety slept better after practicing three 20 to 30-minute sessions of this technique.
READ MORE: 10 Simple Breathing Exercises for Sleep and Relaxation
5. Establish a consistent sleep schedule.
Consistency is key. Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, which helps regulate your circadian rhythm and promote deeper and more restorative sleep. Research suggests that adhering to a consistent bedtime and wake-up time can improve sleep quality and enhance daytime alertness and productivity.
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