Law Department Management Blog
Sleep researchers have found that power-napping, and even dozing for as little as six minutes, is enough to significantly enhance memory. “Several recent studies of sleep and sleeplessness show that slumber is especially important for doing clever stuff with information, such as extracting the gist of what has been learned, combining facts and interesting ways and dealing with the day’s emotions” (See my post of March 30, 2008: more on creativity and click here for my recent article on ways to increase it.).
The flip side, as recounted in Scientific Am., May 2008 at 32, is that sleep-deprived managers “become much more blinkered in [their] thinking, less able to deal with novelty and less able to evaluate risk.” In-house counsel under pressure to produce more in less time certainly need to get enough sleep. Apparently, while we sleep we add meaning to information and fit it into a larger context. In terms of how well you are able to remember and think, if you don’t get enough sleep it should keep you up at night!