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Make Better Decisions - Sleep On It
Think About It and Sleep On It
When you are faced with a major decision, your boss or adviser may have told you, "Sleep on it." Presumably, this will give you time to think about the pros and cons, and avoid making a rash, rushed decision.
There are many reasons that sleeping on it helps you with your big problem or decision. Some of them have to do with simply having more time, while others actually about the act of sleeping. Some of these reasons are based on studies that will help us prove that sleeping on it actually works and is not just an old wives' tale.
Avoid Rash and Rushed Judgments and Decisions
By telling you to sleep on it, your manager or whoever presented the idea is also communicating to you that this is an important decision and not one that should be treated lightly. You may find that it is a bigger time commitment or require a greater sacrifice than you initially envisioned.
One benefit of being told to sleep on it is that you get more time to think about your decision. You can weigh the pros and cons, conduct internet and other research, and ask your loved ones what they think. You also get time to come up with questions and issues that you may not have considered when you first heard the original idea.
Lets you think when you are at your best
Especially if you are tired, you may not be capable of thinking through all of the intricacies and long term consequences of your decision. You will also be able to look at the issue in a fresh perspective in the morning.
The image on the right shows that when you are sleep deprived, you may have some cognitive impairment, memory losses, and impaired moral judgment. Even if you are not sleep deprived, you will suffer from these effects when you are tired.
Adds Impulse Control
Another benefit to simply waiting is to avoid impulsive tendencies. While you may initially want to buy a new motorcycle or naughty lingerie, after some time has passed, you may decide that you were caught up in the sales pitch, and really don't need or can't afford a new one.
You can get away from the sales pitch and the excitement of the marketing atmosphere, and think through whether you really need the item and whether you can afford it. This will also give you time to think about your other priorities and see how this purchase will fit into the mix.
Sleep and Decision Making on Amazon
Less Stress
According to the description on Amazon for Sleep for Success: Everything You Must Know About Sleep but Are too Tired to Ask by Dr. James B. Mass and Rebecca Robbins, sleep reduces stress.
Given the present, stress-inducing state of the economy and the world, there has never been a better time to provide a wake-up call on how to relax, get centered, get eight hours of sleep, and be happier and more successful. Recent research has shown us that when we get enough sleep, we are able to accomplish more in less time and with less stress and greater health.
If you make a decision when you are less stressed, you may be able to think through the various factors quickly and be able to find a solution that will work long term. You may even come up with additional options that hadn't considered.
Experience Unconscious Thought
Dr. Martaan Bos of Radboud University in Nijmegen and Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School have presented research studies that suggest that while thinking through a decision can be helpful, sometimes it is better to let your unconscious mind handle it. Clearheaded, logical, conscious thought may lead us to have greater confidence in our decisions, but they may give too much weight to factors that are not as important. Unconscious thought, on the other hand, works in the background while you are doing something else, like sleeping.
In short, sleeping on a decision allows us to differentiate between the vital and the irrelevant aspects, ultimately leading to higher quality decisions. Our unconscious can process large amounts of information — as long as we give it time to do so.
They found that unconscious thought supports the kind of mental organization needed for making complex decisions. It can handle larger volume of information, and actually fuels the creative process.
He found that conscious thought was good for selecting options based on a certain decision rule, but the unconscious thought helped select good, intuitive options based on an aggregate of different decision rules.
He suggests this guidance on how to enlist the help of your subconscious in decision making.
- Take in all the information.
- Sleep on it
- Check the facts again, because the subconscious is not as precise as the conscious.
Conscious Decision Making Tips
- Ask questions to make sure you have all the facts
- Examine all the evidence
- Think through long- and short-term consequences
- Avoid drifting. Many times we just do something because someone asked us to or because we think it is the next step without thinking about whether it is the right action in the situation.
- Define the problem
- Analyze assumptions and biases
- Avoid emotional reasoning
- Ask others for input.
- Consider the long term consequences
- Don't oversimplify
- Consider other choices
- Keep your goals in mind
- Ask yourself what the wisest person you know would do
- Consider others who will be impacted by your decision
Experience the Art and Science of Delay
Instead of focusing only on how to make a decision, we should also focus on the timing of the decision. In his book Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, James Partnoy recommends that we wait until the last minute to make decisions. A former investment banker and corporate lawyer, he is a professor of finance and law and co-director of the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego. He states that waiting will give you the time to deliberate on your decision and to look at all the angles.
In his interview with the Smithsonian, he described this process of managing delay with an example of getting an email message.
Just take a breath. Take more pauses. Stare off into the distance. Ask yourself the first question of this two-step process: What is the maximum amount of time I have available to respond? I free up time today that I can spend on something else, and I’ll be unconsciously working on the question asked in the email for a week.
Dr. Rebecca Spencer Discusses Her Sleep Studies
Sleep and Learning
Dr. Rebecca Spencer, assistant professor in the Psychology Department in the College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst, studies the impact of sleep on learning and its effect on memory as people age.
Her recent findings include scientific substantiation of the old advice to "sleep on it" when trying to make a decision. She found that those students who slept between two play sessions of the Iowa Gambling Task had a better understanding of the game and superior behavioral outcomes.
In other studies, she has also found that sleep helps process emotional aspects of events, helping make those events more memorable.
Sleep and Decision Making
While many decisions can be made quickly with the conscious mind and have few long term consequences, there are some decisions that are so complex, that they really need a lot of time to analyze and absorb.
When you are making the big decisions, like whether to take a job promotion in another state or whether it is time to start a family, you may be better off thinking about it consciously, and then letting your unconscious mind work on it for a few days while you sleep on it. Studies have shown that your unconscious mind will be able to analyze the different factors of these complex questions, and you will make better decisions as a result.
© 2012 Shasta Matova
Comments: "Make Better Decisions - Sleep on it"
Great advice. I usually want things to be resolved immediately and rush to make a decision. I have learned it does pay to wait so you don't make the wrong ones!
This is totally different from what I have experienced. I can not sleep and it is because I take to my bed my worries. This article has help me so I will share it. Thanks!
This is why it is not good to force yourself to write when you have writer's block.....doing so only produces less than ideal work, as I have found. It's good to see in the diagram proof that sleep deprivation really slows the mental process! I found this really informative and am sharing.
Definitely good advice. Sleeping it on certainly helps people avoid rash judgments.
Sleeping on it is about the best advice you can give. It gives you time to adjust and rationally think things out. I like the way you've laid out this hub with all your facts and ideas!
Voted up, useful, and interesting.
All this time I thought waiting till the last minute to make a decision was called "Procrastinating", something I was very good at. Now I come to find out that I was really practicing the art and science of Delay!
Great hub, very informative and wonderfully written. I enjoyed this very much!
Very interesting observations. you are right decisions taken in the heat of the moment sometimes are not the correct ones. So I agree it is always better to sleep over it. And the subconcious mind is very powerful in analysing the repercussions of the decision and most of the time comes out with a logical decision.
I love the conscious decision making tips. As you say not all decisions should be taken on the spot especially the important ones that have far and long term effects. I agree.
Voted up and useful.
Very in-depth and informative article here and I found it very useful. I always knew that "sleeping on a decision" is a good idea but my problem is that I find it difficult to sleep when I am worrying about a big decision. Kind of a catch-22... Thanks for this though it has certainly highlighted the importance of taking time to think over the big decision before jumping in.
Excellent article. I love that you mentioned impulse control. I wish people would write a lot of their emails and sleep on those until tomorrow :/
Great job on this hub
Kerry:)
Excellent work! Most people fail to realize how true this is. Just to sidetrack a little bit sleep deprivation can also be extremely dangerous.
This is a fantastic hub! I talk about how biphasic sleep can make you smarter and you mention sleep and learning which is pretty much the same thing, but it is so true that sleep is beneficial in so many other ways. Letting your brain sort things out while you sleep, which it does superbly well in most cases, giving yourself some time to see things from different perspectives, can make a big difference in your final decision.
Truly a great hub full of wise advice! Voted up, interesting, useful, and awesome! Will share.
Wonderful hub. Sleep literally helps one to make better decisions as well as sleeping on a decision helps one to avoid taking a decision one might rue later on.
Voted up, useful and interesting.
I guess if doing it once is good, then doing it twice must be better How about sleeping on it for three times ;)
Voting this Up and Interesting.
Great overview of this topic! We all need a reminder to do this once in a while. It is easy to get caught up in something and want to resolve it all right away, but a night's sleep before acting will almost always have a better result.
Many a time I have come up with an absolutely fantastic, can't miss idea and want to implement it right away. Hey, decision making is a good thing, no? Then, after sleeping on it, my subconscious goes to work. When I awake my mind says "What the hell was I thinking." Excellent hub, voted up useful and awesome. and shared with 7200 Twitter followers
When making big decisions, I find it best to pray , sleep on it, and make a decision in the morning when I am fresh. Lots of advice on here and quite interesting. Our minds do work while we sleep and if you give it positive flow, it will work to sift the decisions. Great job here.
I tell my teenage daughter that after a good nights rest you'll think of things differently, in a more positive light. Wonderful article.
This is such a useful hub packed with information on why we make better decisions if we "sleep on it" first. I sure wish I had followed this advice years ago. I've made mistakes so many times because I have "jumped" into making an immediate decision.
Great work here and voted up and sharing.
Excellent hub, sharing some tried and true advice, MT......"sleep on it," is one of the best things we can do, when wrestling with a decision. I have proven this to myself. It is amazing to me how much better we can think, weigh and decide, when we've given our mind and body some rest. We all know the expression, "Everything looks brighter in the morning." That comment has more impact than meets the eye.
Another thing that is advisable to sleep on....is being terribly angry with someone. Rather than jumping into a verbal sparring match....a good night's sleep, quite often soothes the wild beast!!....Thanks for this great hub, MT......It makes a lot of sense!.......UP++
Me and rash decisions do not mix! Very bad combination! LOL I have found that my best time to make a decision is right after I wake up; I am much more in tune with reality and able to make much more informed and less emotional decisions then.
Very interesting and useful hub!
It is such good advice to sleep on decisions before plunging in..I wish I could take back some that I made. When you are hit with a crisis personal or otherwise it is so easy to jump in... I will remember your wise words the next time. Voted UP.
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