How can a lack of sleep affect your communication skills?

Excellent communication can make your life so much easier, both personally and professionally. But have you ever noticed that you feel like you can’t do anything as effectively, including communicating with friends and colleagues, if you haven’t slept well? Learn how the lack of sleep impact can affect communication skills below.

Here, we explore the link between lack of sleep and a reduced ability to communicate and look at how Shooksvensen can help improve communication skills.

Reduced understanding

Research has shown that it isn’t as simple as being “a bit tired” when it comes to mishearing people or struggling to find the right way to say something when you’re sleep-deprived. The lack of sleep impact can actually have a direct impact on your auditory and linguistic understanding, decreasing your overall abilities. If you haven’t slept well, you may show a reduced comprehension of both grammar structure and language – so it probably isn’t the right time to send that extremely important email.

Increased anxiety

Have you ever noticed that you feel on edge when you haven’t slept properly before a big meeting or presentation? Of course, the anxiety of preparing for important work events can keep you awake, and not sleeping can make you even more anxious. In fact, it can raise anxiety levels by as much as 30% – and when you are anxious, you are far less likely to communicate clearly.

Poor decision making

Being tired does not only make it harder to articulate, but it can also impair your critical thinking. This means that making those small work decisions will feel more like climbing a mountain than ever, so you won’t be able to talk through issues and communicate solutions as effectively as usual.

Combat communication struggles

A bad night’s sleep can happen to anyone, so it is important that you are fully comfortable with your communication style and know how to communicate with your team even when you’re tired. Not only that, but you should also think about how you can give your team members grace if they are similarly sleepless and struggling.

Improving communication is an essential part of leading a happy and productive team, but it can be challenging to know how to do this. If you want help ensuring that your communication is done in the right way, then Shooksvensen is here to show you how to improve your communication skills. We have communication skills training courses available for you and your team that are flexible to suit you, whether you want online learning or something more flexible to suit your hybrid environment. Give us a call today to find out more.

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