The remote work revolution is upon us. Fueled by the recent shift to working from home, many businesses are discovering the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of a distributed workforce. While the convenience of working in your PJs is undeniable, creating a dedicated workspace is crucial for long-term productivity and well-being.
For many, the dedicated home office remains a dream. With limited space or multiple home-based workers, carving out a workspace can be a challenge. Some settle for the couch, while others succumb to the siren song of their beds. But is working from bed truly a recipe for productivity? While just curling up with your laptop might seem tempting, it can disrupt your sleep cycle and blur the lines between work and rest. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is paramount, and your sleep environment plays a vital role.
Let's explore ingenious solutions to optimize your home, mattress and bedroom for both productivity and well-being. By creating a designated workspace and prioritizing quality sleep, you can thrive in the new era of remote work. Let's discover how to achieve optimal balance and unlock your full potential as a home office warrior.
A Better Work Ethic Starts with Better Life Balance
Everyone knows that proper rest is crucial to good health; chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to conditions like heart disease, dementias, and even higher risk of death. If you’re losing two hours of sleep to hit the gym so you’ll live to be 99, you are working against yourself. Not to mention being labeled a nut for climbing on a treadmill at 4:30 in the morning! Rest, work, and overall health are all about balance, so let’s see if we can find more of it:
Cold & Flu Season: When Bed Work Might be Mandatory
Experts keep warning of the dangers of carrying screens and jobs over into bedtime. Answering work emails at 10 pm is unnecessary, and it’s definitely not going to help you wind down. We cross the line from worker to sleeper all the time, which makes both activities suffer. But sometimes we have no choice but to work from the bedroom.
People get sick and can’t muster the energy to drag themselves to the home office, much less the real office downtown. On those terrible days, you can eke out a couple hours of work on a laptop so deadlines aren’t missed and projects delayed. Getting sick is rough - fired and sick, quite a bit worse!
A similar scenario has played out for many moms and dads, too. Caring for an ill child means comforting them while they lie around all day. Many a parent has snuggled with their kid, watching their fever while taking care of work emails or sending out invoices.
Now envision being bedridden long term. We are not indestructible. Plus, there are tons of dingbat drivers out there! We could end up the victim of an automobile accident that keeps us stuck on the couch or mattress for weeks. A broken leg, for instance, can take anywhere from 2-6 months to heal, during which time we still need to earn an income, especially if you run a business.
In cases like these, we simply have to adapt, because some work is better than none at all when we have no choice. But there are still ways to optimize the cognitive and physical separation between work-bed and sleep-bed…. Even though they’re the same bed.
Crossing Lines Between the Sheets
The biggest issue with trying to be productive 24/7 is that it’s impossible. Show me a person who refuses to rest and I’ll show you someone who will slip up and eventually burn out:
- Drowsy driving is responsible for more than 6,000 fatal car crashes every year in the United States.
- Nurses working 12.5-hour shifts report committing more than 3x as many medical errors as those working 8.5-hour shifts.
- Excessively-sleepy workers are 70% more likely to cause a workplace accident.
- Overall, a whopping 13% of all workplace injuries are directly related to sleepiness.
See, working while in bed is not the problem. At least you can’t get into a workplace accident there. Will this help your OSHA statistics? Hmm…
The issue comes from not having boundaries. When the internet is available 24 hours a day and you have endless amounts of work you could do, it’s easy to never let up. Laptops are convenient for being able to take them anywhere, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily should take them anywhere. Set some rules for your laptop’s relationship with your bed.
A clearly- defined schedule helps with this. Easier said than done for hard-driving people trying to build a better life for their family. Also, if you are the creative type, inspiration can strike at any time including bedtime. But setting a limit on the number of hours you will work in a day is a must. A firm shutdown time works for others.
Here are a few ways to set those boundaries:
- Pick a time of the early evening after which you won’t use your laptop, phone or any other screens and stick to it.
- If you need a way to still record your nighttime ideas, put a small notepad and pen on your night table for those middle-of-the-night oh-crap moments.
- Keep your laptop in another room so that in the morning you have to get out of bed before you start working. This will help you get into a morning routine that breaks up sleep and work.
- Get dressed in the morning.
- When you’re done with work for the day, get out of bed and do an activity somewhere else. Make dinner. Drink a glass of wine in the living room. Give your brain time to separate work-bed from sleep-bed before you try to go down for the night.
Reading: Sneaky Productivity while Lying Down
Some people still read. Folks like you, who are reading this right now. Duh! This superpower can be taken inside the bedroom and lead to huge productivity that most people wouldn’t notice as a big deal if you mentioned it. Some of us really can’t ever turn off, and if that’s you, here are a few ways to hybrid work and wind down.
Work emails: What percentage are of enormous importance? Certainly not 100%, but they need to be sorted through. Winding down can be done while scanning your inbox, as long as you promise yourself not to get worked up over anything. Avoid this activity if you can’t keep that promise.
Learning: Turns out you can learn just as much about your company’s new software by reading about the features in bed as at your desk. This sneakily productive habit is a nice replacement for bedtime TV - especially if you’ve been hooked on your guilty-pleasure shows lately. Although, some of us do like to hate-watch The Bachelor. Shhh…
Idea gen: Reading fiction at bedtime can help generate ideas, either for business or for fun. Author, Tim Ferris recommends fiction over non-fiction so your mind stays in the present; even if that present is inside the mind of a handmaid in Gilead. You focus less on yourself and more on a story, allowing you to separate your work-self from yourself who needs to get to sleep soon.
Low effort that makes you more productive is a no-brainer. And reading is incredibly powerful even if you’re about to doze off, especially considering the neural connections that happen during sleep which boost our ability to process information.
Limited Space: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The allure of working from bed is undeniable, but for some, it spells productivity doom. If the idea of collapsing onto your mattress mid-workday sends shivers down your spine, there are clever ways to keep your sleep zone out of sight and out of mind during office hours.
Custom mattresses can be the key to unlocking a multifunctional home office. Space-saving options like Murphy beds disappear seamlessly into cabinets or closets when not in use, creating a clear distinction between work and rest. Some Murphy beds even integrate a fold-down desk, providing a dedicated workspace once the bed is tucked away.
For those who prefer a touch of relaxation during breaks, custom sofa beds offer an enticing alternative. The mattress folds discreetly into the couch, eliminating the temptation to sprawl out and lose focus. This creates a designated lounging area perfect for workday breaks, without blurring the lines between work and sleep like a traditional bed.
Sofa beds shine when you need to work in a relaxed yet productive environment. Perfect for battling illness or injury, they offer the comfort of a bed while maintaining a clear separation from your sleep sanctuary. And for the true night owls, a custom sofa bed with a high-quality mattress can become your secret weapon for late-night work sessions. By providing a comfortable yet non-sleep-inducing environment, it can boost your workflow without sabotaging your sleep hygiene.
Investing in a space-saving sleep solution with a custom mattress allows you to reclaim control of your home office. No more battling the urge to crawl back into bed – create a clear separation between work and rest and watch your productivity soar.
Comfort in Non-Traditional Work Spaces is Easy Now
Imagine trying to work in bed in 1985. First of all, your laptop would have been a desktop PC the size of a DeLorean. Plus, the only accessory would be a pillow. In the modern age, you can click around to find tons of products that make productivity possible anywhere.
- Mattress desks like this
- Workstations to keep your lap cool
- Mobile desks to go from sofa to bed
- Stand-up desks for when you need to stretch
- Voice-activated devices don’t require jumping out of a warm bed
There’s no question we’ve got it made with all these products that make work more comfortable from any room in the house, while camping, or by the pool. Truckers still have to hit the road, but digital workers have limitless options for working how, when, and where they want.
The bed has become what the couch was just a few years ago. Innovative companies have created a better environment for getting things done without aggravating wire entanglement, stiff necks, or getting fried by a hot laptop. There are more things to get done in a day than in 1985.
In addition to comfort while working being easier than ever, creating boundaries between your bed and your home-office is as well. Options like that sofa bed mattress or space-saving Murphy bed can make saving space for the at-home workday and separating your workspace from your sleep space a much easier task, even for people in studios or tiny homes.
Creation Nation: The Age of Never-Ending Content Generation
Ok, some results of the web expanding have not been so wonderful. Example - hotdog influencers. Yet, the options for creators to create are still exploding. It’s quite amazing to see artists and innovators making things like:
- Inspiring fitness videos
- 25-second painting time lapses
- Informative podcasts with more than soundbites
- The public aware of homelessness and other social issues
This content creation train is rolling along furiously with no end in sight. The cool thing? That this is the ultimate form of remote work. No boss to check in with, and these creators have no idea what a timeclock is - congrats!
This work can be done in bed, on the couch, or while sunbathing - which is content all its own in some cases! And believe it or not, there is a great deal of work involved in this creator economy. A podcast doesn’t just happen, for example. There’s a lot involved, like:
- Writing
- Outreach to listeners
- Recording/editing
- Ads and sponsorships
- Idea generation
- Research
The final product is shiny and clean, but the grunt work to get there is behind the scenes and eats up massive time. That’s why so many content creators on social media platforms are working long hours, even though they make their lifestyle seem all glitz, glamor and vacations. Long days turn into long nights, so it’s crucial they have a bedroom setup made to transform into a digital workstation at least part-time.
Mobile World Marching On
In our fast-paced, mobile world, work has infiltrated every corner of our lives. Kitchen tables morph into workstations, and evenings melt into late-night conference calls. But amidst this constant connectivity, a crucial element often gets sacrificed: sleep.
While the allure of working from bed or catching up on emails from under the covers may be strong, without clear boundaries it can hurt your sleep. Our beds are sanctuaries of sleep, and blurring these lines too much can disrupt sleep cycles and lead to chronic sleep deprivation. The consequences are far-reaching, impacting everything from cognitive function to overall health.
Remember, a good night's sleep isn't a luxury - it's a necessity. Just like the hominids who sought comfort for their families, prioritizing quality sleep is the foundation for optimal performance in our ever-evolving world. After all, how can you conquer the mobile world if you're constantly battling fatigue?
This is where custom mattresses and better bedtime habits come in. By investing in a sleep solution that perfectly caters to your needs, you can wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle whatever your mobile workplace throws your way. Custom mattresses that support your properly and better nighttime habits are a core part of unlocking your full potential in the exciting, yet demanding, era of the mobile workplace.
Is Sleep Productivity?
At the beginning of this article, we posed the question: “is productivity possible from bed?” And hopefully, after digesting how much our world and beds have changed, you’ve found that answer is yes, it can be. Many of us don’t really have a choice – we’ve simply got to find ways to make our bedroom a productive place.
As we continue to treat our homes (and beds) as offices, we can forget about the importance of actual sleep, one of the most productive things we can do for our minds and bodies. A continuous lack of sleep can contribute to risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, impaired memory, and many more health issues, both physical and psychological. You can't get work done if you don’t have your health.
The average adult should be getting 8 hours of sleep, but many of us scrape by on less because sleep isn’t considered productive, and we’ve a lot to get done each day. Without a quality snooze, we won’t be able to perform well at work, in the gym, or show up positive and excited for our family and social life. The best thing you can do to boost your productivity is make sure you’re sleeping well, with a solid bedtime routine in place before you jump onto your mattress.
The Simplest Route to Better Sleep: A Custom Mattress
One of the best ways to boost the quality of sleep you get is to upgrade your mattress. Per a National Sleep Foundation study, 92% of surveyors say that a comfortable mattress can improve a night’s sleep. The best way to get the perfect snooze is to create a custom mattress that caters to your needs.
Whether you sleep well on memory foam beds or think a custom coil mattress is the change you need, we can build a product that gets you to sleep quickly. We also create custom mattresses for sofa beds and daybeds if you want to create a separate, cozy workspace that isn’t your actual bed. Is productivity possible from bed? Yup – both day and night.