As some of you may know, I have 3 boys. They are 2, 4 and 6 years old. They are great and my wife and I have few real challenges except in the area of sleep. Each of the boys has had some difficulty with having consistent uninterrupted sleep. And, this means that Mom and Dad also enjoy interrupted sleep. In fact, we find that we can regularly be awake during the wee hours of the morning. And, this has led to a realization over the past several years. Sleep affects performance. Sure, no kidding you’re saying. Of course, it affects performance. Well, yes, if you have 3 hours of sleep the night before you are likely not going to be performing at your best the day after. But, it’s more complicated than that. If the rhythm of your sleep is consistently altered and you’re losing a little bit of sleep here and there, your performance is also infected. You may not notice it at first but consider this. The last few times that you were frustrated consider whether or not you were suffering from some form of fatigue. Parents see this in terms of how their frustration and performance increase and decrease because they simply “haven’t had a good sleep in years”.
So what can be learned from this? I think the most important thing is to observe yourself so that you know when you’re frustrated more because of your fatigue than the situation. Or, you know that your performance is just awful and you need to recharge right away. Sometimes we just do not recognize our own fatigue and the performance issues it creates.
Posted by Paul Frazer 
