“Let me sleep on it”.
In my experience of business, there is no decision, of any scale, urgency or importance, that would not benefit from having taken the extra thinking time afforded by a night of rest. I often return to finalise a decision in the morning with a clarity and freshness that comes from having forgotten about it for a few hours and rested in between.
Do your analysis, take advice, consider the options. Then, forget about it until the morning. I am a great believer, when coming to a decision, in switching off, having a good night of sleep and returning to the decision in the morning.
What is the role of sleep in good decision making? I find that, the more complex, strategic the decision, the more it will benefit from extra time to reflect. Often, this can be done by taking exercise, going for a walk, or travelling. In other words, taking your mind off the decision and returning to it later.
I have often found a decision easier to make when I have slept on it. In many ways, the bigger the decision, the more effective it is to return to it after a good night’s sleep.
I have done this most when making recruitment decisions. A well run process ought to produce more than one suitable candidate. There is rarely a stand out winner. Very often, especially if it is a panel making the decision, there might have to be a consensus on the best candidate and you could pick more than one.
In each of the recruitments I have done recently, especially of CEO’s and Board colleagues, after the panel has indicated a preference, I have asked everyone to think on it overnight and come back in the morning to be comfortable that what we thought at the end of the meeting still seems to be the right decision.
In the morning, I find a clarity and vision that is not there when in the heat of thinking about the decision. I often wake up with a clarity- as if by magic, the decision comes more easily.. I can experience how it would feel to have made that decision. I can imagine if there are any drawbacks. Very often, we end up confirming what we thought the day before, but now with the benefit of greater insight. On each occasion, we have made the right recruitment decision.
I have also found it works when approving a strategy, deciding whether to make an investment, accept an offer, make a bid and more. The more that the decision matters, the better it is to take the extra time to decide. It is as though, in the morning, a light appears in the brain that makes the decision much clearer.
Why does this work. Why does sleep help good decision making?
There is science behind it. Sleep affects cognitive and emotional processes. In sleep, the brain rewires, processes and rebuilds. During sleep, the brain processes, and consolidates information from the day. It helps to integrate past experiences and knowledge and isolate what are the important factors. Researchers have found that in Unconscious thought, such as from sleep, exercise, and relaxation, the usual biases that are a part of our conscious thinking are absent. In unconscious thought, we weigh the importance of the components that make up our decision more equally, leaving our preconceptions at the door of consciousness.
For certain kinds of decisions — those that are complex and where you have some expertise — “sleeping on it” may be more helpful than spending minutes or hours of conscious thought on it. The brain makes good unconscious decisions when we let it.
This works for me as a form of decision making. I see it as a sign of strength and confidence – the ability to use conscious and unconscious thought to make good decisions.
