Streaming services, Late nights and Performance

As I'm writing this article, it's the day before Good Friday and as we all know, April is full of public holidays this year. It's going to be an opportunity to relax, put your feet up and watch a bit of television. But a word of warning on that. Over the last couple of years, I've noticed people who are struggling in their jobs and life in general and one of the factors that keeps coming up with these people, is that they spend a lot of their time watching streaming services. There's a couple of factors at play with these: firstly, there seems to be some reinforcement and encouragement that you should "binge", in order to get your full value from your streaming service and it's also associated with "me time". I can't remember when binging anything was ever a good idea. Everything in moderation. But most importantly, you tend to binge these sorts of things at night when you are supposed to be getting sleep. Google "circadian rhythms" and get yourself familiar with this concept. You should know about it. If these aren't right, your performance will slip. Secondly, it seems to be that the predominance of content on these services are dramas and those dramas tend to be a little "dark". Once again, I'm not convinced about how much dark input one should have right before they go to sleep every night.

So in summary, this is an observation as opposed to any form of scientific fact. But I would provide a general caution as to how much of this content you consume before heading off to sleep. These short weeks will be busy and your down time and sleep is sacred. As mentioned earlier – all things in moderation. (Except chocolate at Easter?.......no,.....no.... that's not good either) :)   Jamie