Sleep Tight? Running low on rest? Learn how others cope with fatigue.
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If you own a business, you know what it means to work late,start early, swill coffee and generally rank sleep last on yourlist of priorities. You don't want to waste one single minutewhen you can be getting that sale or making that extra widget--sowhat if it's 3 a.m.? Read on to find out how these successfulentrepreneurs deal with sleep deprivation.
Jennifer Kushell, 32
Co-founder with her husband, Scott Kaufman, 30, of Young &Successful Media Corp., a media and education company in Marinadel Rey, California
2005 projected sales: In the millions
Sleep stats: Kushell, who gets an average of three tofour hours of sleep when she's really busy--or a luxuriouseight or nine hours when she's not--says, "We've beenknown to work into the early morning when we're writing orworking on intensive documents. Sometimes it's just impossibleto get work done in the office with the phones, e-mails, meetings,etc."
Losing sleep: In a sleepy fog, Kushell went to the wrongairport once and called someone she'd known for 10 years by thewrong name in a meeting. She also cites the peril of the "workhangover." Says Kushell, "That's what I call the dayafter a seriously intense sleepless binge. [It has] all the samesymptoms of a hangover, just without the alcohol."
Rejuvenation: Kushell knows the importance of sleep--andshe generally makes up her sleep debt on weekends. "After anexhausting stretch, I've been known to seriously hibernate whenI have the opportunity," she says, "Unfortunately, itonly happens a handful of times a year. My world record is 23 hours[of sleep] in Thailand after a month and a half on theroad."
Josh Reid, 38
Co-founder with Paul Maravetz, 38, of Rome SnowboardDesign Syndicate, a snowboard manufacturing company inWaterbury, Vermont
2005 projected sales: More than $5 million
Sleep stats: Reid, who gets about six hours of sleep onaverage, recalls a specific eight-day stretch when he and his crewwere desperate to deliver their snowboard orders to retailers ondeadline. The marathon week had them stealing an hour of sleep hereand there--using the cab of the delivery truck for a bed."That was purely entrepreneurial survival, doing what we hadto do," he says.
Losing sleep: Reid says his body is used to not gettingmuch sleep when he's at trade shows or on business tripsinteracting with customers. "If I'm responsible foropening the [trade show booth] every day and have to socialize withmy customers at night, I end up getting two or three hours ofsleep."
Rejuvenation: Even the chronically sleep-deprived Reidnotes that, after a whirlwind trip, "you get on the planereally shot and exhausted. I get home, and it takes a couple ofdays to recuperate."
Jason Wagner, 34
Founder of Trackitback, a loss protection and recovery serviceprovider that manufactures coded ID labels for valuables inWinnipeg, Manitoba
2005 projected sales: $1.5 million
Sleep stats: Wagner, who gets an average of four to sixhours of sleep a night, says he's used to getting by on scantsleep--and it doesn't seem to hurt his business. In fact, hesays, "Ninety percent of my ideas, revelations and planningoccur to me when I'm supposed to be sleeping at night."For example, the epiphany of his company name, Trackitback, cameduring those twilight hours.
Losing sleep: He confesses that losing sleep can leavehim irritable. "I counter [the irritability] by walking,working out or playing sports," he says. "[Sleepdeprivation] also makes me send out the odd 'should havethought about that a bit more' e-mail."
Rejuvenation: When Wagner doesn't get enough sleepduring the week, he catches up on weekends. "I always take atwo-hour nap on Sundays to recharge my batteries for the upcomingweek."