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Growing up in a hard-working Midwestern city in the 1980s, I quickly learned that sleep is the first expense I should cut in a given day. The men I looked up to at a young age regularly boasted about running on just a few hours of sleep. While this was rooted in a good-natured work ethic, it led me to view needing sleep as a sign of weakness. I continue to see this perception in the workplace today, where it is considered a badge of honor to stay at the office late working on a project. 我是上个世纪80年代在美国中西部一个崇尚努力工作的城市长大的，我很快就认识到睡眠是我在一天中应该削减的第一样东西。我小时候崇拜的人经常夸耀自己每天只睡几个小时。尽管这根源于一种良好的职业操守，但却使我认为对睡眠的需求是一种软弱的表现。如今在职场中我仍能看到有人持这样的观点。在办公室为一个项目工作到很晚被视为是一种荣耀。 The problem is, one less hour of sleep is not equal to an extra hour of achievement. In many cases the opposite occurs. When you lose an hour of sleep, it decreases your well-being, productivity, health, and ability to think the following day. One of the most influential studies of human performance, conducted by professor K. Anders Ericsson, found that top performers slept 8 hours and 36 minutes per day. The average American, for comparison, gets just 6 hours and 51 minutes of sleep on weeknights. | 
