Web 2.0 Has Made Sleep An Opportunity Cost
October 9, 2008 at 11:15 am | In Personal Branding, Success Strategies, social media | 13 Comments
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Before I get into this post, I’d like to say that this post marks my 400th post since March 14th, 2007.
I know what you must be thinking, “Dan you’ve officially lost your mind.” In the past two weeks, I’ve really been thinking about sleep being an opportunity cost of connecting with more people online. I’ve been preaching this nonstop to people in the web 2.0 space and they look at me funny at the beginning and then after I explain a few major points, they agree. It’s very hard for me to go to sleep these days. 
I used to post once a day, Monday through Friday, but now I have doubled that, along with the book, video series, magazine and full-time job. Most people think that is rather unhealthy, yet I think it’s a requirement if you’re passionate about your topic and understand the networking capacity on the web today.
Passion
Passion is a very interesting word. To me, passion means having an incredible feeling inside of yourself, which translates outside. Passion makes you go crazy! When you are passionate, you never quit, you’re always excited and it has a great impact on everyone you are in contact with. When you have that energy flowing through you constantly, it’s hard to go to sleep, period. Heck a lot of people wonder why I don’t drink coffee (I’ve never had a sip in my life), yet work 13 or so hours a day. Passion blocks out negative thoughts and focuses on the good.
Connectivity and accessibility
I think you know that web 2.0 has made us all hyperconnected. Between the ability to access everything on your mobile phone to being able to send 140 characters to thousands of people at once, it’s obvious that we are connected and what we say counts. It is this connectivity that begs to have more hours in each day, yet we can’t. We are humans and love to interact with one another. When this occurs online, it happens with more people in less time and can scale substantially.
Since a percentage of our world has adopted these tools, it has, in effect, put everyone on the same ground. Famous people such as Alyssa Milano, Anna Kournikova, and John Mayer have blogs. They are accessible and want to be contacted. For instance, John Mayer promotes his email address (john@johnmayer.com) on his blog. Another example is MC Hammer, who lists my blog on his top 10 favorite blog list. Hammer uses Twitter and responds to your messages. None of this would happen in a web 1.0 world. It happens because celebrities are using the same tools we are and it’s a more open world now.
Take my company, EMC, for example. We have an EVP on Facebook and a few VP bloggers that can easily be contacted, not just by their peers, but by YOU. I’ll stop with examples because I know you get the point.
Theory
I strongly believe the fact that any new person you meet could change your life for the better. The accessibility and connectivity that web 2.0 creates allow you (yes, even you the marketing associate or you, the intern) a channel to meet some very successful people. We dream about starting businesses, climbing the corporate ladder and having a fulfilling life and now it’s right in front of us. Literally, these people are a few mouse clicks away.
I can’t sleep because I know who I’ve already met and who I’m bound to meet if I put the time in. Sleep is overrated (I’m saying this with a possible cold) because it’s time you could be spending networking online. It’s true and I promise you that if you sacrifice an hour more of sleep, you will become more successful. You snooze you lose!
Competitively, while you are asleep, everyone else is making the connections that YOU need. Next time you curl up with your pillow, remember that and see if you can go back to bed 
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Granted, everyone is different and has different needs, but don’t forget that your brain NEEDS to sleep in order to make sense of everything that happened to you during the day. That is when it ‘gets rid of’ all the useless details you don’t need to remember. When you find yourself feeling totally scattered and trying to remember stupid stuff – GO TO SLEEP. NO ONE can outsmart their brain.
Comment by Amanda — October 9, 2008 #
I used to stay up and only get four hours of sleep every night, but what can I say, I’m lousy and went back to bed eventually.
Yes, the drive in us to succeed will keep us up until 2 am talking with people, but I don’t think you can fault anyone who needs more sleep for missing out on connections.
FYI — If you haven’t seen it already I’ve post GaryV up on my blog. Now there’s a guy with passion!
Comment by Chel — October 9, 2008 #
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve experienced this so often. When I’m really into something and deeply passionate about it, I require less sleep and actually less food as well
I too am fighting a cold right now (it’s that time of the year) and it’s only a mild annoyance because I have SO MUCH going on (though not a paying, but I hope that will change soon).
Comment by Anna — October 9, 2008 #
Though not a paying JOB I meant!
Comment by Anna — October 9, 2008 #
I have to say, that when I was having trouble falling back asleep in the middle of the night, I kept having to convince myself not to get on the computer – I would have been way too energized to ever have a chance at falling back asleep! Consequently, I think your passion translates to all your posts.
Comment by Rebeca Trautner — October 9, 2008 #
Why sleep when you can work
Comment by Dan Schawbel — October 9, 2008 #
(following Amanda’s point) I’m a big fan of directing your resources – there’s so many resources on the web, it’s easy to be overwhelmed – I think it’s better to fully utilise one source rather than underutilising several sources.
But I know what you mean about missing sleep through excitement or ‘thought roller-coaster’.
Comment by Chris — October 9, 2008 #
I know that web 2.0 can change our life, if before i worked on my website just 3-4 times a week now i must admit that this have changed. Every time someone post something, ask something or just need some conversation and you just can’t go to sleep until you don’t talk to all.
Comment by Mike — October 9, 2008 #
What? No.
Never underestimate the power of good health. While passion is driving and addicting, life is a marathon…not a sprint. To much passion, no sleep = burnout.
Some of the best ideas to help fuel my passions have come from stepping away from it all…
At the very lease, re-watch Ferris Bueller.
Comment by Herb Sawyer — October 9, 2008 #
Donald trump is the one who says “I’ll sleep when I am dead”
I think the guy sleeps for 3 hours or something like that a day.
My take on this is that nobody dies from lack of sleep. If your body needs sleep, it will sleep.
However, being rested is also important. You just have to know what your body can tolerate.
Comment by Confident Nerd — October 9, 2008 #
Dan,
Congrats on the 400th post!
There’s a lot of research on the value of sleep. (I think I once read that those who don’t sleep as much die young!) I think it can be inspiring to take some time away from work and the computer to reflect.
When you are doing what you love and you can keep it up without breaking down (too much), more power to you!
Comment by Miriam Salpeter — October 10, 2008 #
Congrats on getting to 400. I’m shy of 200 in about the same time frame. I agree with the opportunity cost thing. I’ve had that chat with a few start-up players and entrepreneurs and the responses are usually the same. We need to keep pushing and pushing.
I agree but to a point. Sometimes I need to crash and recover. People will still be online tomorrow and there will be plenty of opportunities to connect and make things happen.
Comment by Greg Rollett — October 10, 2008 #
I just wish there was some way to expand the day so I had as long as I needed… but also enough time to sleep.
There’s just so much to get done!
But, don’t forget, just like our bodies need to recover to perform at their bests athletically, our brains do too.
Brainstore, a really cool idea factory in Switzerland, just wrote a blog post about how they find their participants are more creative after a good nights sleep:
http://blog.brainstore.com/index.php/people-are-more-creative-after-sleep-but-unaware-of-it/
Comment by Katie Konrath — October 10, 2008 #