We all must have gone through a phase in our lives where we feel the need to prioritize certain things in our life when we find ourselves working more than our capacity?

According to the law, normal working hours per day are 9 hours including one hour break for lunch and prayer time. But especially in cases with overtime, the daily working hours can be extended up-to a whopping 12 hours. Imagine how challenging it gets to deal with both your personal and professional life with working hours that almost promise to kill you.

The statistics provided by The International Labour Organization (ILO) tracks a number of labor statistics, including hours worked per week. Countries like Mauritania in Africa tops the list with 54 work week hours. While countries like Australia have the shortest work weeks of 29 working week hours as per reports of 2022 statistics. In contrast, countries with longer workweeks and fewer worker protection tend to have a populace that is overworked and possibly less happy.

That brings up the question what do people prefer to prioritise after long hours after at work.

Imagine a scenario, where a person is working overtime from starting work at 9:00 am in the morning to 7:00 pm or even 8:00 pm in the evening. A life, so filled up with space for only work, that by the time he reaches home he wants to priotrise leisure time and sacrifice his sleep – a term coined bed time procrastination. This is what majority around us find themseleves doing. You need to feel the need to get in touch with your friends, your social circle, play games and just hang out at a coffee shop nearby, or just find yourself scrolling social media.

This all happens at the cost of sacrificing your sleep. The statistics show that adults between the 18 and 64 need seven to nine hours of sleep per night. However, considering the need to be a part of social circle, to feel the need to be connected, to achieve more, many end up with sleep deprivation and in some cases insomnia. If we just talk about our country Pakistan at the moment, an alarming stats show 31.3% respondents reported having insomnia, this figure just reflects those cases which were just reported. Imagine those which are gone unnoticed.

In short term, it doesn’t seem quite a thing. However, in the longer run when a person is not able to cope up with the loss in sleep it has devastating consequences. A major impact on mental health, loss in productivity, the focus and concentration at work goes down the drain and physical health starts deteriorating. This further leaves its impact on both your personal and professional relations.

Many people prefer to prioritize leisure time over sleep after long working days. And, why wouldn’t they? Psychology explain the failure to detach leads to even more stress and burnout then that caused by sleep deprivation especially if you are an extrovert and love hanging out. In conclusion, for some who are zombies, the equation is pretty straightforward. Always a leisure time over sleep. For others, having seven to nine hours of beauty sleep is a must to function actively.

So, what is your preference. Sleep or leisure?