[dropcap]E[/dropcap]very day you wake up and think to yourself, "that…was… not enough sleep [imagine screaming]!"

Sleeps importance is neglected by most of us and deprivation has plagued millions of business professionals just like yourself.

You feel tired when you wake up and the day seems to drag on. You have no self-control over the power of grease and sugar you consume.

You think it's because you're busy, but is it really that?

Or could it be this all too familiar scenario?

Every night you finish the day by watching TV and by enjoying your favorite snack…ice cream. This is the time you feel relaxed and can finally rest.

For this moment, there's no care in the world…

You finally get to chill out.

You flip through the channels as happy as can be. 11:30pm comes fast and you remember that you have to get up at 5:30am to start preparing for your meeting in the morning.

You shut off the TV, brush your teeth (I hope) and lay down in bed. Your mind begins to race and you begin to think about the morning meeting and what you have to get done.

You toss and turn and 1:00am arrives. Finally, you doze off but never to reach a deep sleep because you forgot to turn the TV off and the light disturbed you all night.

Sound familiar?

This may not be exactly you but in some form it is. The importance of sleep is so clear but you continue to achieve less than enough [Tweet This].

Negative effects

Not enough sleep can be disastrous to our health and the ability to be great. Great lovers, great friends, great professionals, great everything!

According to Tony Schwartz of the HBR Blog Network, sleep is more important than food.

After 7 days of fasting, you'll have lost weight, may be grumpy and sure as hell hungry, but then what? You are fine!

Now if you went 3 days without sleeping, you'd be unable to function and cognitively impaired. This is why it's used as a form of torture. So why do 30 million people torture themselves?

Sleep deprivation is a nasty habit by most business professionals and you're the one that pays for it. Not enough sleep lowers your ability to deal with stress. All the small things become large and all the large things become life or death situations. Being able to manage stress is a MAJOR factor in controlling your life and your business.

Poor sleeping habits can also lead to impaired memory and concentration. Sleep strengthens our neural connections that form our memories. Nothing like an employee or colleague talking to you about an important issue and it goes in one ear and out the other.

But if you thought it couldn't get any worse, research has raised the question that chronic sleep deprivation may be the cause for increasing obesity rates.

Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates appetite while leptin suppresses it. In a fully functioning brain these two hormones turn on and off, regulating your "normal" feeling of hunger. But  with inadequate sleep these two hormones are effected and the less sleep you get the more the hormone ghrelin is activated.

Why Sleep is important

If you want a happier, fitter, smarter and healthier version of you then sleep MUST be a critical ingredient in your life recipe.

The importance of sleep is summed up by its ability to help fight cancer. Sleep deprivation affects immune function, including your body's killer cells. You're no good to your business at home sick, or in the hospital.

As a business professional sleep may seem hard to achieve but that's an excuse. If you truly want to level up your game, to have more energy and to be happier then sleep is an important part to those goals.

Grasp the importance of sleep and get to bed.

P.S. Would you like to know how to get better sleep. Click here.

How do you feel when you don't get enough sleep? Comment below.