Borrowing from Tomorrow: Why Leaders Need to Reclaim Sleep
- Chinyere Oparah
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
Sleep deprivation has quietly become one of leadership’s most normalized sacrifices. Many leaders find themselves wondering why they can’t sleep after work, or why exhaustion lingers even after a full night’s rest. But what if this leadership burnout and sleep disruption is not a personal failure, but the predictable outcome of systems built on extraction? In this new blog, Chinyere Oparah explores argues that reclaiming rest is both a leadership practice and a form of resistance. She also shares practical ways leaders can begin to restore healthier rhythms of work and sleep in cultures that reward constant availability.
In a culture that celebrates relentless productivity, sleep deprivation has quietly become one of leadership’s most normalized sacrifices. We talk frequently about stress and work-life balance, yet we rarely examine one of the key factors contributing to burnout: the elusive nature of a good night's sleep. For many leaders, particularly those working inside institutions under political and financial pressure, sleep is treated as optional, something we will eventually recover during a long weekend, a vacation, or the mythical moment when things finally slow down.
Yet sleep is not a luxury. It is infrastructure.
Across sectors, leaders routinely function on fewer than six hours of sleep. And many of the leaders I coach are asking questions like these:
Why can’t I fall asleep even when I’m exhausted?
Why does my mind race at night after work?
Is it normal to wake at 3 a.m. thinking about tomorrow’s meetings?
How do I stop thinking about work when I’m trying to sleep?
These leaders describe a familiar cycle. They know they need more rest. They promise themselves they will go to bed earlier. And when they fail to do so, they interpret it as a personal weakness or poor discipline.
But the problem is not simply personal. It is structural.
We lead inside cultures built on extraction and unfettered productivity. Systems that reward constant responsiveness, that quietly valorize sacrifice, and that assume those who care most deeply about their work will give the most of themselves. When communities are under stress, when institutions are navigating crises, and when political pressures intensify, leaders often feel morally compelled to extend themselves further. Sleep becomes negotiable.
Cultural critic Jonathan Crary describes this dynamic vividly, arguing that sleep is one of the last human activities that resists the logic of constant productivity. “Sleep,” he writes, “is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism.” The pressure to remain constantly available and productive is not merely a personal challenge but part of a broader economic and cultural system that treats sleep as a form of inefficiency. Unwittingly justifying that system, leaders develop narratives that make sleep deprivation seem reasonable. We tell ourselves we will catch up on the weekend. We reassure ourselves that vacation will restore us. We promise that the next crisis, the next report, the next campaign will be the last one that requires these late nights.
These stories allow us to stretch the day beyond its natural limits. But what we are actually doing is borrowing from tomorrow. We borrow energy from the next day, when we will wake already depleted. We borrow time, creating the illusion that we have more than twenty-four hours available to us. And we borrow health, trusting that our bodies will somehow absorb the cost.
But eventually our bodies break down. Over time, chronic sleep deprivation is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and impaired immune functioning. In Why We Sleep, sleep scientist Matthew Walker summarizes the research starkly, describing sleep as “the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day.”
Research also shows that sleep is foundational to executive functioning, emotional regulation, and sound decision-making. When we are sleep deprived, our thinking becomes less flexible and our ability to regulate emotions declines. We are more reactive with colleagues and family members, less creative in solving complex problems, and more prone to errors in judgment.
Despite this knowledge, the patterns persist. In my work with leaders, I see several common sleep traps that reflect the pressures of contemporary leadership.
The firefighter executive. Returning home after a long grueling day filled with meetings, crisis management, and constant responsiveness, this leader works late into the evening doing the administrative work that they can never seem to get during the day. Emails are answered late into the evening, often using delay-send to hide their late night work sprints from team members. When they finally get into bed, their nervous system remains activated, brains whirring, replaying conversations and anticipating tomorrow’s demands.
The night owl strategist. During the day, interruptions and competing requests make it difficult to concentrate on work that requires deep thought. Only when the house goes quiet and the flow of messages slows does this leader find the mental clarity to write, plan, and think creatively. Night becomes the only protected space for meaningful intellectual work and strategic thinking.
The nighttime rebel. After a long day of leadership responsibilities followed by domestic labor, caregiving, and household management, many leaders experience a sense of deprivation. They reclaim a small pocket of autonomy through bedtime procrastination, seeking out dopamine-fueling activities, like watching television, scrolling on their phones, or chatting with a loved one. They stay up late into the night because it is the only time that feels like their own.
Each of these patterns reflects a subtle form of resistance to a day that has already been consumed by obligation. Yet each one also quietly steals from tomorrow.
For many women leaders, the burden is intensified by what sociologists have long described as the “second shift.” After demanding workdays, we return home to a parallel set of responsibilities: caregiving, emotional labor, and the invisible management of family life. The result is a familiar combination of exhaustion and guilt, the feeling that we are never doing quite enough for our children, our families, or ourselves.
For leaders of color, the story runs even deeper. Many of us grew up watching our parents work multiple jobs, take overnight shifts, or fall asleep on the sofa from sheer exhaustion. Hard work and sacrifice were survival strategies. Sleep was often a luxury our families could not afford. These histories become embodied expectations that travel with us into leadership. Reclaiming rest, in that context, is not only a personal decision but part of a longer process of intergenerational healing.
Tricia Hersey, the "Nap Bishop", offers a powerful framework for understanding this dynamic. In Rest Is Resistance she reminds us that grind culture depends on exhaustion. Choosing rest becomes an act of refusal, a way of reclaiming our humanity within systems of dominance that would otherwise extract every available ounce of energy. Older knowledge traditions offer a similar wisdom. In Braiding Sweetgrass, botanist and Potawatomi scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer reflects on living within the rhythms of the natural world, reminding us that the health of a system depends on cycles of giving and receiving, activity and restoration. The natural world does not operate on endless productivity. It rests.
These scholars help us to drop self judgment about our inadequate sleep. Sleep deprivation is not a sign of personal failure or irresponsible habits, and does not improve simply because we know we should get more sleep. It is a signal of the failure of the environments in which we are leading to recognize and support our humanity. When the demands of our work stretch beyond the limits of a single day, sleep becomes the place where the body tries to process what the system has not allowed us to do or process. We may be afraid to let go of our need to get just one more thing done before we rest. But reclaiming sleep does not require abandoning our commitments. It requires examining the conditions that make rest feel impossible and making small but meaningful changes that allow our bodies to recover.
Consider experimenting with the following practices:
1. Create a decompression buffer before sleep
Many leaders move directly from work, parenting and emotional caregiving into bed. Giving the nervous system even twenty or thirty minutes to slow down through quiet music, stretching, journaling, or dim lighting, can help signal that the day is ending and the body can move toward rest.
2. Protect boundaries around both work and family demands
Look carefully at the activities that steal restful sleep, from last minute appeals for help with homework to stimulating SLACK messages from a supervisor. Sustainable sleep may require gentle but clear boundaries with colleagues and loved ones: closing the laptop at a set time, turning off notifications, and asking partners or family members to share responsibilities.
3. Design your workday so nighttime isn’t your only focus window
If strategic thinking or complex tasks can only happen late at night, sleep will always lose. Protecting regular blocks of quiet focus time during the workday and having a weekly no-meetings day can reduce the pressure to use nighttime hours for concentrated work.
4. Reduce evening stimulation
Phones, laptops, caffeine, and the constant flow of information can keep the nervous system activated long after the workday ends. Experiment with creating technological boundaries in the evening so that your mind has space to settle and your body can reclaim natural circadian rhythms.
5. Approach sleep with curiosity rather than pressure
For people who have struggled with sleep for years, anxiety about getting enough rest can itself become activating. Instead of imposing rigid rules, experiment with noticing patterns, listening to your body, giving yourself permission and allowing rhythms of rest to emerge gradually.
Reclaiming sleep requires something deeper than techniques and tips. It requires the belief that we deserve rest.
In leadership cultures that glorify sacrifice, this belief can feel radical. Yet the connection between sleep and effective leadership is irrefutable. Well-rested leaders think more clearly. They respond rather than react. They bring patience, empathy, and creativity to their work. They are able to sustain the work over the long term.
Sleep, in other words, is not an indulgence. It is an essential resource in the toolkit of transformative leadership.
As we move through this season of daylight saving time and shifting rhythms, consider this a gentle invitation. Notice how much sleep you are getting. Notice the stories you tell yourself about why you cannot rest. Notice where your body and heart are yearning for something different. You deserve rest.
And the work we care about–our collective efforts to build a more just and humane future–will be stronger when the people leading it are rested enough to imagine what is possible.
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Chinyere Oparah is an executive coach, strategist and educator. She has served in senior leadership roles in the nonprofit and higher education sectors, including dean, provost and vice president for academic affairs for over three decades and is the founder and CEO of the Center for Liberated Leadership. Sign up for a free leadership consultation with her here.
If you are navigating leadership in a demanding institutional environment and want support reclaiming sustainable rhythms of work and rest, I’d welcome a conversation. You can learn more about coaching through the Center for Liberated Leadership's website or schedule a brief exploratory call.
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About the Center for Liberated Leadership
The Center for Liberated Leadership connects and supports BIPOC, women, LGBTQ and transformational leaders so that they can lead with authenticity, purpose and joy. The Center's executive coaches help leaders navigate uncertain contexts and relentless workloads, beat burnout and maintain sustainable work practices.
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