David on the 37 signal blog has a nice little post about the effects of sleep deprivation on productivity, morale and creativity. I completely agree with his sentiments.

In the crunch period of Art Space Tokyo production, Ashley had actually moved into my room and we were working 15 hour days. Since I knew the crunch period was going to last several weeks, I made sure, like some sort of goofy father figure, that we would sleep at least 8 hours a night. This meant our sleep schedule was 4am 'till noon, but it worked, and we were able to maintain close to peek productivity the entire time.

Had we forgone a few hours of sleep each night would we have gotten the book done quicker? I don't think so. As it was, we were close to our threshold for extended periods of focus and if anything, I think cutting out a couple hours a night would have hurt the end result, not pushed it along more quickly.

Sometimes you have to pull an all nighter though. I've found that nothing helps one recover from sleep deprivation like having a healthy, strong, balanced body. The past year or so I've increased the amount of regular exercise I do, significantly decreased alcohol intake and try to eat reasonably healthy. I find that I can pull a 36 hour work period without feeling too worn down. Whereas, 3 or 4 years ago, that would have killed me.

Some people swear by napping — I used to nap all the time. But give me eight hours of sleep a night and I can keep going all day.

That is all.