Did you get enough sleep last night? If you're a typical American worker, the odds are you didn't. Our culture tends to promote sleep deprivation as a badge of honor. The heroic act of burning the midnight oil makes us really, truly productive... or does it?

I recently read the book Rework, which questions our culture’s devaluation of sleep. The book challenges several conventional ideas about being productive, but the parts on sleep hit close to home for me.

The authors point out that we're less creative when we're tired. This causes several problems. We often just slog through mundane tasks if we're bushed. Also, we fail to have insights or epiphanies as we perform our tasks. The most productive workers aren't 10 times as fast as everyone else. They don't work 10 times as long. Often they're the ones that come up with creative solutions that take 1/10th the time.

Overall I found Rework fairly entertaining. It’s a quick read and full of tips about staying innovative, productive, and awake at work.