MTI Newsletter
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MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL
Organisational and Personnel Development
Burnout prevention by sleep competence
What does burnout have to do with sleep?
Most or even all people who are suffering from
stress complain about a lack of sleep or not be-
ing able to sleep through the night.
During daytime they also tend to
resume this vicious cycle by try-
ing to compensate the additional
stress by using nicotine, alcohol,
pills or other light narcotics. Try-
ing to keep up their level of per-
formance this way will always
fail as it completely ignores the
need for sleep. We are quick to
use the term “I am stressed” and
speaking of burnout is the logi-
cal next step. How do stress and
burnout really relate to each
other and how can stress, a fac-
tor that ultimately leads to burn-
out, be reduced is still unclear.
Knowing the causes for your
own stress perception can bring
the chain of cause and effect to
a halt right at the beginning.
How stress develops…
Let us be clear on something:
stress is not “bad“ per se. From
the evolutionary perspective, for
instance, it leverages the per-
formance of our organism in
dangerous situations. You might
know this positive so-called
“eustress“ that will help us
achieve a greater level of per-
formance and the so-called “dis-
tress“ which we perceive as
threatening. This categorisation
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL • Dohrmanns Horst 19 • D-27374 Visselhövede
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shows that our judgment of the
situation that we feel stressed in
is crucial to how we perceive
stress. Two points play a deci-
sive role in that decision: 1. Do
we perceive the situation as be-
ing dangerous or not? 2. Will we
be able to handle the situation
or not? If both questions are an-
swered by the individual nega-
tively, the stress is perceived as
a burden – as distress. We see
stress is a reaction to this
judgement of a specific situa-
tion. The trigger for stress are
so-called “stressors“. This trig-
ger stimulus affects us in differ-
ent ways. It affects various lay-
ers of the individual: the intellec-
tual, social, emotional or physi-
cal dimension can all be af-
fected by stressors. Stress on all
these levels will lead to exhaus-
tion which is commonly termed
burnout.
Twelve steps to burnout
The path to this state of total
exhaustion is multi-dimensional.
The following steps do not nec-
essarily appear in this order for
each individual. Some of the
symptoms might not be ob-
served at all.
Björn Rühl
Junior Consultant
International
Markus Kamps
1. Präventologe
Consultant MTI
International
1. Pressure to prove oneself…
Heavy workload with a high
level of enthusiasm and overes-
timation of own capabilities plus
neglecting own needs.
2. Intensified dedication…
Higher level of expectation of
own performance and the feel-
ing to be indispensable; delega-
tion of tasks is reduced.
3. Neglecting own needs…
Work being carried out compul-
sively plus a higher consumption
of nicotine, alcohol and coffee;
the longing for sleep, relaxation,
calm or sex is being neglected.
4. Phase of repression…
In order to keep up the perform-
ance, potential physical and
mental needs are being re-
pressed. This leads to an ex-
ceeding number of performance
errors (also a result of lacking
relaxation time and sleep) which
in turn lead to more work. For-
getfulness, tardiness, etc. in-
crease as well.
5. Phase of re-interpretation…
Basic norms and life perspec-
tives are not valid any more. “I
twist it as I need it.” Friendships
and relationships are becoming
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Current projects of
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL
Organisational and Personnel Development
a burden. The general and the
emotional perception becomes
numb which results in an in-
creasing number of problems in
partnerships.
6. Increased denial phase…
Problems created in the previ-
ous phases of neglect, repres-
sion, re-interpretation are being
emphasised by a lack of interest
or acknowledgement of the
problems in the own environ-
ment. By this the work motiva-
tion lowers decline and simulta-
neously the work pressure rises
due to the performance losses
and physical discomforts push-
ing through.
7. Retreat phase…
Lack of orientation and the feel-
ing of impotence spreads.
Search for acknowledgment. At-
tempts to relief tension by short-
termed satisfaction through
nicotine, alcohol, narcotics, food
and sex. The social environment
is perceived as threatening and
as a burden.
8. The visible changes in be
haviour…
Inflexible thinking and new be-
haviour without any trace of re-
producibility alongside with an
egocentric sensiblity / feeling of
being offended are clear signs
of this phase.
9. Loss of personality…
The overall situation appears to
many as a separation of body
and soul accompanied by the
sense of dead loss of important
things. Many ask themselves in
this phase, if they are human or
machine.
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL • Dohrmanns Horst 19 • D-27374 Visselhövede
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10. The emptiness within…
Loss of orientation gets pro-
founder. Without any courage
and being exhausted the every-
day life is dealt with somehow.
The feeling of oppression deep-
ens and leads into fear. Panic
attacs spread. Trial of overcom-
ing theses problems by exces-
sive consumption of nicotine, al-
cohol, drugs, food and sex.
11. The depression phase…
Continueous despair and de-
pressiveness spread as a pro-
found depression. At this point
suicidal tendencies occure.
12. The burn out-exhaustion
phase…
The overall situation leads to a
lasting intellectual, physical and
emotional dumpness / tiredness.
Danger of gastrointestinal disor-
ders, heart attack and specific
illnesses is extremely high. The
burn out break down goes
alongside with one of these fac-
tors or a suicide attempt.
First symptoms and measures
to be taken
If employees show first symp-
toms of a burn out-syndrome or
seek a conversation typical sig-
nal words or phrases show burn
out illnesses. Examples:
ƒ „When the children leave the
house finally, I can…“, „…
the order is completed,
than… .“, „If a miracle
doesn´t occure, ….“
ƒ „Why always me? …does
everything go wrong? …is
nobody helping me?”
ƒ Accelerators in the working
environment: acting helpless;
„What in detail should I do?“
ƒ Hopelessness, sense of work
gets doubted: „What for am I
doing all this?“
ƒ Disappointment: „Nobody
shows respect for what I am
doing!“
Like described before, the sense
of stress is a key factor for de-
veloping burn out syndromes. It
is crucial to the analysis on
which layer stress acts nega-
tively. Bear in mind that there
were four categories. The ef-
fected area gives a clue to the
respective stressors. If stressors
are detected on the intellectual
area instruments like thought
controll can be a mean to over-
come the pain of stress:
The instrument is based on re-
cording situations and the corre-
lating intellectual reactions and
following behaviours. Positive
reactions leading to solutions
are recorded on the left side of
the list. The negative ones are
enlisted on the right. The next
step is to think of how to reduce,
avoid (e.g. delegation) or dimin-
ish situations and the corre-
sponding negative reactions.
These avoiding strategies
should be followed in future
situations. By this negative
stress and finally stress evoking
situations are minimised. Simul-
taneously positive intellectual
reactions should be repeated as
often as possible. This thought
control of course needs training
and disciplined usage to create
a solution.
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Current projects of
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL
Organisational and Personnel Development
How to use sleep and relaxa-
tion against burn out
There is also the chance of not
letting it happen by utilising pre-
ventive measures:
The individual sleep compe-
tence and designing the daily
work with breaks are two ele-
mentary means of prevention. In
a research project conducted by
scientists of the National Insti-
tute of Mental Health and their
colleagues of Harvard University
proved the correlation between
breaks – like power naps – and
an improved concentration. Fur-
thermore the combination with
an active reduction of the infor-
mational overflow the risk of a
burn out-syndrome can be
minimised.
(see details at: http://sciencev1.
orf.at/science/news/54505)
Sara Mednick, Robert Stickgold
and colleagues proved the ex-
tension of burn out-symptoms
synchronous to the mental strain
of individuals. A time delimiting
and a partition of this load is
mandatory to reach phases of
relaxation improving concentra-
tion and performance.
To keep our performance, we
can react with a strengthened
stress and sleep competence.
This does apply even more if the
part of intellectual work in the
job profile rises. To adapt the
way of working accordingly is
not only an individual duty but
also mandatory for the corporate
health management.
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL • Dohrmanns Horst 19 • D-27374 Visselhövede
Phone: +49 (0) 42 62 / 93 12 - 0 • Fax: +49 (0) 42 62 / 38 12
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Trends
The German state did pay atten-
tion to this necessity by
strengthening corporate health
improvement. In the annual tax
law of 2009 in § 3 no. 34 EStG a
new regulation was integrated.
According to this paragraph
there is tax exception of € 500,-
for measures of the employer
benefitting corporate health im-
provement. (The measures have
to adapt to §§20 and 20a SGB V
concerning quality, means and
goals.)
The following economic data
and trends show the urgency of
improving the health measure-
ments in the corporate and pri-
vate sectors.
ƒ Currently 200 billion US-
Dollars are caused by sick-
nesses effected by burn out-
syndromes. Beware that this
figure only relates to sick-
nesses discovered in doc-
tor’s sugeries. The number of
sicknesses not discovered
will be much higher in fact.
ƒ In UK the payments for so-
cial illnesses sum up to 10%
of the gross domestic prod-
uct.
ƒ In Germany this spenditure is
between 30 to 40 billion Eu-
ros.
ƒ The WHO predicts that in
2020 the second most illness
will be social or physical burn
out.
There is need for action not only
in private but also on corporate
level.
And bear in mind: The less time
you have, the more time you
should take for relaxation and
sleep to keep your level of per-
formance.
MTI