You’ve slept in your office chair.

You might be an entrepreneur if…you’ve slept in your office chair, or possibly a lobby chair (they’re generally more comfortable) overnight.

As an entrepreneur you become an expert on what is the most comfortable object or surface to fall asleep on, other than a bed.

A concrete floor with 1/4 inch of office-grade carpet is not terribly comfortable, but it’s a lot more comfortable than a bare wood floor, and you’d be surprised how much softer wood is than bare concrete.

The problem I’ve run into with floors is that if you sleep on your back it seems to push your shoulder blades into a position that leaves your shoulders all stiff when you wake up. However, the nice thing about sleeping on the floor is that you are flat and can distribute your weight across more parts of your body. Luckily during the times I slept on the floor of my office (which I haven’t done in a long time, thank goodness), my body was fairly well-padded. But if you turn on your side even a well-padded person can end up with their hip bone right on the hard floor, and although your arm can work as an effective pillow it’s still not that comfortable.

And so sometimes just falling asleep in your chair in front of the computer seems like a better option. I’ve used Herman Miller Aerons for years and I swear by them. No other chair I’ve experienced treats my body better for work purposes. However, they are flawed when it comes to sleeping in them because they don’t provide good head support. The frame of an Aeron is metal, and resting your head on the back of an Aeron ends up putting a hard point of pressure on the back of your neck that is not conducive to peaceful slumber. There is almost no way to sleep comfortably in an Aeron, I’ve found. They should sell some sort of attachment that hooks onto the back of the chair and creates a sort of pillow, because it could be a great chair for repose with some simple modifications.

We haven’t had a lobby sofa for years, so that has never been an option, although I daresay that would probably be the ideal, short of bringing an actual bed or cot into the office. But a few years ago we bought some lobby chairs that turned out to be pretty nice. They were large, black leather, and soft. I spent a few nights in those chairs and those were probably the most comfortable nights I spent sleeping at the office. But if you’re serious about sleeping at work, I’d recommend buying an extra large sofa for your lobby, a cot, or an air mattress.

But after years of sleeping at the office on a fairly regular basis I decided that working late and sleeping at the office is overrated. Now, instead of working 80-hour weeks I work 30-40 hours per week. Instead of sleeping at the office by myself from 2 am to 5 am I sleep at home in a big bed with my wife from 9 pm to 5 am. And the funny thing is I make more money now than I did then. So if I can make a recommendation to you hard-working entrepreneurs out there it would be to work less and earn more. Trust me on this one.