We’ve all felt what it’s like to go to work after a night of terrible sleep. It’s not ideal. Last year, one CEO decided to tackle this issue head-on in a rather unconventional way. While appearing on the 20VC podcast, Matan Grinberg, who left a PhD program in theoretical physics to found Factory, an AI startup, shared that he gave each of his 30 employees at the time a $3,000 Eight Sleep mattress cover, which can cool or heat to the ideal temperature an individual needs for quality sleep.  On a purely biological level, this decision is pretty common sense. Sleep directly powers the brain’s capacity for logic, focus, decision-making, and impulse control. Without adequate rest, this area struggles, leading to impaired risk assessment, making choices on autopilot, and a reduced ability to learn from negative consequences. None of this makes for great productivity or deep thought. And for a tech startup especially, these elements are vital. Therefore, for Grinberg, it’s a necessary investment.  “It is worth every dollar to make [employees] more productive and to deliver on these ambitious goals that we have,” he said. Grinberg predicted that future successful companies will “treat teams like professional athletes.” View this post on Instagram While Grinberg joked that the mattresses were an example of “the decadence of startups,” they really point toward a possible shift in workplace attitudes that isn’t necessarily decadent at all, though it is unorthodox. Just as athletes require their bodies to recover as efficiently as possible through diet, massages, ice baths, etc., so too will employees have benefits that allow for optimal intellectual recovery. In an interview with Business Insider, Grinberg said he also opts for snacks that have a heftier price tag but encourage focus, like protein chips and canned matcha. This is slightly more intentional than the days of Google’s beginnings, when employees received lavish yet unrelated-to-output perks like bounce castles (yes, that was a real thing), Grinberg explained. View this post on Instagram This “treating your team like athletes” mentality goes hand in hand with the general reexamination of “hustle culture.” More and more people are redefining productivity not in terms of how many working hours were spent, but in terms of how much output was actually accomplished. Lo and behold, it’s often been the very things we were once told make us productive—standardized workweeks, coming into an office, and not prioritizing an employee’s physical well-being—that negatively impact this output for many, if not most, of us. And while it’s awesome that visionary startup leaders like Grinberg see the need for these types of innovations, one can’t help but wonder how this could manifest for frontline and service workers as well. Sure, the idea of company-provided sleep technology may feel out of reach for many industries, but the underlying principle is far more universal. Whether someone writes code, stocks shelves, serves tables, or works a hospital shift, people tend to perform better when their physical and mental well-being is supported. If more employers begin viewing recovery as an investment rather than an expense, the benefits could extend far beyond the startup world. Watch the full episode below: The post Physicist-turned-tech CEO bought his 30 employees a $3,000 cooling mattress cover to boost productivity appeared first on Upworthy.