Pillow Talk: The Power of Sleep
There is one simple change that every single person reading this can instigate to make life so much better. Instantly.
It doesn’t cost anything. No extra effort is required. There is no need for equipment or special clothes. In fact, it’s one of life’s biggest and most underrated pleasures - sleep.
That’s it.
If you are someone who struggles with getting enough sleep, you are probably rolling your eyes at this suggestion - eyes with very heavy bags under them that you are struggling to keep open. But keep reading.
Here’s the deal.
Sleep is the single most important fuel for our brains to perform at their best. Sleep allows those grey cells to recharge, process information, and stabilize stress hormones like cortisol. It is absolutely essential and yet so many of us do not get enough sleep.
Don’t have enough time to get more sleep? I assure you that is not the case. When you are getting enough sleep, you are much more productive and efficient. That extra hour of shut-eye could save you two or more the next day due to being refreshed and ready. Writing that brief when you are sleep-deprived could take three times as long.
5 Tips for Successful Sleep
Quality sleep requires a schedule. Put your wake-up time and bedtime in your calendar. If you can, you can use your devices to set up a schedule based on how much sleep you would like to get per night - at least seven hours.
Set up alarms on your devices for bedtime and manually put them to “do not disturb.” This feature allows you to program it so that your device will ring if the call is initiated by a certain number or by a number of rings in short succession. Let your family and friends know about this feature so emergencies can still get through. Do not let your brain make excuses so you can keep the status quo.
Add wind-down time to your calendar of at least thirty minutes. The act of putting something in your calendar makes it concrete. It’s an appointment for yourself. Wind-down time is when you put away all of your devices, including turning off your television. This allows your body to initiate its normal sleep procedures. Wind-down time can be used to meditate or read.
Reduce coffee and alcohol intake to help sleep. While alcohol can act as a sedative allowing us to initially feel relaxed, it actually interferes with our sleep cycles.
Physical exercise can have an immediate positive impact on your sleep. Just 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise can be extremely beneficial to improving your quality of sleep. Make sure you finish your exercise an hour or more before bedtime so you are not pumped full of endorphins when it’s time to go to bed.
This sounds like an overly simplistic tip, but the truth is that it is foundational. Sleep is the first and single most important factor in improving your health and well-being. Please do not underestimate it. It’s easy for us to put ourselves last and cutting into our sleep is one way we do that. Sleep is so much more important than all the spa days in the world. It is real, nourishing self-care.
I heard this quote and it really resonated with me - “don’t stay up late for something you wouldn’t wake up early for.”
Make that philosophy a core part of your life and put sleep front and center.
