You can improve your
life dramatically in multiple areas with nearly instantaneous results by change
just one thing. I'm talking about enhancing your energy level, boosting your
fat-burning metabolic rate, supercharging mental creativity, extending patience
with others, broadening your sense of humor, making it easier to be more
spiritually holy--even increasing your memory capacity.
One change can
literally do all that--and a bit more. I'm completely serious.
All of these
elements of your life depend on the quality and quantity of your sleep. Change
how you handle that part of your day and you will instantaneously change your
life.
Certainly, there's
more to being creative or being patient with others, for example, than just
sleep. But your sleep does set a ceiling for all these areas. Think about it.
When you are
thoroughly exhausted, it's very hard to do life well. But it goes beyond that.
Many, many of us have forgotten what being truly rested feels like. The vast
majority of us have trained ourselves to expect a life lived with less sleep
than we actually required. In fact, it only takes about 2-3 weeks of consistent
living to cause your brain to settle on a new "normal". It will then
stop complaining about the sleep it's missing. That doesn't mean it doesn't
need that sleep. It just learns to stop complaining about it--to stop sending
the signals that demand more sleep or else.
(Our brains are
phenomenally adaptive. We underestimate this capacity in so many ways--but
that's a whole other post or two.)
Scientists have done
many sleep studies that put volunteers in a room without windows, clocks,
watches, etc. They are provided with entertainments, food, etc--just nothing
that let's them know what time it is. The idea is to see how people sleep when
the only boundaries come from their body. Among the many things learned, every
single participant says at the end, "I had no idea what it was like to
truly feel rested! I haven't felt this good in a very long time."
How much of life are
you missing out on? How long has is been since you fully and deeply slept? When
did you train your body to stop complaining and tough it out?
WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP--QUICK OPTIONS
Buy a better bed. Seriously.
You spend more time on your bed than anywhere else in your life. It doesn't
seem that way since you're mostly unconscious while you're there. But it's the
most used and most important furniture or appliance item in your house. As one
of my mentors says, "Buy the most expensive bed your conscience will allow
you to buy." It's worth it.
By the way, there
are some really great ways to avoid paying full price on name brand beds, but
still upgrading your sleep dramatically. For example, you could put a memory
foam bed topper on your normal mattress instead of buying a new memory foam bed
($170 instead of $1,500).
Sleep more. Many people talk
about 8 hours of sleep as ideal. But sleep studies show that the ideal length
of sleep for 95% of people is just over 9 hours of sleep. Oh, and studies also
reveal that sleep loss is cumulative. So if you miss a few hours here and there,
you can literally catch up by sleeping a few hours longer on the weekend.
Of course, if you
wait too long--2 to 3 weeks for most people--your brain gives up trying to
recover and creates a new normal. For some of you, it may take you 2-3 weeks to
retrain your brain to get used to sleeping properly. That was also in all the
sleep studies--everyone goes through a readjustment period where they slowly
learn to sleep a full night again.
Studies of school
children showed that for every 15 min of extra sleep, on average, those
students earned a grade letter higher. Some high schools in America have are
now starting an hour later (expressly to give their kids more sleep) and have
seen overall grades jump . Even thirty minutes more sleep will make a
difference in your life.
But I don't have
time to sleep more! I've got too much to do! (Sound familiar?) However, if
you're more rested, you'll not only enjoy your life more, but you'll get more
done faster. If your life and job require thinking at all, you'll be more
productive. Trust me, I've tried this and it works.
WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP--MORE DIFFICULT OPTIONS,
BUT VERY WORTH IT
Live Within Your Natural Sleep
Cycle. Sleep studies have shown that there are three basic sleep
patterns and that they we are all wired with one, much like a personality type:
the morning people, the mid-day people, and the night people. Sleeping at the
time of day your body prefers will give you higher quality sleep.
Which type are you?
Well, you can force yourself to live in any pattern you want. Your job or
family life might push you into a particular pattern. But think about what
you're like on vacation--when the restrictions are removed. Think about how you
sleep when you are fully rested.
Morning people wake
up, their brain at full speed, around 5-6am. (Again, think about when you're
rested, if you're sleep deprived then it doesn't matter what your natural cycle
is, you'll wake up tired.) Their brain is on fire until about 11am, then they
are ready for bed around 8-9pm.
Mid-day people, when
rested and without any external pressure, like to wake up around 7-8am. Their
brain is juiced until about 12-1pm, and they want to go to bed around 10-11pm.
Night people like to
wake up around 10-11am. Their brain hits it's daily top speeds around 9pm-1am
and they want to go to sleep around 2-3am.
This one is more
challenging. You can't always tell your boss or your two year old, "I'm
sorry, my natural sleep cycle means I don't have to wake up right now."
But any movement you can make to align with your natural cycle will have a big
impact with the quality of your sleep--even if you get the same amount of
sleep.
Oh, and about 10% of
people are morning people, 70% of people are mid-day people, and 20% are
night owls.
Take Afternoon Naps. 95% of
us need an afternoon nap around 3:00-3:30pm. (The Spanish and Italians
afternoon siestas are totally right.) We just train ourselves to ignore that
natural lull and push through it. NASA requires its astronauts to take naps
when on mission. They did a study that showed a 26 min afternoon nap improved
performance--mental and physical--over 30%. Winston Churchill and Woodrow
Wilson both took afternoon naps. (Churchill napped on huge leather couch in his
office and Wilson, when he was President of the US, had a nap room next to the
oval office and actually changed into full pajamas every afternoon!)
It's hard to find
the time for this--I can't do this regularly. But when I have had the chance, I
can always feel a huge mental boost. I have even reserved a conference room at
work, gone in there and turned the lights off. Then I've laid on the floor for
20 minutes and set my phone's alarm. Or I've gone to my car and turned on the
A/C--again with a timer for 20 minutes.
Get Your Sleep Analyzed.
There are multiple ways to evaluate your sleep patterns. You can discuss your
sleep with your doctor. There are clinics that you go spend the night in and
get evaluated while you sleep. And there are devices you can wear at home when
you sleep, including the Zeo headband that talks to your smart phone http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/ (prices
start as low as $99 for the equipment).
If you are still
thoroughly exhausted after sleeping what should be enough, don't ignore what
could be a real medical issue. I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what
symptoms to look for. But I can tell you that in college, one of my roommates
discovered he had sleep apnea. It's a condition where you wake back up almost
as soon as you fall asleep, dipping in and out of light sleep. You're sleeping,
but never deeply. It's a life-crushing condition. Weight gain, mental
exhaustion, emotional stress...so much of our lives depend on good sleep.
I had lunch with a
friend just a couple of weeks ago and he told me that he'd discovered only
recently that he had sleep apnea as well. When he got diagnosed and treated
(you can treat it and get real sleep again), his wife said it was like getting
her husband back.
Want to change your
life overnight? Get more and better
sleep. I know of very little else that can have such a powerful impact on so
many things. Don't overlook this crucial aspect of your life. How much of life are you missing out on? What kind of energy and weight loss and relationships are you leaving on the table, so to speak, all because you've trained yourself to expect less sleep than you actually need?
