Sleep: You Need More

Hey, you. Yeah, you, the one reading this post instead of working.

You need sleep. Seven to eight hours. Really. More than exercise. More than your weekly review. More than World of Warcraft.

How many times have you read an article in some magazine about a Tony Robbins-obsessed CEO who claims to get up at 4 AM seven days a week so that they can hit the treadmill before their 8 am morning staff meeting?

Notice how it’s those same CEOs who embezzle the company’s retirement fund and flee to a remote tropical island?

In this country, sleep deprivation is synonymous with power and success. Winners don’t need sleep, right? Edison claimed to sleep 4 hours a night. He was also wildly unethical and electrocuted an elephant. Draw your own conclusions.

Real Men Eat Quiche, But They Don’t Sleep Past Six

It’s a machismo thing, people. We boast about lack of sleep as if that means we work harder or better than our sleep-happy peers. But there’s a big difference between getting away with less sleep and actually flourishing that way. Your body builds up a sleep deficit if you don’t give it what it needs. There’s a reason sleep deprivation is one of the nastiest forms of torture around.

Sleep does a whole host of things for you, including:

• Helping memory and learning.
• Strengthening willpower.
• Stabilizing your body weight.
• Increasing energy and stamina throughout the day.
• Keeping you from dying.

The only resolution I made for 2008 was to get more sleep, and only a few weeks into the year I’m already incredibly glad I made that decision.

Whether I’m working or watching TV or playing video games, when 11 pm rolls around, I quickly get myself ready for bed and hit the hay. At 7 am, I get up. Last year, I’d often be up until 1 am or later, finishing work on a podcast or just fiddling around on the Web. And I’d climb out of bed at 6 am or earlier to hit the gym or get a head start at the office.

What’s changed thanks to additional sleep? I’m just as productive, or unproductive, as I was before, and I feel so much better! No, really.

I have a cup of coffee in the morning and one with lunch, so instead of zigzagging between so-caffeinated-I-can’t-think-straight and nodding off, I stay on a fairly even keel throughout the day.

Sleep’s a beautiful thing, and a very productive way to spend your time.

Make Sleep Your Number One Priority

If adequate sleep isn’t #1 on your list, there’ll always be a project or diversion that deserves “just another twenty minutes.” Make it your prime directive and you’ll thank yourself every morning when climbing out of bed becomes a (more) pleasant experience, and every evening as you make it through the day with your sanity and composure intact.

You’ll find tasks easier to start, good habits easier to keep, and you’ll have to spend a lot less time fussing with your productivity system because your body won’t be resisting that trip to the gym or that weekly review.

Photo by jpockele