Get Some Sleep!
Habits That Will Change Your Life
“Your future depends on your dreams, so go to sleep!” — Mesut Barazany
This is the first article in a series titled Habits That Will Change Your Life. As the title suggests, these articles are intended to introduce life changing habits into your daily, weekly, or monthly routine.
Starting with habit #1: Get Some Sleep!
With the rise of the influencer the internet has dragged us into a world of conspiracy and mistruths; Life coaches, entrepreneurs, celebrities, fitness influencers & Instagram ‘psychologists,’ all claiming to hold the secret formula to success — a formula that often fills their bank accounts with 6 to 7 figures!
This article plans to address one of the more popular mistruths around success. The ridiculous idea that successful entrepreneurs have to sacrifice sleep in order to hustle their way to success. This idea has been popularised by business influencers and entrepreneurs like Gary Vee.
Just to be clear, Gary is an incredible role model, what he is doing for millennials in particular is powerful. I have no doubt that he has an overwhelmingly positive influence on his audience — myself included — but promoting a reduction of sleep in favour of hustling is definitely not a tip to take on board.
This series is designed to be simple to read, easy to understand, and should give you the tips needed to make your own informed decision. I am not a Doctor or a Psychologist, as such I don’t advice you to simply take my word as gospel.
Decide whether sleep is a habit you want to implement in your life, then seek out advice from relevant professionals — especially when it comes to nutrition & fasting.
Why Sleep Is A Life Changing Habit
I think it is safe to presume that we all need sleep! But apart from the obvious effects of sleep deprivation (drowsiness, feeling grumpy or lack of concentration to name a few) why is quality sleep such a life changing habit?
- You will have a much higher chance of staying fit, lean & healthy, all of which contributes to a longer more active life. Lack of sleep is linked to higher body weight & prolonged sleep deprivation is a big contributor to obesity (ref 1, ref 2).
Good sleepers also tend to eat less and less often, resulting in a more natural appetite & less temptation to snack on junk food (ref 3). - Making sleep a priority will also result in higher levels of productivity & concentration (ref 4). Instead of spending 8 sleep deprived hours trying to complete a task, why not sleep 8 hours & finish the task in an hour?
- Depriving yourself of sleep could result in an early death (ref 5)! Literally sounds like the definition of a “Life Changing Habit!”
- Prioritising sleep will improve your immune system (ref 6), this means less days spent in a hazy cold induced state & less chance of being bed ridden by the flu.
- Having a quality sleep may mean the difference between finding the love of your life at a cafe or offending them with a cheesy sleep deprived offensive pick up line. Yes! Sleep effects the way we socialise (ref 7) & likely influences the kind of people you attract into your life.
Sleep deprived people are less likely to interpret emotions correctly, struggle to communicate empathetically, and tend to complain a lot!
Doesn’t sound like the kind of person I want to hang out with… How about you?
Tips to Help You Sleep Better
These are some of the tricks that have worked for me, some of which require no medical advice. However, some of these tips I definitely recommend you seek professional advice for before leaping in head first. As the old saying goes, “If I told you to jump off a bridge without knowing what lies below, would you do it?” I really hope your answer was no…
- Turn your phone off 2 hours before you plan to sleep.
- Leave your phone outside the bedroom.
- Read a book or go for a walk, this will help calm your mind.
- Eliminate blue light from your bedroom! Use tungsten lighting instead.
- Have a warm shower, or better yet a bath, one hour before you plan to sleep.
- Cool down your room. Humans tend to sleep better at colder temperatures, experts tend to recommend temperatures between 16–20°C or 60–68°F (ref 8).
- Look into intermittent fasting — this you should talk to your doctor & a nutritionist about. I only eat during a 10 hour period & eat my last meal 4 hours before I plan to sleep. More info here: ref 9
- Journalling & Gratitude! These are easy and require no further advice. Journalling can be whatever you want it to be: An honest conversation with yourself about the day you just had; the challenges you faced; the lessons you learnt, or it could just be a way to unwind the anxiety that lies coiled up in your mind.
Listing out what you were grateful for helps to put your mind in a more positive state — not sure about you but I definitely sleep better when I don’t feeling angry, frustrated or sad.
There are countless different ways to improve your sleep, including regular exercise. If insomnia & sleep deprivation are a problem for you seek out help immediately! Having a good night of sleep might literally save your life!
Examples of Successful People Who Prioritised Sleep
I wanted to leave you with a few examples of successful people who have made sleep a priority so you don’t just rely on my word.
- Arianna Huffington: Founder of The Huffington Post, founder & CEO of Thrive Global, and author of 15 books.
- Jennifer Lopez: Don’t be fooled by the rocks that she’s got, she’s still sleeping on her bed!
- Jeff Bezos: Yes the richest person on earth aims to sleep at least 8 hours a night!
- Ellen Degeneres: Talk show host, actor, and of course the voice behind Finding Nemo’s most loveable character — Dory.
- The Dalai Lama: You don’t find peace without sleep!
- Bill Gates: Before conspiracy theorists decided to label Bill Gates the most evil man on earth (not my belief) he was clocking 8 hours sleep a night… still is.
The message is simple: Get Some Sleep!
Next week in the series we explore the life changing power of regular exercise!
Much Love,
Jacques Massie
