How to Have 36 Hours in a Day: Part 4 Sleep
Throughout the years, I have been discovering how sleep affects my day-to-day life.
When I was younger, I used to have a distorted sleeping schedule. Sometimes I could go partying until 5:00 am when I had classes the next day. And sometimes I could not sleep all night playing videogames.
The truth is every next day, I felt like crap and could think nothing but about sleep.
Young days have passed, and now I can clearly say that sleeping is the best productivity tool I have in the arsenal.
I think we can all agree that if you don’t get enough sleep, your level of productivity lowers for the rest of the day. Moreover, inadequate sleep can result in aggressiveness, procrastination, and doing only low-effort activities.
So how do we get better sleep?
The thing about the wholesome sleeping schedule is that it has a snowball effect:
- The earlier you go to bed, the better you feel the next morning.
- The better you feel, the more productive you are.
- The more productive you are, the more things you do.
- The more things you do, the more fulfilled and tired you are by the end of the day.
- The more tired you are, the better you fall asleep.
It is an endless cycle of productivity. If you support it well enough, the results are astounding.
First, you start feeling more energized and enthusiastic about the work. Second, your ability to understand and learn new things drastically improves. And lastly, the level of communication noticeably increases.
You can feel that you are inside this loop when:
- You wake up 1–2 minutes before the alarm.
- You fall asleep within 1–2 minutes of going to bed.
Okay, how do we get there?
To jump on a productive sleep train, follow these steps:
- Set a daily alarm for the same time.
- Make sure you fall asleep not later than the 22:00–00:00 period.
How do I know when should I go to sleep or set the alarm?
To determine the best time for the alarm, you need to know how much sleep does your body need.
Every person is unusual and needs a different amount of sleep.
For me, the sleeping time of 7h 45m — 8h works best. Everything that is below 7h 30m or above 8h 30m mostly decreases my productivity for the day.
Thus, for better sleep, you have to find what delivers best for you and stick to it. Experiment with the different sleeping schedules and measure how do you feel for the rest of the day. Compare the results to achieve the highest capacity.
I broke the sleeping cycle. What should I do?
If you break the sleeping schedule for a single day, it is not the end of the world. Usually, the body remembers when you need to wake up, and you should have no problems in the morning. You probably will feel a bit dizzy and get tired faster throughout the day. But if you maintain the sleeping schedule, the next day, you should get back into productivity mode.
Why skipping an alarm is not the best decision?
No matter what happens — never go dormant!
The human body does not need more sleep than it requires to get fully rested.
So any amount of sleep you get after a certain point is meaningless. Moreover, it can be damaging your productivity. It is also common that getting too much sleep (9–10 hours) will make you feel less productive and sleepy throughout the day.
Quality of sleep determines the quality of our life. By following the abovementioned steps, you can improve your sleeping schedule, thus, productivity.
