“Unlike computers, human beings aren’t meant to operate continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time.” — Tony Schwartz

Since I’m traveling to spend a couple of days with the crew at hellosmile, it’s fitting that today’s tip is about health.

Last night, I hosted a Google Hangout for a client that went awesome, and my excitement had me up way later than usual. Instead of heading to bed, I wanted to work on proposals, write blog posts, send emails—get more out the door before instead of ending on a high note and signing off for the night. It was like I couldn’t justify going to bed without being totally exhausted.

As I often do, and I’m guessing you do too, I neglected the fact that Tony Schwartz touts it all the time: sleep is vital. So vital that’s it’s more important than food.

If you go a week without eating the only thing you lose is weight. Think about the last juice cleanse you did, you might have been weak, but you were fine. Give up sleep for only a couple of days and you become dysfunctional. Still, we’re all too willing to trade away an hour of sleep in the false belief that it will give us one more hour of productivity. Science tells us even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a huge toll on our cognitive capacity. Less than 2.5% of the population, 1/40 people, feels fully rested on less than 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Next time you’re thinking of skipping sleep, keep in mind that sleep deprivation is used as a torture tactic… an f-ing torture tactic. Need more time? Skip a meal, not pillow time. For me, that meant letting go of the breakfast buffet this morning. It’ll be there tomorrow.