The Importance of Sleep
I hate sleeping. Ever since I was little, I've always been annoyed that sleep is something we have to do to keep our bodies functioning. My family would agree that growing up, I was the last one to fall asleep. I would lay with my eyes open, mind racing with what happened earlier that day and thinking about my plans for the following day. It would be hours before sleep would finally take me.
I've not fully outgrown this difficulty getting to sleep. Neither has it been helpful that sleep has become harder to prioritize with the growing demands of adulthood.
There are a few reasons why it's difficult for me to give my body and mind the sleep it needs. Most of them have to do with my own inability to realize how a lack of sleep hinders my ability to function properly.
We spend such a large percentage of our lives in an unconscious state. The process of sleeping lacks experiencing, learning, or discovering. Instead, we spend hours and hours every night locked inside our subconscious mind only escaping into the occasional dream. It's hard to stop the project that I'm working on, the book I'm reading, or the video I'm watching to go and give my body this time of rest.
I've learned about some of the distinct advantages of getting proper sleep. This has helped motivate me to be willing to make a temporary sacrifice of time so that I can use my time better in the future. Sleep truly helps your body to be able to do everything more effectively.
Reasons Why Sleep is Good
Your Immune System
Sleep's effect on the immune system is probably the first and biggest discovery that started me down the path of proactively regulating my sleep patterns. The advantage of sleep to your immune system is probably more than enough reason for anybody to start sleeping more than 8 hours a night! In my experience the best defense against getting sick has been one thing:
Sleep.
Vaccines, medicine, and diet are all tools that your body uses to be better prepared to fight off the invaders, but you know what enables your body to use these tools?
Sleep.
Without sleep, your body can't use the tools that you've given it. If your body is too tired to fight, it doesn't matter if you've given it the equivalent of a nuclear weapon to fight against the disease. It will just be too tired to use it.
Sleep Reduces the Level of Cortisol in the Body
Sleep also reduces the level of the hormone Cortisol in the body. Cortisol is the steroid hormone that is produced when your body is stressed. It is designed to kick your body into gear when it perceives danger. The problem is, many people live with chronically high levels of Cortisol in their brains. People end up living in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight fear responses. This puts a significant amount of wear and tear on both your mind and body and without being able to properly regulate it, can cause serious health conditions.
Sleep naturally lowers Cortisol levels. It gives the mind a chance to take a break, rebuild and re-energize for the next day. Just like a car, you can't run your body at maximum speed constantly. You can for a little while, but eventually, you need to give it a break and let itself repair and rebuild to do it again.
Sleep is the primary method the body uses to Strengthen Creativity
If you work in a creative profession, sleep is extremely influential on your creative ability. This is because sleep maximizes the brain's ability for divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the way of thinking that is outside the box, and coming up with ideas that no one else has. Sleep is the primary way that our body recharges the brain's ability to do this kind of processing. When people are sleep-deprived, the brain has a much harder time doing this kind of creative thinking. If your ability to do your job is contingent on coming up with great new ideas, then sleep is probably the most important tool to allow you to properly do your job at the highest level of performance.
Reasons Why We Don't Sleep
So now that we understand the advantages of sleep, I'm going to go through some reasons why we don't sleep. What are some of the common roadblocks that hinder us from being able to sleep effectively?
Life Circumstances
Not all reasons for getting little sleep are bad. There are times in life where sleep can become difficult for complex reasons. Sometimes these are circumstances that we can control, sometimes they aren't. Having a baby and being up all night for weeks on end is something that many people would consider a sacrifice that is worth taking for the joy of having a child. There is a very limited amount of sleep you can possibly get with a newborn.
There is also only so much sleep you can get when you are working 2 full-time jobs to try to make ends meet. If you are working 16 hours a day, the most sleep you are able to get is 8 hours. That's if you do nothing else.
These things are not things that you can sit down and change overnight and that's okay. The ability for the body to continue working on little sleep is a testament to the power of our bodies and the immune system to continue working on little energy.
That being said, it's good to be aware that your busy life could take a toll on your body's ability to perform at its maximum potential. Don't abuse your body. When you have a break in the action, be proactive in letting your body recuperate.
Procrastination and Workaholism
If you procrastinate often, it could negatively impact your sleep. Instead of going to bed feeling accomplished and happy, you go to bed with the nagging feeling reminding you that you will have to deal with something tomorrow.
It's a terrible feeling to know that there is something that you could have done today but instead pushed it off. Unfortunately, that task will come to the forefront of your mind as soon as your head hits the pillow.
On the flip side, if all you think about over the course of a day is the work that needs to be done, you can also lose quality sleep. Sometimes it's the physical act of avoiding the bed. Sometimes it's the inability to sleep because you can't stop thinking about the next project to work on. Sleep has a physical component and a mental one. Ignoring the importance of either will result in a loss of sleep from lack of quality, quantity, or both.
To make sure I don't fall into either of these categories, I've found it helpful to make sure that my time is organized throughout the day. If I am in a section of the day that I'm to be working on a project, don't let other things distract me from that task. As the day comes to a close, I need to be intentional about stopping what I'm doing and start doing things that are going to help my mind get into "sleep mode".
Worry and Fear
Another thing that often hinders our ability to sleep well is worry and fear. Both of these emotions are related to the release of Cortisol and as I described above. Worry and Fear hinder the mind's ability to relax and recharge.
Sometimes life is difficult and there are concerns that require our attention. However, most of these fears are probably not things that can be helped by staying up late and losing sleep. In fact, we are doing ourselves a dis-service trying to keep our minds problem-solving before sleep. The best thing we can do is set the anxiety aside and let our minds re-charge. By choosing to reengage with the problems in the morning when your body and mind are fresh, you will almost always get better results for your efforts.
An effective way to get your mind out of this spin of worry and anxiety is to practice meditation. Doing meditation throughout the day and before you go to bed can have a significantly positive effect on your ability to control your mind's emotions, be present and focus on things that you can control. If the feelings of worry and fear are things that keep you up at night, I would highly recommend that you do further reading and study the topic of meditation. Maybe that will be the subject of a future article as I've been seeking to make this a habit in my own life.
Preoccupation with Negative Experiences
Another similar situation to fear and worry is an unhealthy preoccupation with negative experiences from the past. This experience can be something that happened earlier that day, or sometimes even months or years in the past. I've noticed that if I have an embarrassing situation occur, I won't think about it that much until my head hits the pillow. Then my mind replays the scene over and over again. There is nothing helpful about this, and it certainly doesn't benefit a good night's sleep! A solution to this might be to intentionally dwell on the situation earlier in the day before going to bed. Even if your mind says it's not a big deal, think about it anyway. Give your mind a chance to process the occurrence and be gentle with yourself. Realize that everyone makes mistakes and that negative experiences are a chance to learn and grow. For me, I know that writing helps me process experiences so journaling might be a helpful tool to be able to allow my mind to process this way and move on from the experience. This will result in a much more peaceful night of sleep.
Another reason to process negative experiences before going to bed is that your prefrontal cortex functions better when you're fully awake rather than falling asleep. When you try to do complex mental processing before bed, it's trying to use your mind when it's in the process of shutting down. It's an uphill battle.
Not Engaging in Activities that Help Sleep Happen
Finally, the last thing that I've learned is to micro-manage the hour of time before bed. Make sure that the things you are doing are putting your mind into a relaxed state. TV and social media can be negative influences on your mind because they stimulate your senses instead of calming them. Bright lights can throw your body's circadian rhythm for a loop and trick your brain into thinking that it's still daytime instead of night. Soft yellow lights can be helpful to allow your mind to be in sync with your desired sleep pattern.
The reason I feel like this is important for those of us who are looking to be productive and get things done efficiently is that without effective sleep, we are a ticking time bomb.
Sleep is the primary factor that will allow productivity to happen over a sustained period of time.
Some people can push through needing sleep, but they are going to either sacrifice their effectiveness or their sustainability.
Sleep is what allows us to be able to live consistently productive lives that are fulfilling and gives us joy. I know for myself it can be a struggle to put down the things I want to do, but I know my body will thank me tomorrow.
Until next time...
Be Humble. Stay Curious.
-Josh