Get More Sleep

One of the great pursuits of our personal development is to maintain good health. Many of us work really hard in the gym and are very deliberate about every bite we eat to support our body’s wellness. However, perhaps the most important element of health, that is not talked about enough and deprioritized the most is, is sleep.

Matthew Walker is a leader on the subject and wrote a book called “Why We Sleep”. In it he shares a widely held misconception - He says that many people believe that they’re the exception to the rule. That they think they don’t need the same amount of sleep as everyone else.

As human beings we’re meant to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Studies suggest that only 0.5% of the population is actually capable of functioning fully on less than 7 hours of sleep.

The reason we are so widely ‘missing the mark’ is because we’ve grown accustomed to being tired.  We don’t even realize how energized we’re meant to feel when we wake up in the morning and tolerate a level of energy that falls way short of optimal.

So here are a few practical tips to help you prioritize sleep as the critical health habit it is.

First, every day starts the night before. The most ripe opportunity for improvement in this area is consistently getting to bed earlier. I recommend you set an alarm to notify you that it’s time to start winding down for bed, and then practice discipline when it goes off to follow through on it.

Second is to not undo and redo your progress. Our sleep cycle follows a natural ‘circadian rhythm’. Your circadian rhythm doesn’t know the difference between weekdays and weekends, so the more consistent you can be with your sleep schedule, the better quality your rest will be. If you have a lot of variance, it interrupts the rhythm.

And last, make incremental improvements. If you’re realizing you’re chronically underslept, work your way to more sleep 30 minutes at a time. It’ll be a less drastic change to your daily routine and because of that, will be more sustainable than trying to make a bigger change all at once.

Sleep is so important, and maybe even more important to your overall health than your exercise and nutrition. So let’s give it the priority it deserves!