Sleep for Smarts and Self-Esteem

The holidays can be a time of less work and more sleep or more partying and less sleep. For many of us, there are few times in our lives when we get enough sleep. We all know that we feel better when we get good nights sleep. Consider the powerful impact of sleep.

Before the light bulb was invented people slept on the average of 10 hours a day. Today the average amount of time spent sleeping in a 24-hour cycle is 7 hours. 25% of 18-29 year olds get 8 hours of sleep.

Human nature dictates that we require an average of 8 hours of sleep a day. There are people who require more and people who require less, but most of us need 8 hours a day. We have such busy lives today that many of us neglect this basic need and we pay a price. Sleep is an investment that pays off with capacity for better performance and more happiness. Not sleeping enough is equivalent to not saving for retirement. Sooner or later it’s going to cost you.

What is the physical and psychological cost of inadequate sleep?
-Our immune systems aren’t as effective. Inadequate amounts of sleep leads to more illness.
-Our energy level declines. Our bodies are like engines in which we build capacity. A body with inadequate sleep will break down faster and be able to carry less.
-Our weight is harder to maintain at a healthy level. When we are sleep deprived, we don’t feel our best and we look for comfort in fatty, salty and sweet food. And if we haven’t slept enough our motivation to regulate ourselves is diminished, so we crave unhealthy food and are less able to resist it.
-Our motor skills aren’t as sharp. More accidents happen when we are sleep deprived.
-Our IQ goes down. We lose 10 points of our IQ if we miss a night of sleep. Our memory is also diminished by lack of sleep. While we are sleeping, neural connections are formed that we need for memory, and lack of sleep means lack of neural connections.
-Our stress and anxiety levels increase. Anyone who sees a tired child knows this. We feel the same way that children feel when we are sleep deprived, but we don’t express it. So this has a double cost, the price of suppressing our emotions and feeling stressed.
-Our susceptibility to depression is increased, and our self-esteem is diminished. When we sleep we dream, and when we dream we work things through. The dreams that we have earlier in our sleep deal with the negatives, our later dreams are the positive ones. If we don’t get full nights sleep we don’t have our positive resolutions.

We do look better when we get a full night’s sleep, and we also are smarter, happier, and feel better about ourselves. So figure out what the right amount of sleep is for you, and take a nap if circumstances (like a newborn baby or a project with a deadline) cut into that amount of time. Also, pay attention to how exercise and food affect your sleep. Don’t you love it when you know the kids have ran around all day and eaten well because you know they will go to sleep with no problem? The same applies to you.

Do you sleep enough? How would extra sleep benefit you? Are you worth the investment? If you can’t figure out how to manage your time to allow for adequate sleep get some help to figure it out. Work and play smarter, happier and healthier in 2010.

And to make 2010 a really spectacular year, take one of my workshops: http://tinyurl.com/yj3fenh