Sleep Solves Problems

“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.”  — E. Joseph Cossman

Everyone needs sleep. It refreshes the body and mind. Therefore, sleep is critical to keep you functioning at your best. Life makes it easy to forget this fact causing us to sometimes sacrifice sleep for activities. This can be due to deadlines, family, partying, or general life events. Unsurprisingly, this is counterproductive to your overall performance.

There is no denying that sleep is important. Most people spend around one-third of their lives either sleeping or attempting to do so¹. Studies show this is time well spent. There are confirmed relationships between inadequate sleep and disorders such as hypertension, mental health, obesity and type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, impaired immune functioning, and more². Getting the proper amount of rest plays a role in reducing the risk of accidents and injuries caused by fatigue, including workplace incidents and vehicular crashes³. Additionally, quality of sleep is predictive of cognitive and memory performance in daily life⁴, and improving sleep shows significantly positive effects on mental health, depression, anxiety, and stress⁵. Bottom line, your body and mind require down time.

Strive for better sleep by setting yourself up for success. In this case, success means building a daily routine that leaves you pleasantly tired at night. Spend at least two hours outside to get the benefits of sunlight during the day. Be sure to exercise to help fatigue the body. Then put away your phone and stop watching TV at night before bed⁶. Most importantly, try to be consistent with your routine⁷. The object is not to be perfect, but to form healthy habits for bedtime. Finally, enjoy sweet dreams.

Action: Evaluate your sleep quality, change your routine to enhance your sleep.

Further Reading:

1. We spend about one-third of our life either sleeping or attempting to do so
2. The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep
3. Sleep is essential to health: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement
4. Cognitive benefits of last night’s sleep: daily variations in children’s sleep behavior are related to working memory fluctuations
5. Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
6. 17 Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night
7. Tips for Better Sleep