We are taught from a young age that we need to sacrifice certain things if we want to accomplish our goals. Most of us keep the same mentality into our adult lives. When we get busy with work, family and the rest of life, the thing most of us sacrifice first is sleep. We start sleeping less than eight hours a night in order to get the things we deem as important done. There are certain situations you have no control over that you have to sleep less than the required amount but those situations are few and far between. We as a society do not place the importance we need to on resting as much as we do on being productive.
You might be asking yourself, why do I need to rest more?
The answer is found in the sleep deprivation study published in Sleep . They took a group of adults and monitored their sleep for two weeks. They were required to sleep for four, six or eight hours. Another group was required to stay up for three days in a row.
Obviously, those who slept for eight hours a night performed the best, but the scary part of this study was those who slept for six hours a night performed just as poorly as those who didn’t sleep at all, but it took them much longer to realize how tired they actually were.
For days, they said they felt ok, but their cognitive functions were declining. Those who only slept for four hours didn’t do so well, either, but they were well aware of their declining functions and how tired they felt.
So, when we try and cut back on our sleep to get more done, we are actually doing ourselves a big disservice. Try to get at least seven hours of sleep if you have a hard time getting eight hours a night. Your health and your performance will improve dramatically.
Sincerely,
Donny Mateaki
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