There are a couple of reasons that successful people get plenty of sleep. You may think that people who are successful get very few hours of sleep at night and that they have a hard time sleeping because they’re always doing so much, always running around and always on the go.
But in order to be successful you have to get sleep and here are reasons why sleep is important for successful people whether you want to be successful or whether you are already successful.
The idea behind this post comes from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. The seventh habit of a highly effective person is sharpening the saw. That is balancing and renewing your resources, your energy, and your health to create a sustainable long-term effective lifestyle. This primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal; prayer, meditation or yoga for mental renewal; and services to society for spiritual renewal. In order to take advantage of this energy, this health, these resources that you have, you have got to take care of yourself and you have to get plenty of sleep.
According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. (Source) Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. While you sleep your body works to support a healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. When you sleep your brain is helped to work properly while you’re sleeping your brain prepares for the next day. The purpose is help you learn and remember information.
This is important for successful people because successful people are constantly learning new things and applying those new ideas and new concepts that they’ve learned into their current business, career and into what they’re doing right now that’s making them successful. Studies also show that a good night’s sleep helps to improve learning. If you’re learning math or learning how to drive a car or learning how to become wealthy, sleep will help you pay attention, make decisions and be creative. If you are not getting enough sleep you will have trouble making decisions. Lack of sleep has also been linked to depression and risk-taking behavior.
Sleep is very important in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Successful people are usually involved in some sort of physical activity in order to increase their productivity. When you exercise you are improving the amount of energy that you have and your level of energy and focus allows you to get more done and become more efficient. When you exercise you actually fall asleep faster and stay in restorative sleep longer. According to a study conducted by the Department of Exercise Science at the Norman J Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, sleep serves as an energy conservation function. Exercise offers an alternative for insomnia. Exercise could be a healthy, safe, inexpensive, and simple means of improving sleep. Exercise allows you to sleep better and in turn, sleep allows you to be a more effective successful person.
How many times have you gone to sleep and immediately had a dream or solved a problem that your mind was trying to work out during the day? We often find solutions to our problems while we sleep. If you want to be successful it’s important to get plenty of sleep.
Everyone needs a different amount of sleep so it’s important to test your own body to figure out how much sleep is appropriate for you. Some people can survive and function very well on six hours of sleep and some people need a full eight hours of sleep in order to become the most productive and most efficient person that they can be. So it’s important to test your own sleep function. I personally tested my body for six hours of sleep a night. I did that for two weeks. And after two weeks I felt more sleepy more groggy and more cranky. I then tested eight hours of sleep each night for two weeks and I still felt sleepy and groggy. But when I tested myself at seven hours of sleep each night for two weeks I felt restored, fully awake and I felt ready to conquer the world. So for me seven hours of sleep is perfect, but it’s also important that I go to sleep before midnight because I am able to fall asleep faster and wake up at the proper time.
What is the best time for you to sleep? Have you tried different sleep patterns? What about polyphasic sleep? Comment below and let me know I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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