Facts:

• 6-8 hours sleep is the recommendation for ideal daily performance
• Your body requires sleep for cell growth and vital energy
• Sleep deprivation causes poor judgement and can lead to serious health problems, such as heart disease and high blood pressure

Reality: 

Functioning at peak levels requires fine tuning. With your busy, erratic schedule…late night meetings, pressured deadlines…the hours slip away and you are left battling for those 6-8 hours of rejuvenating sleep. We’ve all done it: battling through the next day, drowsy yet driven; the day after…same, same. It’s not a major problem until it becomes chronic – irritability, elevated blood pressure, lack of concentration, argumentative, sickness, lower back pain.

So what to do?

Such a mediocre question for a champion. You are where you are because you’ve created yourself: a driven, thriving, mega-person. If you’re not, you soon will be and it will be all the difference between mediocrity and excellence.

Bottom line: 

Your brain is malleable! You have a never ending ability to change the way you act and function, at any given moment.

Wake to a new day – The how to approach:

It’s not just the length of your sleep that determines a fresh start, it’s the quality of your sleep. Erratic sleep is caused by: excess thoughts, rumination, blue wave light (a stimulant from electronics, such as computers used before sleep), a lightened room which affects your Circadian Rhythms (your internal body clock)…

So setting the scene for effective sleep is your goal for better performance:

• Keep those dark shades up, blocking the outside light
• Wind down before you sleep (not a bottle of wine). A little classical music and some deep breathing…I know, I know: you guys are thinking heavy breathing…you need a relaxant not stimulant.
• No caffeine from late afternoon
• Settle any arguments before you sleep
• Plan your next day before you sleep

These few tips will add spring to your step when you waken the next morning. Your performance depends on it!

Live better; Live longer