Work / Life Balance

In today's issue of the Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine I talk about the importance and power of sleep. Question - have you signed up for your copy of the Daily Dose yet? Or are you waiting for me to post the items into the archive? You do know that's procrastination don't you. If you haven't yet signed up - then stop reading this and do it, because it may be a while before the messages get posted. Every day (well most days) you will receive an e-mail "e-zine" giving you some suggestions as to how to end the procrastination habit. So if you are serious about getting more from every day, then it is time you joined those people who are well on the way to doing just that.

But that is a little bit of a digression. We were going to talk about sleep, or rather the lack of it.

Do you get enough sleep? If you're anything like me, probably not. The average person needs between 7 and 9 hours sleep per night. I probably get about 6, 6 and a half if I am very lucky. Sometimes it is because I go to bed late, but other times it is because I don't sleep very well when I get there. And having to get up early - to get to work, can be a struggle sometimes.
 
Do you wake up refreshed and raring to go, or are you suffering from an over-indulgence from the night before? And I don't just mean alcohol.
 
You see - in order to work hard you need to sleep well. Sleep is the body's mechanism to ensure that it re-builds itself during the body's downtime. An over-indulgence in food and alcohol just before you go to bed can see your body go into crisis mode to process the "energy" it doesn't need - and where does it go? Yep - right into those waiting fat cells. The problem with having your engine turned on - is that your sleep is disturbed, and the cells don't get replaced. Imagine a car engine revving and you will begin to see what I mean. If your cells don't get replaced, what happens is that your body is sluggish, those things you don't see - the transport mechanisms of the blood, the lymphatic system, the air flow and all those other internal processes we take for granted, slow down. Usually the first visible sign that your body is exhausted is when your hair and skin start to look "tired" too. And no amount of creams and shampoo can help, if you've ever been there.
 
But it's not just about food and alcohol that can cause your body to stop feeling sleepy. Long gone are the days when we went to bed when the sun went down, natural light has lengthened our days, which does mean we can "do" more. But it's not just the light that is a problem, what about your evenings activities? Do you watch disturbing items on the TV? And I inlcude the news in that genre. What kind of books do you read? Are you studying? Have you noticed that when you over stimulate the mind close to bed time, you have trouble switching it off again?

So a suggestion - take some time this week and evaluate your evenings, and your sleep patterns, keep a notebook - don't trust your memory on this one. I'm not asking you to cut anything out - but as it goes into your mouth write it in your book, write down your activities (use code if you don't want anyone to know !!!) when you have about a weeks worth of data, you will begin to see where you can make changes. If you want to or need to that is. But I know that the better the sleep you get, the better the following day will be, and the more productive you are.
 
Sleep well and I will see you on the starting line tomorrow