Better To Sleep On It...

It’s currently 3 AM and I’m experiencing one of those nights we all have, where, for whatever reason I simply cannot sleep. There’s a million things swirling about in my head, so I thought if I could just focus on ONE subject…one idea, I might be able to calm my thoughts and find a restful moment to fall into that wonderful subconscious state we refer to as sleep…

Over the years I’ve heard about Einstein who thought sleep was a waste of time only logging in about 4 hours a night, while Bill Gates is said to get 7 hours. In a recent article in The Harvard Business News found that 43% of business leaders they polled indicated that they were sleep deprived at least 4 times a week. 

Research shows that getting less that 7 hours of sleep can impair an individual’s performance level to that of a blood alcohol level of .05% , the legal drinking limit in many countries. Four hours of sleep renders that same person’s performance with that of someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1% which is the legal definition of being drunk in the US. 

There is an abundance of research that suggests that sleep has an impact on all stages of learning, on making decisions, and tasks that require integrating multiple emotional responses. The less sleep you get, the more difficult the task.  One study showed that a good night’s sleep can lead to new insights, to the degree that participants who enjoyed a good night’s sleep were twice as likely to discover a hidden short-cut or a creative solution as those who didn’t.

Perhaps it’s a waste of time NOT to get enough sleep as the hours awake are more difficult to maneuver when sleep deprived…perhaps my mom was right after all when she would advise to “sleep on it” before making that tough decision…sleep on it…ahhhhhh…sounds like a great idea…g’nite all

Be good to yourself…