Sleep Your Way to Success

Have you ever said “I’m going to work a little longer and just drink more coffee tomorrow” when you were already exhausted? 

We are sleep deprived. We feel tired all the time. Every day at least three people’s response to “how are you?” is “I’m tired.” 

I’ve been thinking that the old adage “sleep your way to success” might be worth a shot. 

Sleeping a whole EIGHT (or please Lord a little more) hours a night could make me a whole new person. How have I reached permanent exhaustion by the time I hit my 40s?

“Sleep, or how little of it we need, has become a symbol of our prowess. We make a fetish of not getting enough sleep, and we boast about how little sleep we get.” Arianna Huffington

In Huffington’s book Thrive, she talks about a 2013 study with mice where the professor of neurosurgery compared sleep to a dishwasher. The mice went to sleep with harmful waste proteins and woke up without them. 

Isn’t that nifty? 

We have our own brainwashing system that may naturally reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. I love the delay setting on my dishwasher. I get ready for bed, turn it on to delay an hour and I wake up with clean dishes. Now, this is how I will see my brain going forward!

Going to sleep feels like doing nothing but it is obviously great for your mind and body. I went down a rabbit hole of information when looking up some of this to fact-check. The long and the short of it is sleeping is as necessary to our bodies as eating. So do both. 

In 2010, 59% of working moms reported sleep deprivation. I’m not surprised by this at all being a working mom myself and having a love/hate relationship with sleep, I know more than I would like about some sleep deprivation. But, hopefully, that is turning around. With many people still working from home at least a few days a week, many people say they still nap at lunch at least once a week. 

Working moms are always exhausted. Collectively we have all realized how over-extended we are in life. We have had to balance careers, children, and household duties. As horrible as the pandemic was for so many, it helped many of us put into perspective how we were living. 

My experience is similar to what my friends say, what I hear strangers say to others as they are parting ways, and what I read online. I originally wrote this as “we” do/feel these things but then realized, it might not be something you, dear reader, feel so I changed it.

When I spend a few precious hours with my kids, I feel guilty that I am not more present for them. When I have friends over for dinner, I remember why I love them so much and feel guilty that I am not more present for my friends. 

I think almost everyone realized over the first few months of the pandemic how much we give up, pile on our plate (and by plate I mean calendars), and how stressed out we make ourselves so our families can have what we want for them. I’m not talking about the life you want to have, I’m talking about the life you think you have to have.

I know I sure did. Luckily, I didn’t lose my job or any loved ones due to COVID. It is definitely a blessing to just have that. However, I gained so much more freedom by staying home. 

I ate better, I worked out, I started a new business, and I grew closer to my kid because we weren’t passing ships in the house a few days a week. 

Making decisions that strain your days (that turn into weeks, then months, then years…) makes you unhappy even when it’s for a “good reason.” Women need way more sleep and rest than we allow ourselves. We have created bad habits and say that’s just life. 

Dr. Michael Roizen said, “Sleep is the most underrated health habit.”

Sleep is important for a number of reasons. 

Sleep is essential for the optimal functioning of the body. 

It is critical to the proper functioning of the brain. 

Sleep helps reduce stress and anxiety.

Do you see successful people who are always exhausted? 

Think about the decisions you made on the weekend versus the weekdays. Which ones are typically better decisions? 

When did you feel the sharpest? Imma guess it’s after a great night or three of solid sleep.

All this is great information and insight but I bet you want to know how you can get on the right track and sleep your way to success.

• Make a bedtime routine - we do it for kids and they sleep like champs. Why do we think we can go from 100 to 0 in 2 minutes when we never let our bodies stop moving?

• Think about what you put in your body- water, good food (I’m not talking drastic changes here- start with just one better snack a day), vitamins, etc. 

• Decrease your inside screen time- do some stretching or take the stairs. Get your eyes (and mind) off the screen. When you tag-team to care for your body from both inside and outside, you will see big results. 

Taking better care of you will help you be more successful. You will be rested enough to make good decisions. I don’t know about you but good decisions always make me feel better. Better rest also means less irritability…that is definitely something I want less of in my life!

So, I’m going to advise you as the super smart person that did stay at a Holiday Inn Express (yes, I’m dating myself with that reference), to sleep your way to success.

Peace and love,

Teresea

Photo credit: ariannahuffington.com, Lee Wright, unsplash