Motivational Monday: Sleep Is The Best Meditation

While I love writing motivational posts, today’s topic is a little different – it’s on sleep.  Now, if you ask anyone that has met me in person, they’ll tell you that hitting the sack is definitely not my favourite activity.  In fact, high-energy rushing around is more my style 😉  So, I will fully admit that learning to go to bed early (in order to be more productive) was one of my biggest struggles.

Sleep is the Best Meditation

The Dalai Lama’s quote is a beautiful reminder that we all need to take breaks, and to rest.  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at sleeping. In fact, if someone had labelled me an insomniac at any point up until I was about 25, I wouldn’t have fought it 😉

So, the book on the right, Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace is on my reading list. It seems like he may have some good advice!

My Sleep Experiment

Earlier this year, one of my friends inspired me with her New Year’s sleep experiment. Basically, she started sleeping 8 hours a night, instead of her usual 6.5. What happened? Well, she felt a world of difference in a few weeks. So, I decided to try it.  Actually, I used 7 hours a night, because my nights were usually averaging 5.5 to 6 hours.

The Results (by Week):

• 1: No difference. Actually, I felt like I was wasting time
• 2: Started to feel a small difference  – I was more awake on the weekends
• 3:  Really, I felt a whole lot better!
• 4:  Due to a ski trip where we slept 6 hours a night, and then four days last week where I had a stressful time with PhD analyses, my sleep routine was destroyed.  Wow, did I ever feel the difference. I felt destroyed over the weekend!
• 5: This week  –  I’m definitely sleeping 7 hours a night from now on!

Takeaway:  TRY IT!  Sleep a bit more than usual, and make it your routine. You’ll be amazed at how productive and awake you feel – but remember to give it a few weeks of consistently following the plan to take effect!

Sleeping & Productivity

According to The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard, concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity, and logical reasoning are the main functions of your brain that getting too little sleep affects.  In fact, logic and mathematical capacity are apparently the most affected.

So, how little is too little? Elizabeth B. Klerman, a researcher at Harvard wrote this article  explaining why researchers don’t yet know exactly how much sleep individuals need. However, she does say that one important part is to sleep the same amount each day, so that’s one way to start off this week right!

What are you thoughts on sleep?  Share with The Teaching Cove community by commenting below.

Have a lovely and productive Monday!  (and get a good night’s rest every night this week, too!).

P.S.  Photo fans, I took the photo for today’s post (and poster!) in Hong Kong, during the year I lived in Asia in 2007.