"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death" - Leonardo Da Vinci
So what is sleep and why do we do it?
Sleep could be explained as a natural and recurring state of reduced consciousness and bodily activity, characterized by a decreased awareness of the external environment. During it, our bodies and brains go through a variety of physiological processes that are critical for our health and well-being.
While the scientists are still uncertain of the exact reason for why we sleep, we do know that getting enough sleep is critical for our physical and mental health, as well as for our daily performance and productivity.
- Make sure to get 8, don't stay up too late.
The number 8 is really the magic number when it comes to sleep and has become the go-to rule of thumb when it comes to how much sleep you should get every night. But many people seem to disagree on this...
So how much is enough?
It's very hard to say exactly as it seems to vary from person to person. But more importantly, it can only vary when measured by the quality of their sleep. Meaning, you have probably heard people that say they only sleep 5-6 hours a night and feel just fine doing so. Most of these people, even if they think they feel fine doing so, are just not simply aware of:
- How much better they would actually feel if they got even more sleep, and
- More importantly, how much crucial development their brain and body is missing out on by not utilizing the full spectrum of sleep
Because the fact of the matter is, if you are not a person who have truly optimized your sleep to the fullest by doing everything right, when it comes to allowing for sleeping as well as possible, there is no way you will have enough time to extract all the benefits you get by having enough time in all the stages of sleep. This is a fact. The only exception for this, as previously stated, is when a person have optimized their sleep so much so that they can get what they need in just 6 hours instead of 8. This is very rare.
Our recommendation, based on experience and advice from various sleep doctors is to always aim for 8 hours and to always try to optimize your life for better sleep. By doing this for long enough, maybe one day, you will beat your alarm clock by one hour and yet still feel more rested then ever. That's how you know you got enough.
Want to know how to optimize your sleep? Here are some of the best quick-tips from us here at MĒSENTIALS:
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Stick to a sleep schedule: Aim to wake up and go to bed the same time every day. Yes, that should include weekends, if possible.
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Create a relaxing sleep environment: Make sure your bedroom is quiet, cool, dark (pitch black if possible) and invest in a comfortable bed. Sidenote: One of our top bed essentials for sleep is weighted blankets. More on them in coming blog posts.
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Prepare for sleep: Avoid screens (blue light) 1-2 hours before sleep, dim the lights, relax, meditate, take a hot shower. Set your mind up for sleep.
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Use sleep apps and products: There are many great tools you can use to help track your sleep, monitor your patterns to see what works for you and to create a relaxing sleep environment. Our favourite sleep essential product and sleep tracker is the Ōura ring. More on them in future posts.
Those are some of the most essential things that you could and that you should do, to optimize your sleep this evening. Let us know in the comments below how it went!
See, this is the deal, whether you like it or not, you will spend roughly about 1/3 of your whole life asleep. So sleep is, undoubtedly, a big part of your life and you should treat it as such. Especially when considering how much this part of your life will affect the 2 other parts of your life.
So please, throw the old myth of "sleep is for the weak" out of the window and go get enough of it. Your body and mind will thank you.
Never will you be tired of feeling energized.