Plan your sleep cycles for better results
How many of you intentionally plan your sleep to ensure optimal results? I'm not talking about the typical 7 or 8 hours recommendation we always hear about.
Hi all, here are some bite-size ideas to help spark your Sunday and prepare you for the week.
How many of you intentionally plan your sleep to ensure optimal results? Now, I'm not talking about the typical 7 or 8 hours recommendation we always hear about, but rather the cycles we go through when we sleep.
There's a lot of research out there that shows that we sleep in 90-minute cycles. A good strategy is to align the time you go to bed with the time you want to get up using these cycles. For example, if you have to be up at 6 AM, you should aim to be in bed, ready to sleep for 10:30 PM to get in 7.5 hours of sleep. If that's not possible, consider moving to the next 90-minute cycle, in this case, midnight.
Ensuring that you match your 90-minute cycle will help you get up more easily in the morning. I'm not suggesting sleeping less; you should always aim to get enough sleep to feel rested. But when that's not possible, it can be useful to head to bed a little earlier or later to ensure your cycles match and top up with a quick 30-minute nap during the day.
As an engineering manager and integral coach, I'm constantly reminding people how vital our wellbeing is to our productivity and happiness, and sleep sits at the foundation of it. You don't reach your goals and live a happy life if you continually depend on caffeine, energy drinks and sleeping pills to survive. If that’s your goal, then sleeping is core to your success.
A few favourites this week
1. Ted Talks: This week, I remembered these two authors regarding Sleep; they have done extensive work in this area. If you're curious, take a look at their Ted Talks: Sleep is your superpower | Matt Walker and The unconventional wisdom about sleep | Nick Littlehales.
2. Article: Here's a short article I read from Seth Godin about the new normal and how it is a new normal every day. What I took away from it is that when we continuously wait for things to be "normal" again, we rob ourselves of the present moment we're living now.
Quote of the week
The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.
From Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
If you've enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed writing them, consider sharing it with your friends and family. I would greatly appreciate it
Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.