This is the 5th post from the healthy habits series.

You can’t Put Sleep Off Safely

It’s not because your brain turns off. Quite the contrary, in fact. Many people claim to need 3 or 4 hours of sleep and they’re fine. And, while they may actually be able to function, they are putting their bodies at risk by obstructing some very important activities. During sleep, your conscious mind shuts off and your unconscious mind gets busy. Your unconscious mind does some pretty amazing things physically and mentally.

Physical Regeneration

The health benefits of sleep should entice you to get the rest you need. Your body heals at an accelerated rate with the natural production of a proteins that help to repair the body. Proper sleep allows your body time to get rejuvenated from regular activities of life, as well as extra exertions.

Mental Regeneration

There is much that remains unknown about the way the brain works. What is known is quite interesting. When you dream, your brain actually works through events and problems. You may not recall the dream the next day. However, it may happen is that you discover you have a solution to a problem, answer to a question that had eluded you the day or days before.

What is Proper Sleep?

No, it’s not an official term. It speaks to what I’ve found to be optimal conditions for sleep for me. Say you’re tired, it’s been a long day. No way you won’t sleep. I’ve had nights when I know that I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. But it takes more than a full day, tiredness, or even exhaustion to get your best sleep. To get the full benefit of sleep, it helps to get enough hours and be in a good sleep environment.

Enough Hours

You can push yourself relentlessly, trying to make everything happen when you insist. It probably won’t work: you could likely put everything and more in jeopardy. And you still won’t have your work done.

I tried to push myself to work until the wee hours of the morning, during the weekdays. Then on the weekends, I would sleep for most of the day. People call this make up sleep or some such thing. In the short-run, it works—kind of, temporarily. But, there are long-term dangers, including permanently disrupting your sleep pattern. You can see how that would interrupt all the other beneficial things that sleep does, right?

I can. And actually I did see first hand. I once met a lady who was hospitalized for hallucinations and odd behavior. The cause of her problems was prolonged sleep deprivation. Once you can’t control your sleep patterns, the problems can snowball quickly. At the time of being hospitalized, this lady’s sleep deprivation was about a week and it was a matter of not enough hours, not zero hours of sleep.

Find out how much sleep is optimal for you, and try to stick with that as often as possible. You can look it up and see what the accepted standards are. Then experiment to learn what works best for you.

Good Sleep Environment

There are things you can do while you’re awake, to improve your sleep time. Exercise and nourishment are very important to having good sleep. Here are some more things you can do to enhance your sleep environment.

1. Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet room. Other environments may cause you to wake in the night, or to sleep fitfully.
2. Sleep at night, when you’re naturally inclined to. Unless you work over night regularly, you want to sleep when your body’s internal clock dictates.
3. Sleep on a firm bed with good pillows. Firmness will support your back and spine, reducing the chance of soreness.
4. Sleep on clean, allergen-free bedclothes.
5. Try to only rest in your bedroom. By keeping your work in another area, you are conditioning your mind to go into relaxation mode when you enter your bedroom.
6. Put away your worries and stresses of the day. I add this especially for any who suffer from anxiety attacks like myself. Try meditation to calm your racing thoughts and put them aside until after you sleep.

Benefits of Getting Enough Sleep

So what are the benefits of sleep? We have deadlines to meet, titles to work out, topics to research, perspectives that we need to decide on, just to get started. There’s a better alternative to forging straight through: SLEEP when you’re supposed to. Take a look at some of the benefits of sleep:

1. Improved memory
2. Improved alertness
3. Improved creativity
4. Clear thought processes
5. More energy
6. Improved social experiences
7. Better digestion
8. Better work sessions
9. Greater resistance to getting sick
10. Less stress in difficult situations

It’s a fact that you can work through your day, better, when you’re rested. You’ll be alert to new ideas, making almost intuitive connections. And, really, it’s nice when you wake and have solutions and new, creative ideas. Now, isn’t that worth turning off the computer and putting away the puzzles of the day?

Try to get the sleep you need on a regular basis. Reschedule your tasks to fit your work into a work day. Make yourself content with accomplishing all you can in your work day; this will go a long way to preparing for sleep.

If you’re a skeptic, like I was, try it for yourself. Take one or two weeks off from pushing yourself to the limit. Get good sleep and see what changes for you. Please share it in a comment below. Or if it’s long, post it on your blog and leave the post link in a comment below. I’d love to read your story.

Further reading:

• Sleeping Well: What You Need to Know
• How to Get Better Sleep by Diana Rodriguez
• While You Sleep, Your Brain Keeps Working

Related posts:

• healthy habits for writers
• daydreaming and i’m thinking of…
• Anxiety, a poem

When was the last time you went to bed on time? When was the last time you just rested? Not slept but relaxed and breathed and spent time just being content. When you think about it, it’s not as often as you might like, right? This post is for those of us who have trouble remembering to just breathe.

It’s especially difficult to turn things off when you like your work.

Just because you’re not working doesn’t mean you’re resting. There are thoughts that eat up your play time. What keeps me from relaxing are two very closely related things:  a healthy work ethic and respect for competition.

The Competition is Steep

Your work speaks for you. And what your work needs to say is that you are the best person for the job. You understand, too, that you have to have an audience, an employer.

That’s why you work on refining and improving your skills. Doing what someone else does is the way of the world. Putting your unique brand on your work will get you the attention and success you desire.

No one will hire you if you don’t put your virtual sign before as many eyes as you can. The pressure to get yourself seen is greatest when you’re new at what you’re doing. So your administrative work is center stage.

Here’s the place to get creative, to figure out how to get people’s attention. Among other things, you work out your strategies for your:

• website
• press releases
• emails
• newsletters
• social media

It may be different for you but this is what consumes much of my relaxing time. To be sure, these are very important goals if you want to remain employed, or keep the work coming in. And they can take up all your time if you let them. But that’s not the healthiest way to be.

The Key is to STOP!

Efficiency is how you save yourself. You learn things that are already in place to help you. You don’t have to make an organizer when you can find one that fits you, or one you can customize.

Learn how much sleep is optimal for you and your best hours for sleep. It may be that you work best on seven hours of sleep. Maybe you need nine. It may be that sleeping 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. works better for you than 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. (I’m a 10-6 person.)

You need More Than Sleep

And being rested doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping, although I’m a firm believer in naps. You need to relax. Do something that you enjoy, separate from work. It may relax you to exercise, bowl, read. I suggest always making time to be quiet and awake. Meditation does a lot for me, conventional and not. Sometimes I’m cleaning up, and instead of being on the phone while I do it, I will focus on the quiet and my breathing and movements. It’s important to engage in non-work activities that rejuvenate you spiritually, creatively, and foster a sense of peace and contentment.

Some assignments can run longer than others. And that’s fine. You don’t always have to cut your work short to save yourself. The key is to stop when your work is done, and just breathe.

Capture New Ideas

The constant flow of ideas kept me returning to the computer, or taking notes between work, tasks, errands, from pre-dawn to way past dusk sometimes. You need to track your ideas, just not around the clock, to the exclusion of a good night’s sleep. After a point, I just hope that the ideas will be there when I wake.

Keep a Tasks List

I have a list of tasks to keep me organized and on track. The order of execution depends on how the tasks are related and not the order I write them down, since I usually write them as they come to me. Some tasks are completed in the same day. Others are completed over a period of days. Whatever works for you, keep track of your assignments and administrative duties.

Stick to the Schedule You Make

I had to make myself stick to the schedule. At first, I was overly strict about sticking to the plan. Particularly, I needed to stop for the evening, to get the rest I knew I needed.

You’re thinking either that keeping a schedule is easy, or you’re thinking that sleep, rest and relaxation are highly over-rated. You would be wrong on both counts.

It’s not Easy

Following my schedule is hard because there’s always something I can continue, expand on, or something new I can do. Never mind what I know works best; there are times when I want to move on to other things because I’m all wound up. I think I’ll sleep after while. It’s a continual effort to turn my work brain off at the close of a day.

The Benefits of Scheduling

Taking the time to rest and relax can not only sustain you through work but also take your work to another level. It can improve your overall productivity. Some of the things I’ve experienced because I got proper rest include:

• Better, more efficient work performance
• More creative ideas and solutions
• Clearer thoughts, not fuzzy, that can be captured
• Possibly completing work in shorter times allowing for more free time
• More energy to be disciplined in work and play activities

The times when it’s a real struggle to let go of work, I ask myself if it’s critical to complete the next task right then. I take a deep breath remind myself of the good work experiences and successes I have when I am rested and relaxed.

Try it and see what you get from it. Develop a schedule that works for you. Odd work hours are not a problem as long as you have determined that those are your most productive times. Remember: the key is to STOP and breathe when you’re supposed to. If you’re so inclined, please share your experiences about over-work and relaxing.