As time ticks by so does our need for sleep. The more people you tale to these days the more it is clear you and I tend to not get enough sleep, although we think we’re sleeping good, most mornings we awake get a cup of coffee and away we go, start the day hurry up to work, the office, a meeting, presentation, or just off to work. Never thinking how well we slept the night before which is one very important factor when it comes to daily progress and productivity. Only if we could keep that Crystal ball next to our bed so when we do wake up we can monitor last nights sleep pattern.
Why is monitoring how much sleep important ? With out a set time for bed and a solid night sleep pattern limits our focus and concentration. We are more likely to make more mistakes when we are not properly rested. Our internal time clock tells us we got enough sleep and to keep going. Although that might be a common response, however if we look at the details we need 6-8 hours of sleep to provide enough rest to recharge our batteries.
Today we are faced with different elements which limit a rest full night sleep. Seems more and more people today are trading sleep for time to complete tasks, personal as well as in business it is a new trend which can do more harm than good. Have you ever thought you’ll get caught up on sleep this weekend? Only to wake up early thinking about how much needs to get done that day? Sound familiar? Truth is we all think as sleep as something we can get more of later, even when were tired we ignore our internal clock telling us to rest. However not properly sleeping can also to lead to long term health issues, all of which come with a cost, a hidden cost we’re unable to see. Medical issues/ conditions, obesity eating late then going to bed , diabetes, and cardiovascular disease due to lack of exercise as a result of having less energy which is related to lack of sleep.
In addition to lack of proper rest, sleeping less than seven hours on a regular basis can potentially increase your odds to getting the common cold! Resulting is missing work, if your company does not offer sick time, there’s a cost which we some don’t calculate. Tracking sleep is a challenge, How do we know how many hours we got? How can we tell our sleep pattern is proper for our age and weight? Unless you attend a sleep study we’ll never really know, however today there are a few resources to help keep track of all that, you can keep a log of what time you went to bed and approximately what time you fell asleep and when woke up, this is time consuming and for the most part not completely accurate.
One way I have stumbled into is the fit-bit it’s like a watch you wear around your wrist, it keeps track of how many steps you walk, how many miles, minutes of exercise as well as how many calories you are burning, and your heart beat. In addition it displays how many hours slept with and analysis of how you slept. Benchmarks like: Time awake, REM, light sleep and deep sleep, all of which we should be maintaining each night for proper rest, it is easy to set up and requires little work to maintain.
There is no question health and sleep are related to each other, we should keep in mind if we burn the candle at both ends…Soon the candle will burn out!!
~Stay Strong~
Did this help you? If so I would greatly appreciate it if you commented below and shared on Facebook.
~Steven~
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