Sleep is recognized as one of the most vital pillars of physical health, along with diet and exercise, and rightfully so. A lack of sleep makes you irritable, reduces your productivity, makes you less attractive and not to mention it increases serious health risks such as heart disease and cancer.
With that being said, it’s never a good idea to ignore your body’s need for sleep. To keep your sleep debt to a minimum, try applying these 3 techniques shared by The Huffington Post to boost your relationship with sleep and increase your success every time:
Find your sleep baseline: Determine exactly how much sleep your body needs, not how much you think it needs. This will allow you to prioritize less important activities such as watching TV or keeping your smart phone in your hand all night.
On your next vacation or over the holiday, give yourself permission to sleep as much as you want while avoiding caffeine for 1 week. Keep a sleep journal to record how many hours of sleep you are getting each night and how you feel when you wake up. Soon you’ll be able to see a sleep pattern, a number between 7-9 hours that correlates with how many hours of sleep you need each night to feel your best.
Monitor your sleep without stressing over it: To help stay on track with sleep, track it! Every morning when you wake up, write down if you hit your sleep target. It’ll take some time to establish where you need to be but, your sleep baseline should be of great assistance.
On the nights you struggle, there is iterative visualization: There will be nights that you simply can’t sleep, which is normal for everyone. Counting isn’t challenging enough to keep your brain from going into worry mode so, skip counting sheep.
Instead, establish your breathing rate by counting to 100 in your head, allowing your natural rhythm to take over. Then, build a 6-by-6-by-6 cube of blocks in your mind, similar to a Rubik’s cube. 36 blocks make up each side of the same color; make one side orange, then one side blue and so on. You’ll end up with a total of 216 blocks to complete your mental cube but, you’ll most likely be fast asleep before you see your finished product. Take it slow, one block per breath. If you lose your place, don’t get upset, this means you are falling asleep!
Putting the effort into sleeping better will definitely pay off in your relationships, at work and it will make you feel better all around. Try these tips and let us know how it works out for you!
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