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sleeping your way to the top: how to use sleep to fuel your dreams

“I've got a dream worth more than my sleep” and other quotes like it have been adopted by millennials as the catalyst for late nights fueled by energy drinks followed by caffeine-induced mornings, but is this really the best way to achieve our dreams?

We are drawn to the idea that the only pathway to success is through sacrifice, pain, and a series of trials and tribulations. It makes success sexy and alluring with a dash of exclusivity.

If achievement means throwing everything you have at something and giving up anything for it, then failure (or at least consenting to mediocrity ) must equate overindulgence and laziness making sleep and the idea of rest it’s mortal enemy.

We see The Successful as these superior humans running purely on the steam of their dreams. However, time and time again we read blurbs of celebrities who are forced to cancel shows and appearances because their bodies had simply reached their limits.

Chronic illness, obesity, reduce sex drive, and mental illness have all been linked to consistent sleep deprivation.

While hustle, sacrifice, and self-discipline are major ingredients to living the life of your dreams as with everything moderation is key and balance is a necessity.

The national sleep foundation recommends adults should aim to reach somewhere between 7-9 hours of sleep each day, in order, to promote productivity and wellness.32% of successful people go to sleep at 11pm with 28% waking at 5AM (an hour shy of the recommended time) and 22% waking at 7AM.For most of us, that means going to bed sometime around 10pm and rising between 5 to 7AM. Leaving roughly 15 to 17 of waking time to get our carpe diem on.

still, no matter what it always seems like there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all of our task nor enough sleep to provide us with the energy to complete them efficiently!

So what do we do? Neglect ourselves and recklessly pursue our dreams with fingers crossed that we don’t self-destruct? Hideaway and resolve to love only our beds and our moms for all eternity?

Not quite.

The key to mending our relationship between our dreams and sleep lies in our personal understanding of how we need to sleep then creating a sleep routine and sticking to it.

Sounds easy enough right...

Many successful people have figured out how to make sleep work for them to propel them closer to their dreams by implementing self-specific sleeping regimens.

This requires an extreme amount of self-discipline and attention to your current sleep patterns to see if they are working for or against you.

Some important questions to ask your self when mapping out your sleep plan are:

What is a realistic bedtime for me?

The best way to start mapping out your sleep is to sit down and plan out your day the night before jotting down all of your must do’s and the time it takes to accomplish them.

Having it all laid out before you can make it easier to find to time to make sleep a priority. Start with planning for 8 hours of sleep starting roughly 3 hours after your last meal of the day. Moving your time up or down based on your self-evaluation paying specific attention to how you feel each morning.

What time of day do I feel most energized?

Leveraging your peak productivity times can make a dramatic impact on your grind.

For example: if you are most active and creative at nighttime it makes no sense to force yourself to sleep at 9pm just to toss and turn for hours in bed because your brain is still wired.

Tip: doing a brain dump before bed has been shown to help quiet the restless minds of creatives in order to reach premium Zs.

Try buying a journal to place on your nightstand and before bed write out a list of task for tomorrow or simply jot down everything on your mind laying it to rest as you close the book and place it out of sight for the night until the next morning.

How do I feel when I wake up?

This question should be asked repeatedly while setting your bedtime. All sleep in not created equally and the quality of your sleep is important. Poor quality can leave you feeling sluggish even after a full 8 hours.

How often do I wake up during the night?

Waking repeatedly during the night is a sure sign that you are not getting your best sleep.

tip: if you wake up during the middle of the night and are unable to fall asleep after 10-15 mins that light exercise or activity could help you get resettled.

You may also consider using a journal to write down any ideas that come to you at night to be revisited when you wake.

Is my sleeping space sacred?

Sleep researcher Shawn Stevenson, states that your bedroom should be a sanctuary for sleep. Setting you bedroom to around 68 degrees is optimal, keeping it dark as possible, and keeping electronics far away are some of his suggestions you can read the full article on 21 health sleep habits here.

I, personally, use sleep sounds to get in the mood to snooze accompanied by my trusty diffuser,

I’m sure by now your thinking wtf Jade!

if I don’t have time to get everything I need done what makes you think I have time to conduct a multi-step sleep analysis on myself and develop a sleep regimen?

Listen, love, I know you have places to go and people to see (or do depending on what you are into ) but You have to make sleep a priority.

Although sleep can seem like a waste of time, it is responsible for a wide range of processes that help us concentrate on important tasks and make sound decisions. It is a vital part of your health regimen akin to eating healthy and working out regularly. There is no reason to ever feel like your racing toward success; be patient with yourself and enjoy the process.

At the end of the day, you have to decide if it is more important to complete a lot of things haphazardly and in a fog or to put forth your best work and crush your goals like a boss?

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