Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 2m 467 #sleep
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Challenge of the Week: Go To Sleep Before Midnight
The joys of sleeping, the beauty and peace that sleeping is, and how most of us wish we could do more of it. We never seem to get enough of it and when we do, it seems it is hardly enough and we are even more tired. Lack of sleep has a major effect on all areas of life, especially when it comes to work. If you are going to work tired, you are not able to perform your job as well as you would if you were well rested and able to get to sleep.
While some of us can go to sleep at the same time every night, whether at 8 PM or 9 PM or sometime before midnight and fall asleep fast, there are plenty others who would probably love to go to sleep before midnight, but cannot seem to do so. I am so guilty of it, as I just end up lying there, watching television, listening to music, feeding into my Internet addiction, checking an empty Facebook, or doing something that is not sleeping. The hours seem to drag, yet go fast, and before I know it, I am counting down the hours before I have to go to work. You are guilty of it too, aren’t you?
This week is going to be different. You are going to consciously make yourself aware of the distractions that keep you up. You are not going to follow the same habits that tend to keep you up. You are going to change this week. If you eat before bed, you are not going to do that. If you drink coffee or have soda before bed, you are going to switch to water or cut yourself off completely. You may want to go for a walk an hour or two before sleep, take a shower, and even brush your teeth, which is your signal that you should not be eating, but instead, preparing for bedtime. No television, no computer, no cellphone. It should all be turned off or not be kept nearby. You can do this! It is just for one week that you are in this challenge.
Going to sleep early, before midnight, should help you rise earlier and feel less tired. If you awake early, please try to eat a nice healthy breakfast, which will help your metabolism and your attention span throughout the day. Doing so will also result in you being more tired at a normal hour, which should be close to or before midnight.
Let us know in the comments how well you slept and if you were able to get to sleep before or around midnight! You can also let us know if this helped you better focus at your job too!
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