Why it's important to get a good night's sleep

Energy and willpower are necessary to work towards your goals, and depend a lot on the quality and quantity of your sleep. When you’re sleep deprived, your brain is impaired and functions less effectively. Your mental processes become distorted and negative. You get easily irritated by what other people do or say. You get frustrated as soon as things don’t go your way. 

Without sufficient sleep, you find it hard to make decisions. Or you make decisions in a rush, without thinking them through properly, and without looking at the consequences. Lack of sleep can turn you either into an insensitive robot or an emotional wreck. At the same time, you tend to become irrational and lose all perspective and common sense.

Getting a good night’s sleep should be your number one priority. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, excepts maybe for natural herbal products. Any chemical you put into your body can affect your sleep pattern. If you’re a night shift worker, be particularly vigilant to get enough sleep during the day, and on your days off. Put all non-urgent tasks on the back burner and explain to your family that your rest and sleep come first.

To stay positive, motivated and focused on what you really want, you need sufficient quality sleep. It is during your sleep that memories become anchored in your subconscious: this is essential for learning and preparing for exams. In your sleep, you often solve problems you couldn’t figure out during the day, as your subconscious keeps working on them, without you having to do anything about it! In your sleep, all your bodily systems get rejuvenated and injected with new energy, this is why you feel so refreshed when you wake up after a good night.

You don’t have to wait to be exhausted to go to bed. Start making yourself comfortable between the sheets at least half an hour to an hour before your actual bedtime. Sleep is a progressive state of deep relaxation. You can initiate the process and feel your eyes getting heavy, while yawning sets in, and slumber eventually takes over.  This is a proactive approach that will have a great impact on the quality of your sleep. Read something inspiring. Take a few minutes to pray or meditate. Go go over the events of the day and look at them from an observer’s point of view, without judging people and events. Be grateful for everything you’ve got, even if it isn’t much. Be grateful that you’re breathing, that you’re in a nice warm bed, that you’ve got a roof over your head. Be grateful for yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Sleep well,

Bella

Painting: "Night Time" by Toni Grote