Want to Know "How Much Sleep Do I Need?" - Don"t Make These Mistakes
I always used to wonder "exactly how much sleep do I need?" Doing well at work is important to me and I like to be on top of my game.
That's difficult to do when you're struggling just to keep your eyes open.
Don't you hate the fuzzy feeling that comes with not getting enough shut-eye at night? If we could only figure out what our sleep requirement is, then it would be simple to plan our daily schedule.
Well, here's your chance to learn from my experience.
If you can avoid these mistakes, you might be able to figure out how much to sleep every night.
Mistake #1: Just sleep eight hours.
That's what everyone needs.
If you try to find out how much sleep is needed by doing research on the internet or at the library, chances are you'll come up with eight hours.
That's by far the most common answer to how much sleep does everyone need.
The only trouble is, you're not everyone.
You're you.
And you have individual differences that may require you to get more than eight hours.
Or you may be lucky enough to need less than eight hours.
The point is, your sleep requirement is a personal number, not an average of all humans.
Mistake #2: Don't worry about quality of sleep, it's quantity that matters.
Wrong.
Six hours of really good, uninterrupted sleep probably beats ten hours of lousy sleep.
Your body needs a certain kind of sleep to refresh and repair.
If you aren't getting this kind of sleep, you might as well stay awake.
Mistake #3: Unhealthy habits don't have anything to do with my sleep.
Some people think that they can drink all the coffee they want and still sleep like a baby.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, never setting foot in a gym--they believe these choices are completely unrelated to their sleep patterns.
The truth is that choices DO matter.
What you do every day is closely related to how much sleep you need at night (and how easy it is to get).
Mistake #4: I can't change how much sleep I need, it's in my DNA.
Some scientists believe that we do have a personal requirement programmed into our bodies.
But even if that's true, we don't have to accept it.
If we make healthy lifestyle choices, we can reduce our need for sleep.
Our bodies will have less damage to repair.
We can also choose options that will improve our sleep quality.
Better quality sleep means we'll need less.
Start keeping track of how much you sleep and how you feel the next day.
You might be surprised by what you find.
You may need more sleep than you're getting, or you may need less.
But you have to find the answer to the question, "how much sleep do I need?" Once you know this, then you can start finding out the best way to get enough.
That's difficult to do when you're struggling just to keep your eyes open.
Don't you hate the fuzzy feeling that comes with not getting enough shut-eye at night? If we could only figure out what our sleep requirement is, then it would be simple to plan our daily schedule.
Well, here's your chance to learn from my experience.
If you can avoid these mistakes, you might be able to figure out how much to sleep every night.
Mistake #1: Just sleep eight hours.
That's what everyone needs.
If you try to find out how much sleep is needed by doing research on the internet or at the library, chances are you'll come up with eight hours.
That's by far the most common answer to how much sleep does everyone need.
The only trouble is, you're not everyone.
You're you.
And you have individual differences that may require you to get more than eight hours.
Or you may be lucky enough to need less than eight hours.
The point is, your sleep requirement is a personal number, not an average of all humans.
Mistake #2: Don't worry about quality of sleep, it's quantity that matters.
Wrong.
Six hours of really good, uninterrupted sleep probably beats ten hours of lousy sleep.
Your body needs a certain kind of sleep to refresh and repair.
If you aren't getting this kind of sleep, you might as well stay awake.
Mistake #3: Unhealthy habits don't have anything to do with my sleep.
Some people think that they can drink all the coffee they want and still sleep like a baby.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, never setting foot in a gym--they believe these choices are completely unrelated to their sleep patterns.
The truth is that choices DO matter.
What you do every day is closely related to how much sleep you need at night (and how easy it is to get).
Mistake #4: I can't change how much sleep I need, it's in my DNA.
Some scientists believe that we do have a personal requirement programmed into our bodies.
But even if that's true, we don't have to accept it.
If we make healthy lifestyle choices, we can reduce our need for sleep.
Our bodies will have less damage to repair.
We can also choose options that will improve our sleep quality.
Better quality sleep means we'll need less.
Start keeping track of how much you sleep and how you feel the next day.
You might be surprised by what you find.
You may need more sleep than you're getting, or you may need less.
But you have to find the answer to the question, "how much sleep do I need?" Once you know this, then you can start finding out the best way to get enough.