Why "Sleep Time" is not a Luxury, It's an Imperative
I have massive amounts of empathy for all living and working regional or global jobs based out of a country in the Asia Pacific Region, working for a US based MNC. During my expatriate years, the day would often start far before the crack of dawn with my US colleagues beginning their day in the US, and then wrapping up with the tail end of the day with those same colleagues just starting their day again. It’s up at 5:00am, quick calls, shower, then off to the office. For my day job, the region time zone for me spanned the start of day in New Zealand through to Pakistan covering 3am to 8pm Singapore time. Once able to sign off from regional meetings, grab a workout, shower and dinner, it was off to US calls with the global team that would often start at midnight.Combine that with upwards of 70% travel and sleepless nights on planes, sadly I was wearing 4-5 hours of sleep as a badge of honor. Together with my regional colleagues, we made a humorous video of things we did to stay awake during our late night calls in an effort to sensitize our global colleagues to our need for sleep and timezone friendly meetings. There is no escaping the challenge of business across time zones, but I realize I was my own worst enemy, by prioritizing others needs for my time, over my own personal sleep time. It was all optics and ego, about how strong one could be in the face of no sleep, the ability to push through and persist. What I didn’t recognize was that I had sub-optimized not only my physical health, but as well, my cognitive functioning around memory, creative thinking, decision making, learning and emotional regulation. It’s a recipe for physical and mental health disaster. I fortunately had an incredible doctor in Singapore Dr. Stephen Tucker, who exposed the fact I was slowly killing myself with my poor sleep habits, and got me focused on one of his 4 pillars of health “Sleep Time.” He became one of several important accountability partners in my quest for taking back and rebuilding overall wellness and resilience.
Research abounds on the impacts that sleep has on us physically and mentally. It’s suggested that 8 hours, on average is ideal, notwithstanding outliers of course. How often do we catch ourselves saying, let me sleep on that one, before making a decision? It’s not just cliche, but research by Healthy Mind Platter authors Dan Siegel and David Rock uncover that during sleep, our brains integrate information in highly novel ways and make connections that we may not be capable of seeing while awake. Sleeping allows us to consolidate memories to enable us to integrate what we learn into long-term knowledge.
The article 7 Ways Sleep Affects The Brain and What Happens if it doesn’t get enough by Alice G. Walton for Forbes, summarizes the key impacts nicely, and emphasizes: Sleep can feel like an indulgence, especially when we’re busy or stressed; and it’s often the first thing to go at these times. But as the research shows, sleep isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity, and brain will probably rebel if it doesn’t have enough. So it may be time to change our attitudes about sleep and give it a little more attention than it usually gets.
Hindsight is 2020 and now that I have embraced my need for sleep as an essential ingredient for my overall health and wellbeing, I have made some important trade off decisions to ensure I get my 8 hours average sleep. Winding down mind and body is key. Knowing when to turn off the social media, and email onslaught, slowing down my mind with short meditations before bed, and watching what and when I eat before I sleep allows me to actually fall asleep when I get to bed. Not keeping a phone beside the bed, and checking emails if I wake up during the night which only serves to spin back up the mind activity. Making sure I am in control of my calendar, and am thoughtful and more disciplined about making commitments that erode my ability to get sleep has been a journey over time to develop new behaviors and habits. Having an accountability partner to keep me on track has been a big key to success.
What new habits can you welcome into your life this week to make space for sleep? Who will be your accountability partner to empower your thinking and help you reinforce your new behaviors into sustained habits?
Check out this article by Alice Walton: Ways Sleep Affects the Brain.