The Value of Bookending Your Day with Gratitude

There is an epidemic going on today.  People are constantly complaining that they are tired and do not get enough sleep.  There is also the constant complaint that there are not enough hours in the day for people to accomplish what they would like to do.  Inevitably, sleep is sacrificed as many feel that it is a waste of time and we should try to sleep as little as possible!

Either way, sleep has been suffering and, as a result, so has the average person’s daily performance.  However, there is a way to become more productive and get better sleep.  And, by getting more AND better quality sleep, productivity will actually go up dramatically.

Let’s first address the issue of less sleep.  Numerous studies have shown that the average person needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.  This is not just for physical recovery, but for your brain as well.  A human can go for 3 weeks without food, but after just 24 hours without sleep, your brain will function with the same capacity as a person with a 0.1 blood alcohol count.  In other words, you will be as functional as someone who is very drunk.  If you go longer without sleep, the consequences are much more serious and include mini blackouts and severe disorientation.

Our Sleep Number

So, we need to sleep the “right” amount for our body.  How do we arrive at that number?  The easiest way is to remember how much we slept on average when we were on a relaxing vacation or weekend with no alarm clock, no schedule to keep and woke up feeling refreshed.  Regardless of if we slept late, what was the average number of hours we slept per night.  That is the number.

Now that we have a target number of hours, we can implement certain routines to help us fall asleep more easily and sleep well during the night.

Resetting Your Sleep Clock

The most popular technique that many have heard of is counting backward from when you want to wake up to decide when you should go to sleep.  So, if your number is 8 hours and you want to wake up at 6am, you need to be in bed by 10pm.  Simple, but not always how it works out.

If you have been used to going to bed at midnight, your sleep clock will be off, and you will have a hard time falling asleep before then.  So, rather than try wake up earlier all at one time, the most effective way to reset your sleep clock is to start to wake up a little earlier each day.  So, if you go to be at midnight and wake up at 8, set your alarm clock for 7:30 or even 7:45 if you feel tired.  Those 15 minutes should probably not make a huge difference, but as you move your wake-up time, you will begin to fall asleep earlier each night until you hit your target wake up time.

Technology and Light

The next major issue is quality of sleep.  One of the main reasons our sleep is disturbed is because the light from our devices affects the process of falling asleep.  Looking at our phones or computers until right before bed can cause our sleep to be impaired because of this light exposure.  So, to increase the quality of sleep, a good practice is to turn off all technology 2 hours before bed.  This will allow the natural process of falling asleep to occur without interference.

Bookends

The other issued with sleep quality is our minds are constantly thinking of the day we had, what we have to do the next day and any challenges that we are facing and worried about.  This is where we can use gratitude “bookends” to calm our minds and help us sleep better.

Fifteen minutes before going to bed, we can take out a notebook and write out the 3 things that went well for us that day.  This does not need to be some grand list of major accomplishments.  One of the items could be a simple as you took your daily walk or drank your target number of glasses of water.  The point is to express gratitude and go to sleep in a happy and relaxed from of mind.

Then, write out the 3 things you want to accomplish the next day.  This will give your mind positive things to think about while you sleep and very often you will wake up with new ideas about a challenge you are having because you asked your brain to think about the next day.

In the morning, write out the 3 things again, feel thankful for them, and begin to work on one of them immediately. 

It will take time, but when you get better at beginning and ending your day with gratitude, your sleep and your productivity will improve dramatically.