You probably also know that the most challenging part of the day is the nighttime routine between 7:00 PM and bedtime.
The reason why is simple, but not easy to navigate. It’s spending a full day at work without breaks and ending late. You face your exhaustion, and sometimes that is a very hard thing to do.
People dislike the feeling of being tired. We need to wind down, which really means face your fatigue incrementally; and if that fatigue is extreme, during out night time routine, we typically cover up the feeling of deep regeneration. It’s during this period that even the smartest among us make the most unwise decisions to cope with an uncomfortable feeling.
1) we eat,
2) we eat too late
3) we eat the wrong stuff
4) we eat too much
5) we may drink to… (water before bed, no good) let alone wine, etc.
6) while watching TV,
7) while working (even more)
8) etc.
Sleep always was #1, but in terms of our awareness, it’s fast becoming the number one keystone habit for any ambitious person, because it is the foundation of energy, health, and performance.
It’s a non-negotiable, and for reasons of productivity and success, for decades, it’s been treated like it was a negotiable, all to our own peril and dismay.But sleeping more and better, it’s not as easy as the directive ” you need to get more sleep” makes it seem; as if it were only a values issue that was preventing you from getting your 8 hours of “actual sleep,” not to total time in bed.
You may be thinking as you read that, that, “8-10 hours in bed!!?”. I would expect that, as that is a serious chunk of the day, but man o’ man, when you do value it that way, it makes the other 14-16 hours so effective. But to do that takes way more than valuing it; it takes a complete commitment to make sure that your waking hours revolve around optimal sleep time, given your energy demands.
Nothing, I mean nothing fully makes up for what is lost during sleep.
A masterpiece day is a day that starts with the optimal energy level you need to approach the day with zeal, outlook, adaptability and more; and without enough sleep, none of those attributes to your day are likely as you carry a sleep debt, and likely a trailing energetic debt. Energy debt will leave you persplexed if you don’t understand it and it will shed a dark cloud over your life as you wonder “what’s wrong with me?” There is nothing wrong with you, it’s just your body suffering from overexertion and not enough recuperation starting with sleep.
Your body has the properties of a battery and on a fraction of the charge you need to fully function, well, you will only partly function. But you won’t be able to fully function and that can crush a masterpiece day that starts with the night time routine.
Sleep Extension is the key to being able to have a masterpiece day, that ends with an effective nighttime routine, and that means getting a full tracked 8 hours of sleep or more. And that is why you start development a performance lifestyle because to live optimally today, you’ve got to be committed to the essentials.
