Many productivity gurus online love to talk about waking up early and conquering the day before everyone else wakes up. The movie star Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson, for example, has said in numerous interviews that he wakes up at 4 a.m. to workout. There is even an app called The Rock Clock to wake people up early. Motivational author Robin Sharma is another exponent of this philosophy of early to rise and conquer.
If you’re an aspirational person, this does indeed appear to be the secret to success. After all, if you’re up early enough, you have time for your projects, like creating a home-based business or learning how to trade stocks or building your perfect physique, before you have to start getting ready for your regular job.
Here’s the thing: unless you get enough sleep every night, you’re not going to succeed at anything. If you don’t sleep deeply, then you’re going to wake up too groggy to be productive. Worse still, you could be ruining your health if you’re not getting enough sleep.
Let’s take a look at how to get enough sleep every night to ensure that you are healthy, wealthy, and successful in life:
Physical Reasons Why You Don’t Sleep Well
If you go to bed early enough but have trouble falling or staying asleep, then it could be your mattress. Look for a good mattress sale. If, for example, you live in Phoenix, Arizona, keep an eye out for mattress stores in Phoenix offering sales specials. You might be pleasantly surprised to get a big discount on some high-quality mattresses that ensure a good night’s sleep.
Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Good Sleep At Night
1. You spend too many hours before sleep enjoying some screen time on your favorite device. The bright light from a screen stimulates your brain to stay awake, and it’s difficult to slow down your fast beta brainwaves when you go to bed. You need to be in a slower alpha brainwave state to feel sleepy.
2. Your room is too bright because it has a large window, streaming in light from street lamps and passing cars.
3. Your room is too noisy, either because you have electronic devices on or because other occupants of the house are making a noise. For instance, people might have the TV on in the next room or be playing video games.
In order to sleep well, you must eliminate any and all physical factors that make it hard for you to fall asleep.
Psychological Reasons Why You Don’t Sleep Well
If you are worried about something, then your mind is overactive when you want to sleep. You may, for example, be worrying about how to pay upcoming bills, your boss’s negative attitude toward you, or a relationship conflict. The reason you worry is that you’re not clear how to resolve this apparently threatening situation. Simply deciding not to worry isn’t going to help.
How To Sleep Well
Find ways to reduce the high amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, in your bloodstream. One solution is to avoid eating foods high in Trans fats, vegetable and seed oils, fruit juices, beef, chocolate cake, alcohol, and fat-free flavored yogurts.
What Happens If You Don’t Sleep Well
If you suffer from sleep deprivation, then you are at risk of getting into an accident and even of rewiring your brain to create mental problems ranging from bipolar disorder to anxiety disorder.
So, Should You Get Up Early?
It’s fine to wake up early to win the day if you find that idea exciting, but you should go to bed early enough to get the sleep your body needs. You also need to be able to fall asleep quickly and sleep through the night. Otherwise, you may be up early, but you won’t be productive. However, if you’re wired to be a night, then just arrange your productivity schedule to suit your personal circadian rhythms. The main thing is to make sure that you get enough sleep every night.
Edited by: Jessa (March 2, 2019)
