How Well Do You Sleep?

There are definitely some advanced topics when practicing personal effectiveness in your life – power persuasion tips, complex methods of introspection through meditation, advanced goal setting and time management techniques, but…

There are also some very basic fundamentals that serve as the foundation for improving personal effectiveness as we point out in the New "Beyond Greatness" manual…and they are:

• Self-confidence
• Action
• Diet and nutrition
• Sleep and rest
• Relaxation and stress relief

One of the most discussed and studied in terms of impact on personal effectiveness is sleep habits.

Should you be sleeping 4 hours per day or 8?

Should you become a free sleeper rather than having a consistent sleep schedule?

Should you sleep only when you are tired or force yourself into a routine?

Does shift-work impact your ability to think, function and reach optimal personal effectiveness?

Some very famous people have demonstrated seemingly bizarre sleep behavior including…

Thomas Edison who claimed to barely sleep at all but where evidence seems to show he did follow a free sleeper routing and had a high personal effectiveness in terms of his creativity and invention.

Winston Churchill also claimed to sleep very little – as little as 4-hours each night.

Donald Trump is another person who requires very little sleep each night claiming typically to get between 4-5 hours at most.

What is optimal for you?

After studying several successful people, it does become clear that somewhere between 6-7 hours is best for personal effectiveness with some people being able to do with less and actually maintain their level of personal effectiveness. 

I myself require between 6-7 hours and notice a rather significant degradation in my productivity and personal effectiveness with 4 or more than 7 – for me that is the optimal amount of sleep.

More important than the actual time is the quality of sleep.  There is no doubt that alcohol, heavy eating and caffeine all impact the quality of sleep.  So, it certainly seems possible that if you regularly have a drink of alcohol or coffee/tea or soft drinks OR eat a substantial before-bed snack, you could actually reduce the amount of sleep you get by cutting out these bad habits as your quality of sleep will improve and you will likely be able to do with less. 

Something to think about given that such a significant amount of our personal effectiveness has to do with getting the appropriate rest. 

What about you…how well do you sleep?

Jeff