When it comes to quitting bad habits and leading a disciplined life (while enjoying it), sleep is arguably your greatest ally.
On average, a 7-hour sleep at night counts as sound sleep but if your lifestyle doesn’t allow that, you start becoming sleep deprived. This leads to a perpetually tired brain, with poor judgement and cognition. Lack of sleep starts a downward spiral that puts self-control for a toss. You start making bad choices one after another like:
Stimulant addiction: A tired brain looks for stimulants to stay awake, welcoming smoking, caffeine, and drugs. And the more you depend on stimulants to stay awake, even without realizing it, the worse your sleep gets, and the next time you need even more stimulants.
Eating habits: Less sleep leads to the release of ghrelin, a hormone that signals your body to feed itself. Research shows a 50% chance increase in obesity for people getting 5 hours or less sleep.
Not to mention, you get crankier and more impulsive. But what can you do to get back on track if enough sleep is not possible at night?
Try napping, especially during slump #1 of the day, usually after 7-8 hours of waking up.
Just put your head down at the desk with headphones on or find a quiet spot. Studies show that 15-20 minutes is the ideal time for a nap, neither less nor more. Do it for any longer and you risk entering deep sleep. This makes getting up tougher and you feel drowsy after waking up. At the same time, sleeping for less than 15 minutes is not enough for the body to recuperate, let alone the challenge of falling asleep faster.
Studies show that people who nap at least five days a week have up to one-third less risk of heart disease than those who power through the afternoon. And of course, you reduce the risk of all the adverse effects of sleep deprivation we discussed earlier.
Give it a try and let us know how you felt 😊
Happy napping!