“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
What does sleep have to do with your success?
I have never slept more than 6 hours or less on any given night. It never affected the quality of my life. I felt rested and energized. However, recently, I’ve been draw to articles about sleep deprivation.
Maybe it has something to do with me being diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago, and the information I’ve come across since then on how lack of sleep (sleeping 6 hours or less) greatly increases breast cancer risk.
My curiosity about sleep deprivation and its effects on the body is why I discussed the importance of getting enough sleep in my post lack of sleep has dangerous side effects, but I wanted to share with you some insights about success and sleep.
While I may not agree that we all need 8 hours of sleep for optimum health and performance, the information I found connecting success with getting enough sleep ( enough for YOUR peak performance), from my unscientific thinking, has validity.
Michael J. Breus, PhD from WebMD says that in the short-term sleep deprivation will cause decreased performance and alertness, memory and cognitive impairment.
Arianna Hufffington speaks
Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, says that in the long-term sleep deprivation will affect your success. She made the connection between sleep and success when she fainted from exhaustion, hit her head on her desk, broke her cheek bone and her right eye needed five stitches.
Listen to her inspirational talk, laced with a touch of humor, from Ted.com, in the video below. Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Your turn
How many hours do you sleep each night? Do you believe there’s a connection between sleep and success?
Shameless request – If you enjoyed reading this post, fill out this form to receive my blog post updates by e-mail, AND/OR leave a comment below and share this with your family, friends and Social Media. – Thank you!:-)
Are you stuck in your business or personal life? If you answered yes, you’ll benefit from my FREE strategy session. Contact me today. You’ll be glad you did.
I ensure I get at minimum 8 hours of sleep each night; even if that means going to bed at 8:00 p.m. …for early morning meetings. I absolutely agree that sleep affects so many areas of your body, mind and spirit, and therefore would have direct impact on your success – your ability to be focused, energetic and active.
While in corporate I forced the 8 hours sleep because I worked most of the other hours… and would certainly feel a drain if I didn’t. As an entrepreneur, at first I felt guilty of ever sleeping – because if I am not producing, I am not eating. I would try to stay up till midnight pounding work out…but immediately felt the negative affect on everything I did…so I let go of the guilt, and made sure I got back to my 8 hrs….. it is key
I’m delighted you made a conscious decision to sleep eight hours. I don’t believe everyone needs eight hours of sleep. Some people need less and some need more. A person should determine how many hours of sleep he/she needs for optimum health and performance, and commit to sleeping those hours each night.
I came across an article on successful people who barely sleep. https://www.businessinsider.com/successful-people-who-barely-sleep-2012-9?op=1. I’m sure if we do the research we’ll find other successful people who do the opposite.