Your 4-Step Sleep Renaissance

Why bother with sleep? Life is too short to doze it away! Time to make use of your day, minimize sleep, and maximize work. You'll be much more productive that way. Right?

The insignificance of sleep is one of the biggest lies Western society has sold us on, and it's starting to show. Insufficient sleep is becoming a real issue, we could call it a "sleep loss pandemic".

This 2023 Gallup Poll concluded that 57% of U.S. adults said they didn't get as much sleep as they needed. That's a 14% increase from 2013. The problem and misconception is that we think the way to increase output is to put on more pressure, work harder, and sleep less. This does not lead to more results, but more health problems, less creativity, and eventually, burnout.

In this article I will make you acutely aware of a problem you might have been neglecting for far too long. I’ll show you what you can do to start getting your sleep on track for good.

I spent a full decade of my life being chronically under-slept and unable to fix my broken sleep cycle. I’ve tried a lot of things and failed many times until I figured out principles for lasting behavior change. I now routinely go to bed before 10 PM and have kicked the habit of blowing my brain up with work or entertainment before bed.

I coach peak performers to maximize their impact by dialing in their habits and proper sleep is by far the most impactful and foundational behavior you can build, no matter your aspirations. This article is the beginning of a series on stellar sleep called "Your 4-Step Sleep Renaissance".

Excellence is based on excelling at unexciting things because you are in love with your potential, and that's where it gets exciting again. I will show you how to establish a solid relationship with sleep and, if you have a falling out, how to make up.

Your 4-Step Sleep Renaissance

Here are the four simple steps we'll touch on in this article, that will enable you to sleep almost like a baby once you implement them.

Step one: Understand the potential of sleep & rest and its impact on your life. Why? Because if you don't take sleep seriously you won't prioritize it.

Step two: Finding motivation to change your behavior. This is about your reasons to change, those that motivate you to consistently show up at your best. Reasons lead to results.

Step three: The most effective sleep hacks. I’ll teach you three simple things you can do starting today to get better sleep.

Step Four: Making changes stick. This is about your mindset and how to establish a habit. It's nice to nail your sleep for a few weeks, but what about a few decades? Let's shift our perspective to the long term and think big picture.

1. The Impact Of Sleep On Your Life

To reap the benefits of better sleep and change our habits, we first need to understand how deeply sleep affects us. I'll give you an overview and then drive the point home using two studies.

Sleep affects your brain in terms of memory and learning (REM sleep suffers first from sleep deprivation), impulse control, reaction time, and mood.

Bad sleep affects your endocrine system and can lead to overeating and bad food choices. It can also impact melatonin and testosterone, leading to sleeplessness and lower muscle mass.

Your immune system can be affected by decreased antibodies and cytokines (proteins involved in the body's immune and inflammation responses).

Why Tired Athletes Drop The Ball

In a 2011 study, Cheri Mah, of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory, recorded the sleep patterns of the Stanford basketball team, along with their athletic performance. Starting out with 6.5 hours of sleep, she had them aim for a minimum of ten hours in bed per night. The players' sleep average went up to 8.5 hours and their performance increased dramatically. Sprint times were .7 seconds faster, free-throw shooting went up 9 percent, and three-point shooting increased 9.2 percent. The study also had participants report their mood, which improved significantly. Is it time to question your relationship to sleep?

Daylight “Saving”

The switch to daylight savings time in March in the Northern Hemisphere can lead to getting less sleep. Research, which is based on public records shows a spike in heart attacks the day after and traffic accidents the week after. Regarding accidents, poor visibility conditions might also play a part, but worse reaction times are a proven result of sleep deprivation.

This research vividly highlights the impact of sleep on the human organism.

Why Sleep Baseline Resetting Matters

The above-mentioned "sleep loss pandemic" gets amplified by what is called "sleep baseline resetting". This means that you get used to a lower level of performance. You don't notice it and believe "everything's normal." Except normal has become sub-par. Not the best place to settle into, if you want to do something magnificent with your life.

Sleep baseline resetting can make you blind to the impact of inadequate sleep on your life. You might have forgotten how amazing it feels to wake up after a night of excellent sleep, ready to rock your day.

I'm the first to admit to buying into the "sleep less, work more" attitude. Only after significantly increasing the time I spend in bed each day (to 9 hours minimum, shocker), have I realized how underslept I had been for so many years.

What if I told you that the fastest way to achieve your goals is to take a step back and prioritize your sleep and rest? To work less? Seems rather counterintuitive, doesn't it?

Making Sleep Cool Again

Our cultural beliefs make sleeping unfashionable. Sleep is uncool, unproductive, and something we can do once we hit retirement (if we don't die before that, because of the stealthy health damage of chronic sleep deprivation). It's fine if "most people" do that, but do you want the results that "most people" get, or do you want to carve out your own path and blaze the trail? If so, unconventional thinking and strategies are required.

Now that I've, hopefully, got you on board regarding the value of sleep, let's get personal. Let's talk about your motivations to change your behavior around sleep next and how all of this applies to your life and goals.

2. Motivation To Change

If you are neglecting your sleep I officially revoke your license to complain about you being:

• stressed

• depressed

• without zest (lacking energy)

• unhappy with your weight

• missing creativity

• not progressing with your business

• unable to come up with an idea for a business

It does not even make sense to address these separately before fixing your sleep first. Proper sleep is the lever that can move your world. Let's look at the three main areas of life: health, wealth, and relationships.

Fortify Your Health By Sleeping More

Without maintenance, all systems decay into chaos. That applies to your career, your relationships, and your body. Sleep is arguably the most vital factor for health. It is your body's way of creating balance. If you don't provide your organism with ample opportunity to do this, you end up with gradual decay. Let's be blunt about it, rather than sweet-talk.

If you put off taking care of your health to "tomorrow", who are you cheating? In the end, you cannot cheat death, but you can impact the length and quality of your life significantly.

Hit your goals by hitting the sack

A lack of sleep might be the number one saboteur of your productivity and success, so sneaky that you don't even notice it (remember the concept of sleep baseline resetting). The result of suboptimal sleep is a state of narrow mental focus that hinders creativity and obscures our perspective, leading to exhaustion and, eventually, burnout. Studies ranging from the 1970s to today show that sleep deprivation is a global health issue.

We believe the way to increase output is to put on more pressure and work harder and longer. Rest is unfashionable, uncool, and unproductive and something we can do once we hit retirement. That is, if we don't die before that, because of the stealthy health damage of chronic sleep deprivation. If our cultural values and conventions are leading more and more people towards burnout and we are in the middle of a global mental health crisis, maybe it's time to reorient ourselves.

Can you increase your productivity by sleeping more? It sounds counter-intuitive. From my own experience and my work with clients, I know that under-sleeping leads to under-performing, not to "getting more out of your day".

When you get sufficient sleep at night, you just feel and perform better the next day. Why do you think GALLUP is investing resources into researching sleep? Your nighttime rest has an incredible on your work performance.

If you don't believe me, rather than reading a book on it, try it yourself. My challenge to you: Try spending 1 hour longer in bed for a week, than you usually do. Write down how much you slept and how you felt and performed the following day. You can start reaping the benefits of proper sleep starting tomorrow and it won't cost you any money. The only investment is your time and the effort involved in changing your habits.

Nurture Relationships In Your Sleep

What do you do if one of your key relationships is strained or falling apart?

Allow me to share a novel perspective and convince you that sleep is arguably the highest impact intervention you can undertake to improve your relationships "in your sleep". This is a practical strategy to move forward. Sleep is one of the first habits I look at when working with a new client, regardless of the challenge they are facing. I am doing this because the impact of sleep is so universal.

It's common sense and experience that sleep deprivation can hurt our mood. This is backed by science:

"Sleep problems and sleep deprivation are associated with a decrease of functional emotion regulating behavior and impaired emotion generation.", that's from a 2022 study on "Associations of sleep and emotion regulation processes in childhood and adolescence"

In a social context sub-par sleep can lead to small disagreements escalating into full-blown conflict more easily, straining the relationship.

This is further exacerbated by the effects poor sleep habits can have on self-control. One study found that sleep deprivation decreases self-control but increases inter-personal hostility which can lead to increased problems in the workplace (Christian and Ellis, 2011). Another study affirms that repeated nights of sleep deprivation lead to problems with self-control (Thacher, 2008).

Here's a quote from a 2013 study on the impact of sleep quality on amygdala reactivity: "Self-reported sleep quality moderates the relationships between amygdala reactivity, negative affect, and perceived stress, particularly among men.”

With whom would you like to experience more harmony, happiness, and hugs? Might as well start by hugging your blanket and dialing in your sleep.

Your Motivation To Change Your Sleep

Excellent sleep is like fixing the engine of your body vehicle, having a deep conversation with your potential, and overdelivering for the key player in your business: you. Again: Sleep is likely the biggest lever on your health, work, and relationships. Let that sink in.

Now let me say this: You'll never change your sleep habits if you don't uncover your motivation to do so. It will just be more superfluous(ES) information, material for small talk, a book in your mental library collecting dust, changing nothing for you.

So let's connect with your motivation for a moment, if you feel so inspired.

Do you want to...

• experience your kids growing up and having kids of their own?

• be an example for them in terms of your behavior?

• feel great in your body?

• feel attractive?

• be your best for your partner?

• maintain independence as you age?

• increase your energy and productivity to maximize your impact?

All this starts with sleep. Some habits are "nice to have", but excellent sleep is a "must-have".

Here's another set of questions for you to ponder:

• What's your deeper reason for watching this?

• What do you hope to gain by improving your sleep?

• What area of your life do you want or need to improve most?

• What are the consequences of inadequate sleep in your life and what is it costing you today?

• What is it going to cost you in five years or even 10 years from now?

• What aspiration drives you to improve your sleep?

• Who do you need to be to get there?

• How would you rate your current sleep, from one to ten?

• What level of sleep does that version of you maintain?

• What happens if you just keep going and don't change anything?

If you feel so inspired, fire up a note-taking app or get a piece of paper and answer the question or questions that jumped out at you. It's a few minutes well invested.

3. The 3 Most Effective Sleep Hacks

These will yield the biggest effect with the least effort.

One: Start your day with proper sunlight exposure within 30-60 minutes of waking to facilitate a natural cortisol peak. That will help you fall asleep in the evening. 5-10 minutes on a sunny day, 10-15 on a cloudy day, and up to 30 on an overcast day. Look towards the sun but not directly at the sun. It is recommended to not wear any sunglasses. Adding morning exercise will further benefit your circadian rhythm.

Two: Add an hour to your sleep. Time in bed is called "sleep opportunity", actual time asleep is less. Remember the basketball sleep study and the performance gains these athletes experienced by increasing their sleep duration? Try adding one hour for one week and see how you feel.

Three: Your day starts the night before. Set an evening alarm and avoid work or screens before bed. Wind down and allow your body to prepare for a good night's sleep. Humans are designed to live in harmony with natural rhythms like the sun rising and setting. It's time to get back to that.

What tip jumped out at you, making you want to implement it into your life? How could you do that? You'll be blown away by the impact these small changes can have.

4. Making Changes Stick

Isn't it weird how some people seem to maintain great habits effortlessly, while others struggle with the very basics? That's a frustrating position to be in and these problems only get worse the longer you ignore them.

Sleeping like an athlete once in a while is great, but consistency is what will move the needle in your life. The best "quick fix" I can give you is a simple shift in thinking. Don't mistake simplicity with a lack of profundity, though. If you implement this today, you can start to see progress by tomorrow morning.

Establishing habits is not black or white, on or off. Many people think you either have a habit or you don't. That is a big misconception that will hinder your progress. Do most people maintain great habits in their health, work, and relationships? Stop listening to people who aren't achieving the results you're looking for.

Developing habits is less like flicking an "ON" or "OFF" light switch, it's more like a dimmer switch. You gradually increase or decrease it. Start thinking about habit progress and regress, plus one or minus one. As long as you are making consistent progress, you are good. It doesn't matter if there's a few minus one's in there.

Celebrate your progress and keep moving in the right direction. It's simple, but that's the most impactful thing I can tell you. Read this article again (or let your phone read it to you), reflect on what you learned, and most importantly: start implementing it. Even if you just put one idea into action it will have been worth it. Before you know it, you'll notice small changes here and there. Once those changes compound, your energy and your mood will improve, and with it your relationships. Please share this article with someone who needs to hear this.

Let’s Master Habits Together

If you want to take your habits to the next level, join my Keystone Habit Mastermind Group. On a video meeting each Sunday you can celebrate your progress with us, be coached by me and benefit from powerful group exercises to help you master your habits and get you lasting results. Check out https://www.mykeystonehabit.com for more information. You can sign up for a chat with me there, where I’ll check if it’s a fit for both sides.