How getting better sleep increases both physical and mental performance
Background
Sleep is so important I have come to believe that it should be the number one priority in our lives as far as maintaining our physical and mental health. There is a good reason we spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping. Common ideas around sleep include recharging for the next day or giving our mind and bodies a break from activity. What actually happens is much more complex, but the benefits are clear. What’s also clear is that if you don’t get enough sleep your performance can actually suffer.
Why should I care about my sleep?
During sleep our brains convert short term memories into long term memories. Essentially what this means is that your brain decides what events or ideas are important enough to keep and discards everything else. For example you won’t remember what your classmates or coworkers wore yesterday, but you probably remember what your crush wore. This is because your brain has determined some sort of significance(often times tied to emotions) in this other person and so it stores more details and memories of that person. The same is true for physical and mental skills. With many repetitions and consistent focus, your brain determines this must be something important and it should store the information. Doing this every day will build “muscle memory” (neural pathways) which allow you to perform your desired actions more efficiently. Ideally you will have habits in place in order to consistently repeat specific desired actions. This frees up mental space and will power to perform additionally taxing activities, thus increasing productivity.
Additional benefits
Aside from the critical learning process, there are many more benefits to getting a good night’s sleep:
- Increased Focus
- Mood boost
- Immunity boost
- Healthier heart
- Increased motivation or will power
- Increased energy
Sleep deprivation consequences
In addition to not obtaining all the benefits listed above, there are also negative consequences that come from not getting proper sleep:
- Impaired memory
- Increased stress
- Higher blood pressure
- Increased risk of diabetes, heart attack, or stroke
- Increased risk of depression, obesity, lower sex drive
Conclusion
This combination of the learning process and the various health benefits of getting good sleep are the reasons why I believe sleep should be a huge priority in your life and a key to increasing your overall performance. The next post will go over specific actions and plans we can take to improve our sleep each night.
