Sleep beats All

The title says it all. Our mind and body work in wondrous ways. And their most important resource? Time.

Your muscles don’t instantly grow larger after a training. This happens over time.

You don’t instantly understand a tough new concept after reading it once. This happens over time.

Regular breaks

The first lesson is a common one: regularly take breaks. I’ve found this heavily depends on personal preference. Some people like to hyperfocus for a few hours, then take a long break. I fall in that camp.

Others take a tiny break every 15 minutes. Studies have shown, though, that the tiny breaks—the quick naps—are generally more effective.

Even short breaks can refill energy, motivation, inspiration. At least, use them to move around, keep your blood flowing, clear your head.

When taking a break, it’s generally best to:

• Be physically active. Even stretching is good.
• Actually take a full break. Don’t go away from your computer screen for 10 minutes, just to keep working on your mobile screen.

Sleep is magic

The second lesson has even become part of our vocabulary. But subconsciously—most people don’t actively recognize this lesson.

What happens when someone asks a tough question? Or a question for which you don’t currently know the answer? You say: “Let me sleep on it.”

Why? Because it works! Sleep is magic fairy dust for our brains.

• We store things in our long-term memory
• Our brain keeps thinking about what we experienced
• Or about what we planned to do tomorrow
• And it tries to do all this by building associations and intuition between this problem, this new knowledge, and things you already know
• (This is what dreams “mean”.)

The best way to stay productive, is by recognizing when your head is full. Recognize when you’ve hit the limit of your attention, your memory, your problem solving. And when that happens? Simply say: “I’ll sleep on this.” And do that.

But you need to prime your brain to think about the right things. While you sleep, your brain merely regurgitates what happened that day. If you haven’t thought about your task for a second, it won’t be touched on.

The best way to ensure sleep literally does solve your problems, is to:

• Actively work on something for a small amount of time during the day.
• Write down your biggest issues, clearly, before going to bed.

Keep a notepad next to your bed. Your best ideas and solutions will come right before you fall asleep, or right after you wake up. And you will forget them if you don’t immediately write them down.

If you’re looking to increase sleep quality, read my course on Sleeping Hygiene.

Brain waves

In general, we distinguish four “states of mind”:

• Alpha brain waves
• Beta brain waves
• Theta brain waves
• Delta brain waves

Delta and Theta only happen when you’re asleep. Look up research on them, and you will see just how important and magical sleep is.

Beta waves are present when you’re fully awake and active. Alpha waves happen when you’re awake, but calm and at rest.

But there’s a transition period between these.

This means the moment right after you wake up, is similarly magical. There’s this phase of about 30 minutes in which you are awake, but still in that “dream” or “subconscious” state.

You guessed it: this is when you are most creative and find the best solutions.

You are also at your most vulnerable. If you have a bad experience during this time, it can easily ruin your whole day. If you immediately think negative thoughts, they will ruin your whole day.

Remember that earlier chapter called “first beats last”. This is another reason why that is true. Do the good thing right after you wake up, and you’re set for the rest of the day. Don’t do it, and you’ve already ruined your day.