How good are your sleep habits?
Although our lives are probably more fast-paced than those of any generation before us, we’re still carrying around those same bronze-age bodies, built for 8 hours quality sleep each night.
That means keeping to the same sleep/wake routine, even at weekends, and avoiding a late night followed by a much awaited lie-in, which can impact on our ability to function at our best.
As the Nobel Prize winners announced today, short term body clock disruption affects memory formation, but in the long term it increases the risk of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
And that’s no way to create and sustain business success, or even promote longevity.
Here’s five tips for sleeping your way to the top:
- Rise as early as you can, based on your earliest practical bedtime giving you 8 hours asleep
- Don’t drink alcohol within 4 hours of going to bed
- Drink water before sleep, and as soon as you wake up
- Don’t use screens – mobiles or computers – withing 2 hours of bed
- Keep your bedroom as dark and cool as possible. Excess light and heat will upset your sleep rhythms
The scientists also pointed out that heart-attack risk is at its peak first thing in the morning as the body fires up the engine again for the new day.
Leaping out of bed and flinging open the curtains might not be the great idea you imagined after all…
Jonny