Are you adding ‘sleep’ to your task list?
Jo sovat hai voh khovat hai. Jo jagat hai voh pavat hai. (The one who sleeps loses. The one who is awake receives.)
This phrase was a common go-to statement in most Indian households not three decades ago. Thirty years ago, time had a different meaning. This was the time when most fathers were back home by five and eating out was frowned upon by all mothers. Unfortunately, we now live in a cold and rushed epoch where the degree of timelessness is a measure of success. It’s high time we questioned the veracity of this unnatural compliance. In an average lifespan of 60 years, is timelessness a virtue or a vice disguised?
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The young and dynamic entrepreneur is crafting the culture of our world and the history of his/her generation; it’s indeed upon their sturdy shoulders to do things right. But can this responsibility be carried out on cans of Red Bull and an unhealthy budget of 40 winks a night? The answer is NO. Here are five reasons why.
Poor-quality sleep equals nightmares at work/productivity
If you haven’t slept well, rest assured you’ll be unable to perform well at work. Not only will you make juvenile errors (that you wouldn’t dare commit on other days) but you will also be edgy and irritated, rivalled only by a ticking time bomb. Your colleagues will prefer to keep you at arm’s length and your partners will be wary of seeking your opinion. In order to keep such situations under control, you must first ensure that you do not take on more work than you can naturally commit to. This will ensure that there are no backlogs and pending work that could force you to forgo your sleep. When your mind is unburdened from the start and you have consciously slowed down in the steps you take towards your goal, you’ll never ever fall for the trap of timelessness or sleeplessness.
Sleep refreshes the mind
Our bodies are designed the same way. Their functions do not differ from person to person. It’s a consciousness machine like no other but when it’s unnaturally tampered and meddled with, it crumbles and collapses like any other machine. Lack of sleep because of work overload contributes to its deterioration more rapidly than other, seemingly more obvious, factors.
Sleep revitalises tired eyes and limbs
Extreme exposure to what is virtual, noisy, and unnatural has made the go-getters of today unhealthy, obese, saturated, and empty. While sleep is indeed a cure for tired eyes and aching limbs, the pre-requisite to it includes one’s slow but steady withdrawal from all things unnatural and laziness-inducing.
Sleep renews creativity and helps in problem solving
How often have you heard someone tell you to ‘sleep over it’? And how often have you taken it seriously or even shown curiosity to know its meaning? Not nearly often enough. And ignoring good advice doesn’t come without its share of side effects. To sleep over something means to let your conscious mind rest. Often then, the problem gets handed over to the subconscious mind which, from its vast inventory of experiences and memories, might throw up long-forgotten ideas, principles, and solutions. Additionally, it also means that sleeping would be a good way to get as far away from the problem as possible. In doing so, you will start seeing it from a distance and perhaps see fresh ways, paths, and answers that remained elusive when you were too close to them. Simply put, sleeping over a problem can help you look at the frame from a larger perspective and hence give you newer thoughts.
Sleep is a natural phenomenon that has no substitute
To not sleep enough is akin to not breathing or eating enough. It’s exhausting and with time causes the body and the mind to degenerate. To function normally, we must sleep the number of hours our bodies require.
The intelligent entrepreneur would know by now that the article does not support oversleeping in any way. Over sleeping is as much a disease as is sleeplessness. However, sleeping right is your birth right and duty towards yourself. When you sleep well, you live well and your waking hours contribute more towards your well-being. So if you’ve taken pride in going without sleep for three days on a weekly or monthly basis, know that the deprivation is growing strong inside you and will manifest itself in other unpleasant ways sooner rather than later. In short, to live wholeheartedly you must first sleep wholeheartedly.
