Everyone wants to have a good night’s sleep. It helps you stay healthy, alert, and impacts your overall quality of life. On top of that, it also helps you live a purposeful life.
Do you want a life where you play with your passion, play with your heart, and live the life of your dreams? In short, a life you love, without reservations, explanations or apologies.
If it’s time to say, “Yes!” to a life full of purpose, then the first thing to talk about is sleep.
Sleep?
If he sleeps!
As busy professional women, they know they can push their bodies, eat unhealthy foods, skip the gym, and still be completely successful in their business or career.
However, it’s quite another thing if you start messing with your sleep cycle.
Because?
Because messing with your sleep cycle means you’re messing with your brain. And messing with your brain is a big problem.
Not Getting Enough Sleep Affects How Your Brain Works
Have you ever thought about what happens when you fall asleep?
Although it may seem like you’re turning off and ‘turning off’ at night, the brain is doing the opposite: it’s turning on.
In the 1920s, scientists considered sleep to be an inactive brain state. They thought that the brain shuts down during sleep and restarts when you wake up.
Not so!
Scientists now know that the brain goes through patterns of activity throughout each sleep period. In fact, it is sometimes more active when we are asleep than when we are awake.
The effects of interrupted sleep, not getting enough sleep, and general sleepiness wreak havoc on the brain.
Here are 10 problems associated with impaired brain function:
1. Thought processes slow down.
2. Memory deteriorates.
3. The ability to learn and retain information decreases.
4. Slow reaction times.
5. Your mood fluctuates.
6. Feelings of irritability, anger, and frustration increase.
7. You are less likely to eat healthy or make good lifestyle choices.
8. Doing everyday activities becomes more difficult.
9. You have a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
10. Not getting enough sleep becomes a chronic way of life.
Then tell me: How can you love your life, find your passion, follow your heart, or live the life of your dreams with a brain that doesn’t function in a way that allows you to live fully?
4 stages of sleep
A night’s sleep has a predictable pattern.
Stage 1: As you begin to fall asleep, you enter NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. Throughout the four stages, NREM includes 75% of all sleep.
This is called “light sleep” and is characterized by slow rates of electrical activity in large numbers of brain cells.
Stage 2: About 90 minutes after falling asleep, the first REM (rapid eye movement) sleep occurs. REM sleep cycles about every 90 minutes, getting longer the more you sleep. REM included 25% of all sleep.
During REM sleep, your brain shows activity patterns similar to when you’re awake.
Stage 3 and 4: This is when the deepest, most restful sleep occurs. Blood pressure drops, muscles relax, and tissue growth and repair occurs. In addition, hormones are released, specifically human growth hormone (hGH) that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration.
As sleep progresses, you will experience both NREM and REM sleep.
Getting a good night’s sleep is so important to your functioning that when this sleep structure is disturbed, the effects are immediate.
Do you need a sleep plan?
John J. Beckley, the first US Librarian of Congress, said it best: “Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.”
Every day, I work with busy professional women, just like you, who have big plans for their lives. These are strong, confident women with aspirations and things they want to achieve. And every time, they say the same things. They feel as if something physically or emotionally is getting in their way.
When I hear those words, the first thing I do is assess their sleep patterns.
Because?
Because everything we do well starts with a dream.
4 Healthy Sleep Habits for Busy Professional Women
As a Certified Holistic Health Consultant, my joy comes from inspiring busy professional women to pursue their dreams and live a life of purpose. For that to happen, your brain needs to function properly. And that requires sleep. Sleep is food for the brain. Here’s how to establish a healthy sleep habit:
1. Personal agreement.
You have to block 7-8 hours of sleep on your calendar and decide that everyone and everything else revolves around that.
According to the National Sleep Foundation: “Adults ages 18 to 64 need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Adults 65 and older require 7 to 8.”
2. Regulate your sleep.
What scientists know by studying the patterns of electrical activity in the brain is that while your body sleeps, your brain cycles through two main patterns: NREM and REM sleep.
Your brain cannot function properly with irregular sleep patterns. His brain is designed to know when to wake up, stay awake, and come down. Lack of sleep regulation diminishes your brain’s ability to experience a purposeful life.
3. Develop a bedtime routine.
Your thoughts can keep you awake at night and decrease the quality of your sleep. One of the reasons for the night thoughts is that his brain has not received the signal that it is time to shut down to rest. A bedtime ritual, something you do each night to promote relaxation, can make all the difference in calming your thoughts.
Develop a bedtime routine. Take some time to relax before going to bed each night. Some people read a book, listen to soothing music, or soak in a warm bath. Use your bedroom only for sleeping.
4. Give your body what it needs for physiological balance.
Your body likes to be in a state of internal balance. This is called homeostasis and indicates a stable internal environment.
In order for you to get a good night’s sleep, your vitamins, minerals, hormones, and neurotransmitters must be in balance for deep, restful sleep.
You have to take sleep seriously. It is the easiest, safest and most effective brain medicine in the world. You deserve to follow your heart and have the life of your dreams. Living a life full of purpose begins with a good night’s sleep.