I've seen many productive people who hate sleep, and by doing so they’re doing great damage to themselves. I am going to reframe sleep for them so they can take advantage of the great mechanism that sleep is.
If you are one of them, this post will change your life.
The Problem with Productive People
When it's time to sleep, productive people want to finish the book they’re reading, watch the educational YouTube video, or finish the article they're writing, and they always feel like there should be more hours in a day because they just want to be productive.
They'd like to do something all the time. They would sleep as little as possible so they could cram more things into their day.
A little more understanding of what sleep does and why it's necessary would help them.
I learned about sleep on the Joe Rogan podcast with Matthew Walker, who is the author of the book, Why We Sleep. What I learned about sleep on that podcast was mind-blowinsleeg.
What Sleep Does
Sleep replenishes your body.
How do you get old? How does your skin become wrinkly? It's because, as you grow older, the cells in your body are dying faster than the rate at which the new cells are generating.
Every second the cells your body is made up of keep dying and shedding. When you're sleeping, the body is regenerating new cells to replace them.
So if the rate of regeneration of the new cells is higher, that means you will look younger for a longer period. If your cells are not regenerating at a good rate, then your skin will start looking old and wrinkly.
That’s just one of the things sleep does.
Now you can look at it this way: If you want to look younger for longer, if you don't want to get old, you should get adequate sleep. You should get as much sleep as possible, so your body gets enough time to replenish itself.
What Else Does Sleep Do?
I've noticed this myself.
When I practice guitar, if I'm learning a new chord, it's tough to play in the beginning. I practice it for a couple of hours and then I leave it. And then the next day when I pick it up, suddenly I've got that chord.
When I left it, I was not playing perfectly, but then the next day when I picked up the guitar, now I was able to play it. So what happened?
I mean, ideally, you would think you should start from where you left off, right?
So what happens is that when you sleep, your brain continues to practice the skill. The same muscle movement you were doing while you were practicing is happening in your brain.
And not only that, it's happening 10-20 times faster!
So, if you're practicing guitar, let's say, and it's sleep time, and you say to yourself, “No, I want to practice more”, you are actually harming yourself because if you leave it now and go to sleep, you are going to practice, without practicing, 10-20 times faster. And in the morning, you will see the result.
Have you ever noticed something like that? I have, and not only with a guitar.
I remember distinctly that I was learning roller skating. And it's my first day. I'm skating and I've reached a certain level of skill. I'm not able to skate well yet. I'm still falling. But the next day when I picked it up, now suddenly I was able to skate! Not perfectly, of course, but certainly better than where I left off the day before.
So, what happened? Again, when you sleep, your brain keeps practicing, and at a way higher rate than when you were physically practicing.
That's what sleep does!
So, the next time you're doing some productive activity and you want to extend that by compromising on sleep, stop and think about this. Whatever it is you're doing, especially if you're doing something physical, something that involves physical practice, and you're saying to yourself, “I don't want to sleep”, stop!
By sleeping, you are going to get higher, way more benefits of the same thing that you want to sacrifice sleep for. Sleep is the very thing that will give you that for which you want to compromise on sleep.
Does it make sense?
Sleep enables your productivity and success. If you want to be successful faster, do not go after productivity at the expense of sleep.
Here’s the reframe:
Sleep does not reduce my productive hours. My 24-hour day becomes way longer during the 8 hours of good sleep. While I sleep, my brain gets 10-20 times more practice or iterations of whatever I am trying to achieve during the day. In that sense, it adds many more hours to my day.
Say this to yourself whenever you need to. Thank me later.