Why A Good Night's Rest Matters
Having a stressful day makes me long for a good night’s rest. Even if the quality of sleep hasn’t been great, I feel lighter compared to the heaviness of the previous day. I am grateful for this habit of self-care.
"Sleep is everything. It is natural to our cells and life. No amount of drugs, caffeine or technology can ever replace what natural sleep and rest can do for our body and mind. We must sleep to heal the mind and body." — Luke Coutinho
I prioritize sleep at night. Except for days when there’s an exciting football match or an occasional late-night party, I have not compromised on my regular sleeping pattern. I’m in bed by 11:30 pm and up by 7: 30 am on most days.
Sleep is a natural antidepressant. It has given me the opportunity to win the next morning by getting important tasks done — my morning routine of writing, breathwork, meditation, and saying my incantation. This rekindles the fire that helps me make each day better than the last.
Giving ourselves time to heal through rest is one of the best forms of self-care and self-love. It forces a ripple effect that improves the efficacy of other areas of our life.
It is generally advised that we get around 7-8 hours of sleep at night. However, sleep requirements vary from person to person. The important thing to remember is that we need to be well-rested to be at our optimum on any given day.
There are some investments that my brother and I have made to optimize our sleep. I would like to share some of those with you…
We have blackout curtains that cut out any light entering the room from outside. They say that the room should be dark enough to not be able to see your hand when you hold it in front of your face.
We have a night light that is Wifi controlled. Post 7 pm, we don’t use a bright light in the room. Only if there’s an online session, we increase the brightness of that light.
We ensure that there is enough gap between dinner and sleep. At least two hours.
"Choosing the priority is as important as working on it." — James Clear
As we go ahead in life, let us focus on enhancing the quality of our sleep. With improved quality of sleep comes a highly functioning individual.