How Sleep Helped Me Achieve More In Life?

Does everybody out there want to achieve more in life? So-called experts recommend reading books, upgrading skills, developing your personality, working on networking, and so many other things.

Different sorts of people recommend different tools, practices, and habits to improve yourself to accomplish more in life; but I’m here to tell you to focus on your sleep. I’m not going to tell to you sleep more, nor do I’m explaining the benefits of sleep. The only thing I’m going to share is my personal experience and how I took advantage of sleep.

Very Personal Observations

Here I am sharing the impacts of sleep that I observed at three different levels.

1. When I Was Sleeping, Less…

During my school days, I was not sleeping that much. Whether It was about playing video games or exploring the internet, I was always awake late at night. At that time, I haven’t noticed any serious issues but after a few years, negative health impacts came to light.

2. When I Was Sleeping A Lot….

In my college days, I started sleeping a lot. I was literally sleeping more than 10 hours a day. Sleeping more is not beneficial as it makes you feel less energetic throughout the day.

3. Now I’m Somewhere In the Middle…

I’m not sleeping for more or fewer hours, because now I’m in the middle of the two extremes I experienced in the past. Now I balanced things and started getting adequate sleep and it made me more creative.

You know what, people tag me as a “person with a creative mind” after looking at me working in designing things, creative writing, and many more things. However, I was not even anywhere close to creativity a few years ago, because…

I never sang poetry in front of relatives as a kid. 😜

Never involved 😬 myself in creative activities in school.

Never shown interest 😏 in extracurricular activities in college.

Despite all these realities, now I am a creative writer, doing good at my job (At least according to me 😅). But from where did this creativity come to my life? Many factors are involved, but “sleep” is what I appreciate more.

It helped to be mindful, and think more about the inner self. Ultimately I transitioned from a mind full of clutter like fear, lack of confidence, unproductive and negative thoughts, to mindfulness. This transition helped me activate the right side of my brain aggressively and I became a creative person.

It Works Gradually…

Never think like you are going to drop or increase your sleep hours instantly. Things work gradually when it comes to changing your sleep duration. This is what I did to make things work:

The 21 Days Rule

I decided the sleep duration that is adequate for my lifestyle. I used to sleep and wake up at a fixed time continuously for 21 days. After adopting this routine for 21 days, I made it a habit of mine.

Clearing The Clutter

The 21 days rule helped me adopt it as a habit, but now I wanted to make my sleep more healthy. The first step was to clear the clutter from the bed and bedroom itself and make it a peaceful environment. To get more quality sleep I worked upon the ambience of the bedroom, adding soothing light, and an aroma diffuser. It helped me get quality sleep.

Conclusion

My goal was to be creative in life to achieve things I desire for. So, sleep helped me do this. What’s your goal? It can be earning more money? Cracking an interview or exam or starting a startup? You need productivity, well-maintained health, time management, and quality sleep will help you in this.

-Pankaj Rai