One out of two adults do not sleep enough.
The World Health Organization published an interesting study about sleep recently: one out of two adults in the developed countries do not sleep enough.
Undoubtedly, this has a direct impact on our health and performance.
Bonjour, this is Cyril from Work Smarter: Live Better. In this video, I want to share one simple piece of advice that can have a big impact on both your performance and your health.
At the moment, I’m in England with my family as we have decided to spend Christmas with my son, Cameron.
It’s rather cold and there is snow everywhere. We’ve just landed, and we are all very jet lagged and lacking sleep.
Matthew Walker, PhD, an expert on sleep who spent his whole career studying this topic, talks about its impact on our performance, creativity, and health. He has a few pieces of advice about improving your sleep.
His number one piece of advice is to go to bed and wake up at the same time every morning.
This is not really what many people do in the business world. You have crazy weeks, you work hard until late and then try to catch up on sleep at the weekend.
Matthew Walker suggests you should have a ‘go to sleep alarm.’ We all have an alarm clock to wake us up. What you should do instead, is set an alarm in the evening so you can go to bed at the same time.
You should ask yourself the question: “What time do I need to go to bed to be well rested the next day?”
When we work with leaders, one of the practices we do is called the ‘ideal business week’. Despite the fact it’s called the idea business week, the first thing we plan is their personal time: time with family, for sport, for hobbies.
My suggestion: include your ideal bed time in your ideal week.
For me it is 9:15 pm. That’s the time to say, “Hey, time to go to bed.” Then, I have a bit of an evening routine and try to be asleep by around 10 o’clock in the evening so I can wake up at 5:45 in the morning.
This way I feel well rested in the morning.
So, my suggestion this week: Think about your ideal time to go to bed.
Think about the time that you need to go to bed every evening. This will have a huge impact on your performance, creativity, and health.
So, what time should you set your alarm clock for bedtime?
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a good sleep.
A bientôt,
Cyril
