Having trouble getting your ass into gear? Feeling sluggish or uninspired? Well, how many hours do you sleep each night? Six? Eight? Ten? While there are many studies and medical articles that suggest that 6 to 8 hours is the optimal amount of sleep, I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and suggest that there’s probably never been a truly scientific sleep study that included the most motivated, successful, or inspired people in the world. I mean, think about it – who the heck has time to take part in sleep studies if they’re actually busy living their successful and action-packed life? So the suggestions here are based entirely on anecdotal information. First of all, you’ve probably heard the hagiographic descriptions of how super-geniuses like Einstein, Tesla, or Edison slept only a few hours each night. Or maybe you’ve read about more recent examples, like these 23 executives who are up at the crack of dawn each day, taking over the world. Well, if you’re in a slump, and feel like you just need a little more sleep to get back on track, ponder THIS. Maybe you’re getting too MUCH sleep. We’re not robots, we all have little differences in what helps us perform better. This WebMD article points out the possible side effects of too much sleep, so why not ask yourself if you’re really just sneaking in the extra sleep to AVOID REALITY, and then feeling sluggish because you’re sleeping too much! I’ve personally fallen into this trap, and have a trick for getting out of it. It’s pretty simple. I GET OUT OF BED. A lot of us wake up once and make the DECISION to sleep a little longer. So just try it. Don’t ask yourself if you WANT to get up that first time the alarm goes off, just freakin’ DO IT. I and most of the self-driven, happier people I know will tell you that at the times in our life when we were most engaged and excited about our life and work, we couldn’t WAIT to get up, and almost RESENTED sleep. Give it a go. You’re already up now, but tonight, try this: instead of collapsing exhausted, lamenting how little sleep you get and dreading the crap you have to do tomorrow, try to ponder as you go to sleep the things you WANT to do tomorrow. You may just wake up that first time tomorrow with the desire to GET UP AND GO. And once you do, you may find that the only thing that had left you unrested was all that rest you’ve been getting!
