It's easy to move sleep down the list of priorities when other things have to be done. It might feel like nothing gets achieved when you're sleeping. However, the time that you give your body to sleep is not dissimilar to the time that you need to do your admin and keep on top of general life chores. It’s what keeps us able to function properly during daylight hours and stay healthy. When you sleep, your body solidifies what you've put into your memory that day. This is why you'll find that if you memorise something during the day, you'll recall it better after a night's sleep. Sleep also allows you to multitask as well as to let your creative juices flow .
With famous leaders such as Margaret Thatcher claiming she ran the country on 4 hours sleep a night it might seem as though sleep is overrated. However it’s probably far more closely linked to success at work, in relationships and your life happiness in general than we might think. In fact, even Apple looks like it might be trying to help with the Bedtime function on the iPhone clock. This was launched in 2016 to help users get a regular night’s sleep and track their sleeping habits.
On World Mental Health day, I couldn’t write this without mentioning the close link between lack of sleep and depression.
So many reasons to prioritise sleep.
Sleep can feel like an indulgence, especially when we’re busy or stressed; and it’s often the first thing to go at these times. But as the research shows, sleep isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity, and brain will probably rebel if it doesn’t have enough. So it may be time to change our attitudes about sleep and give it a little more attention than it usually gets.
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