We continue our Dadly Daily Declaration series today with readings from Robin Sharma‘s newest book, The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life.
Today’s reading focuses on the importance of rest and sleep. Here are a few gems from today’s reading:
- Research is now confirming that the blue light emitted from our tools of technology reduces the amount of melatonin within us. Melatonin is the chemical that informs your body that it needs to get sleep. There’s zero doubt that checking your gadgets all day long impairs cognitive function. And there’s no question at all that being in front of your screens before bedtime causes sleep dysfunction.
- When we don’t sleep enough, not only is it fiercely difficult to get up early, but a number of other highly damaging things impair your productivity and minimize your performance along with reducing your happiness and eroding your health.
- Well, when you sleep—and the key here is not only the quantity of sleep but the quality of your sleep states—your neurons shrink by 60% as cerebral spinal fluid washes through your brain. It’s also been discovered that the lymphatic system, which was previously believed to be only in your body, is in your skull, too. All this means that we, as human beings, have evolutionarily architected a powerful process to essentially wash the brain so it stays in optimum condition. And this cleansing mechanism only happens while we sleep.
- HGH, human growth hormone, is produced in the pituitary gland of the brain and is important for healthy tissues in your body, a strong functioning metabolism and a long lifespan. Increased levels of HGH raise your moods, cognition, energy levels and lean muscle mass, while reducing your cravings through the regulation of leptin and ghrelin. Here’s the main point: while HGH is released through exercise, which is part of the reason pocket number one of The 20/20/20 Formula is such a game-changer, 75% of HGH production happens when you sleep! And here’s the real key: to maximize the process of the brain being washed properly and HGH being produced excellently so you expand your creativity, productivity, vitality and longevity, you need five complete ninety-minute sleep cycles. That’s what the scientific studies are now confirming. That’s seven and a half hours of sleep each night.
- You also should know that research proves that it’s not only sleep-deprivation that kills. Over-sleep, nine or more hours, also has been shown to shorten life.
Included in this chapter is a diagram of the last three hours of your day. This diagram includes a breakdown of those hours designed to enhance your sleep, though you can modify the routine to fit your needs. Below is the diagram:
Those quotes lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
Deep sleep is an element of sustained elite creativity, peak productivity and rare-air performance. It’s not only the calibration of the first hour of your day that’s mission essential for leadership excellence and exponential productivity but also the management of the last hour of your evening, if you’re truly serious about experiencing premium results.
What makes genius-level performance is a delicate balance between the mastery of your morning routine and the optimization of your nightly ritual.
