Breaking the chains of Rest

Now you have my attention! Like most of life, there are two sides to the chains.

On one side is having too much rest. If you don’t get up, you don’t work. If you don’t work, you have more time to rest…but your stomach may rumble.

Most of us have the opposite challenge. If you don’t get enough rest, then:

1. We do not seem to be energized
2. We can be easily angered, frustrated, and impatient
3. We may be more susceptible to ups and downs
4. We may seek caffeine or other stimulants that may not help our body
5. Our judgment may not be sharp
6. Our thought process may be less innovative
7. We may become more susceptible to illness

Perhaps you can add to this list.

Most Americans have less vacation, less sleep, longer work hours, and have far more stress than even 10 years ago.

Something has to give. Usually the symptoms occur but we do not associate the results with the root cause – not having sufficient rest and sleep.

A few of us are simply in the cycle of life where we have work, school, young children, and perhaps a long commute to deal with every day. The chains of fatigue seem perpetual. Yet even here, children grow up, degrees are earned, moving locations reduces commute time, and other causes of lost rest theoretically disappear.

Then how come we are so tired? Most of us seem to replace one cause with another. Perhaps our current reasons are longer hours at work, new hobbies, sporting events, or late night television.

You cannot compete effectively in a global economy – being all that you can be, if you do not break the chains of too much or too little rest.

The needs might be different for each of us but we need to prioritize getting the rest and sleep that our bodies need. That may mean cutting out or reducing activities that are not essential to success. Half-way efforts in many areas = failure in competing in life.

It may seem strange that we can compete by sleeping but the right amount of rest does strengthen our body to help maximize our peak performance.

One little secret that I use and many recommend is a nap. I am a morning person. After an afternoon nap I feel like it is morning again. That gives me two “mornings” of peak performance each day! Obviously, I cannot take a nap every day but a 30 minute nap that recharges my batteries is far better than 4 hours of low level activity and performance.

I recommend you review your sleep and rest habits to see if you cannot break the chain of too much or too little rest.