How to Sleep Less & 'Live More'

I thought I would share something useful I have read with my lovely classmates in this free-style last post for this class. I have read an e-book by Kacper Postawsky titled "Powerful Sleep: How to Sleep Less and Feel Far More Energy than Ever." I have used his techniques and tips for a long time and I can say this guy knows what he's talking about. It's a totally different feeling when you wake up in the early morning very energetic, alert and excited about what this new day has in store for you. On the other hand, it's very depressing, at least for me, to wake up at 2 or 3 PM only to find out that more than half of your day has been nullified, canceled, gone.

I've always wondered why many babies and children sleep for much fewer hours than adults do. And I guess that besides the physiological reasons, kids have such exciting lives to lead that sleeping is so boring for them in comparison to what they can do when they're awake. They have so much to learn and experiment with. New words, or rather, an entire new language, new experiences, new skills. (I'm always in love with the magical moment of a baby's first few walking steps :-). I think everyone's lives should be one of such excitement and vibrancy, but the sad truth is that most adults forgot what it's like to be really alive and have fallen into the day-to-day boring rhythm of urban routine life. Here are some tips from the aforementioned book if you would like to enhance your sleeping system and make room for more waking-life excitement:

• Expose your eye to more indirect sunlight because it increases your alertness and inhibits the secretion of sleep hormones. (That's why we sleep at night and wake up in the morning:-). Open the curtains and don't overwear sunglasses.
  
  
• Take power naps. But make sure you take it at the right time -when you feel really sleepy in the afternoon and avoid late naps as they are night-sleep destroyers- and for the proper duration- the shorter the better. any nap longer than 45 minutes would turn the benefit into harm.
  
  
• Exercise in the morning right after you wake up for at least 15 minutes. When you start to move, it increases your cardiac rhythm and your temperature and slows down melatonin.
  
  
• Drink enough water. Proper hydration makes your sleep a lot more restful and deeper, because, remember?, during sleep all the important immune metabolic activities take place. And it all requires a great amount of water. (Which is why many people wake up thirsty)
  
  
• Make sure you have total darkness in the room your sleeping in.
  
  
• Have fixed rising and sleeping times every day. It programs your body to automatically rise and sleep at those certain times.
  
  
• Find your ideal wake-up time; the time you feel you are most alert you almost get out of bed automatically without any effort (or for some folks, battles). The way you find this time is through trial and error. Keep trying different wake-up times everyday, in 20-minutes variations, until you hit your target.
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The book is so cool. I recommend it to everyone who is struggling with his/her sleeping schedule.