Is busyness your badge of success?

I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?
Ernest Hemingway

Life is busy today in our modern lifestyle. There is no question about that. Business and life cycles move fast and require us to achieve a lot in our day.

In my case, I currently have 3 email inboxes (yes, madness I know).  Also, I receive instant messages from text, Facebook messenger, What’s App and Linked In.  Ahhhhhh!!!!  And, that’s only the communication part of the day.  Then there is the doing of the work.

I’m not telling you this to brag.  I’m telling you this because I know we are all in the same boat with the busyness of our lives.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love being busy doing what I love doing and I am an adrenaline junkie.

There is a trap here though.  You can start to seek out being busy for the sake of being busy because everyone else is busy. You can start to think that busyness is a badge of success.

This trap has consequences.  The first causality of being too busy is sleep.  We think we can stretch our day to fit more in and sleep seems easy to forego. I don’t really need 7 or 8 hours sleep, you think.  I can survive on 6 hours.  That gives me an extra 1 to 2 hours to get things done – to meet that important deadline or maybe just to be busy so I can talk about it!

In the latest National Geographic magazine there is an amazing article on the science of slumber.  The 2017 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three scientists who, in the 1980s and 1990s, identified the molecular clock inside our cells that aims to keep us in sync with the sun.  Its our circadian rhythm. Recent research has shown when this rhythm gets out of wack there is increased risk for illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia.

As humans, we have been on a quest to test this circadian rhythm.  Our first test was the electric light followed by television then computers and now our smart devices.  A full night’s sleep now feels as rare and old fashioned as a handwritten letter.  Yet, at what cost!

Neurons, some 86 billion of them, are the cells that form your World Wide Web of intelligence which communicate via electrical and chemical signals.  Scientists now know that sleep is essential for keeping your intelligence (IQ and EQ) network firing at its best.

So much happens as we cycle through the different stages of sleep.  Being awake is demanding so its in sleep that our body and mind recuperates ready for the next period of wakefulness.  In deep sleep, Stages 3 and 4, our cells produce most growth hormone, which is needed throughout life to service bones and muscles.  There is also further evidence that sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system, body temperature and blood pressure – all important for regulating our moods and for recovering from illness and injury.

While awake our brain is optimized for collecting information and while we sleep the brain consolidates this information.  At night, we switch from recording to editing.  We say that we are going to sleep on a problem.

Then there is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.  Generally, a healthy sleep begins with a spiral down to stage 4, a momentary return to wakefulness, and a 5 to 20-minute REM session.  REM sleep is where the fun begins because it is ruled by the limbic system of the brain – our ancient and fear centre of the brain.  The limbic system is home to our sex drive, aggression and fear, though it also allows us to feel elation and joy and love.  I’m sure you have experienced many amazing stories and fantasies through this sleep time.  You may not remember them fully even though at the time you were convinced you can fly, fight and fall.  It’s almost like this is the brains time to have playtime.

Some sleep theorists postulate that REM sleep is when we are at our most intelligent, insightful, creative and free.  It’s when we truly come alive. I’m not entirely sure about this since some of my dreams have been too weird and almost psychotic.

One of my close friends has suffered from epilepsy most of her life and struggles every night to sleep.  Her health issues are enormous.  I know she has made me grateful for my good health as well as extremely grateful for my ability to sleep well. 

I now make it one of my daily goals to leave my smart devices in the kitchen, dim the lights to promote the circadian rhythm, read a book and seek out my REM time.  I certainly find my day goes better when I’ve had a good night’s sleep.  This means I can be very busy during the day!

Don’t fall into the trap of busyness for busyness sake so that you compromise your essential sleep time.  Trust me, it’s not worth it.

One of my tricks to managing busyness is that I know what makes me tick and what I want out of my life.  My Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Programs are built around this one amazing premise.

The next program is on 13th and 14th September, 2018.  Contact me to discuss.