Re-Charge

Today I want to talk about the topic of Re-Charge!  Lately I’ve had an amazing re-charge experience in terms of getting better sleep and it got me thinking about how many other ways we can re-charge our lives at any time.

But first let me talk about sleep.  Years ago, I used to have massive trouble getting to sleep, it would take me ages and then I would keep waking up at multiple times throughout the night.  I’ve since been able to overcome this problem and for many years now I’ve enjoyed a good night’s sleep, or so I thought?

You see, I was always careful to make sure I got enough sleep because I was aware of all the problems than can stem from sleep deprivation.   I made sure I got a decent amount of sleep each night.  But you see I’ve always been a fairly entrepreneurial sort of person, not the type to let grass grow under my feet.  So I would typically burn the midnight oil working on one project or another.

It’s only recently that I uncovered research on why it is important to get to bed earlier rather than later.  What the researchers discovered is that our sleep patterns have evolved from the cave men days.  In the cave man days of old, people would gather around a campfire at the end of the day to eat, then following their meal they would stay up and tell stories.   By around 10pm they were all storied out and would start to go off to bed (or the animal skins or whatever they used to sleep on).   So by around 11pm at night, everyone would be sound asleep.

However, there were a few rare exceptions to this rule in the cave man days.   There were basically 2 reasons why a Clan or Tribe of people would not be in bed by 10pm.  These are movement or conflict.  So there may be rare occasions where a Clan would move by night.  There’s a lot of reasons why this was a bad idea at night time, most notably because this is the time when most predators are most active.  It’s dangerous to be out and about in cave men days this late, and you need to keep your wits about you.

The second reason could be some kind of conflict.  Either you were launching an attack on a rival Clan or a rival Clan launched an attack on you, or perhaps you were under attack from predators.  Again, you need to keep your wits about you. 

So your body clock expects you to also be in bed by 11pm.  That’s why around 10pm we generally start to get sleeping.  It’s our body’s way of giving us a gentle reminder that it’s time to get to bed.  The closer to 11pm it gets, the sleepier you get.  But if you’re still awake at 11pm, then the body automatically assumes that you must be either moving or in conflict and you need maximum mental capacity.  Your body then fires up your energy level to give you the energy that you’re body needs to deal with travel or threats and also supplies energy to your brain so that you can stay sharp and alert.

Have you ever noticed yourself feeling sleepy around 10pm and by 11pm you’re wide awake.  Now you know why!  When I discovered this, it all made sense.  I changed my sleeping patterns to make sure I was in bed by 11pm and something amazing happened. 

I thought that I was already getting a good night’s sleep, but when I started going to bed earlier it totally transformed my night’s sleep.  I found that by going to bed earlier, I could actually sleep less and awake feeling more refreshed.

It got me thinking about the topic of re-charge.  Because as a result of getting such an awesome night’s sleep, I really felt re-charged each day.  It did however require a massive psychological adjustment on my part.

I was used to burning the midnight oil and being very productive at night.  By going to bed early it cut between 2-3 hours productive time out of each night.  However it gave me at least that much or more productive time first thing of a morning because I was able to get up so much earlier and feel vital and alert.  I now find that I can be far more productive in 3 hours of a morning than I could be in 3 hours at night, plus I need to sleep less, I sleep even better than before and awake more refreshed.

It did require a period of adjustment however.  I mean, from the time we go to school, we’re taught to get up in the morning and go to school.  We come home in the afternoon and we have play time after school.  When we start work, we get up of a morning and go to work.  When we get home, we chill out.  So we’re used to the process of waking up, getting strait into our routine of getting out the door to head off to school or work or wherever.   We don’t generally DO stuff at home of a morning before we head out.

For me personally that was a big mind shift, because I was used to not getting out of bed of a morning until I needed to get ready to go to the office.  So initially I found that I lost a lot of productive time because I was losing hours of an evening and then simply not getting up early to take advantage of the extra time of a morning.

But like anything, it just required a period of adjustment.  Once I got into the habit of actually getting out of bed and taking advantage of the extra hours, I’ve found that I have been so much more productive.  Now I’m really loving it.

It has caused me to take a step back and ask myself, if I can give myself this re-charge by simply swapping my productive hours from evening to morning, how many other areas of my life could I re-vitalise myself in simply by having a look at HOW I’m doing things and asking the question, is there a better or more efficient way that I could be doing this?

Today I have 2 challenges for you.  First of all, look at your sleep patterns.  Are you getting enough sleep?  Are you getting to bed early enough?  If you’re not in bed by 11pm (and it’s possible for you to do so) then try getting to bed early and see what a difference it can make for you.

My second challenge is to look at other areas of your life and ask yourself the question, are there any other areas where you could make a change that could re-charge your life.

Tell me about your experiences in the comments below…