Why Success Depends on Sacred Sleep: A Prosperity Practice
As I lay snuggled down in my soft cozy bed, slowly waking naturally at daybreak’s light, I thought: “Why is it so many so-called guru’s claim that “sleeping in” indicates laziness?” After years of neglecting my body (with iffy career/life results), I learned the hard way why success depends on sacred sleep.
Sacred sleep is a key part of your Prosperity Practice. While there are many other key elements to your peak performance: sleep is foundational. Sacred sleep is absolutely critical for your success! Without proper sleep habits, you can suffer from memory loss and health issues. According to sources you can also experience emotional instability, poor decision-making, and become a risk to others.
If you have a healthy practice of sacred sleep, you will find that you make better decisions, have better well-being, and find success comes easier to you. Whatever you do, ignore the so-called gurus that demand you ignore your sleep because it is somehow connected to mediocracy. This is simply NOT TRUE.
If you are ready to embrace a healthier prosperity practice that includes an empowering sacred sleep, lay down your false beliefs (along with your head on a soft pillow). This is what I have learned the hard way and how to make sleep a key part of your success story …
True Grit is Killing You
Success has nothing to do with how hard you work. True grit is actually not the secret to success. Our culture worships at the feet of misery. We connect misery and exhaustion as tell-tale signs of success. This Belief Structure (BS Structure) is killing you. Coming from a long line of overworking overachievers, it took a massive unlearning effort for me to finally come to terms with what actually drives real results in one’s career/life.
‘Influencers’ are eager to tell faithful followers how sleep detracts from your life. It is compelling because most of the diatribe resonates with your Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). This compounds your BS Structure that supports sacrificing sleep for just about any reason at all. Think about how many times you’ve stayed up too late for trivial reasons.
Sleep is sacred. It must be sacred because it sets the stage for literally almost everything else. You must eat. You must breathe. You must drink fluids. You must sleep. It is a foundational part of your life that, chances are, you have partially ignored.
Research has found that 73% of students do not get enough sleep, there is a rise in inadequate sleep among workers, and overall – Americans aren’t snoozing as much as needed according to the CDC.
“We’re a very engaged 24/7 society, and one of the first activities that gets curtailed is our sleep, and many people are just not devoting enough time to sleep at nighttime” – Jagdish Khubchandani, professor of health science at Ball State University
Instead of worshiping at the altar of misery and exhaustion, perhaps you can find joy in the fact that: the more rested you are, the higher your performance is. In fact, you are vastly more productive with a brain that can process information in nanoseconds without the interference of stimulants.
Unchain Your Brain
After my third concussion from being a competitive athlete, it hit home (no pun intended) how critical sleep truly is. What is sad that it took that many literal smacks on the head before I got a clue. I was genuinely frightened that I would suffer permanent cognitive functional loss. I was equally determined to do everything I could to heal 100%.
I found that local doctors were not much help and the effects of concussive events are not that broadly researched yet. Most concussive event victims do not receive the attention that they deserve. So, I dove into what research was available and applied everything I could to help my brain heal.
If medically cleared to do so (concussions are different for everyone), sleep is critical for brain healing. I allowed myself to sleep as much as my body needed for as long as it needed. This was 10-12 hours/day for 8 months and dropped to 10-8 hours for another 8 months.
This story has a happy ending! After 18 months, I realized I no longer had to take brain breaks quite so often and I could drive longer distances without frequent rest. Plus, my cognitive function and critical thinking skills were extremely sharp (actually better than ever!). The tell-tale sign was when I got 7.5 hours of sleep and felt rested.
After a few weeks of sleeping a normal routine cycle, I was overjoyed to realize that I was FINALLY HEALED. Even better – I had healed to a higher cognitive functional level than I had prior to the last concussion.
Interestingly, during my research, I also found that many professionals who experience frequent insufficient sleep have similar symptoms to someone who has had a concussion! Sleep deprivation isn’t to be sneered at. We justify making ourselves feel bad because we have false indicators of success! You are not successful because you work yourself to death or sacrifice sleep to meet external expectations.
Unchain your brain from your false BS Structure! The truly successful do not sacrifice sleep, they embrace it. Success doesn’t require self-deprivation, in fact, you must do the opposite.
Sacred Sleep for Success
I call sleep sacred because it is non-negotiable. I have been tempted to short my sleep for silly reasons. Every time I gave in, I paid the price. It might surprise you to learn that you cannot effectively make up chronic lost sleep.
In my Forbes article, Seven Self-Care Strategies Of Successful Leaders, I discuss how important self-care is. In an older and still relevant article, one of my fellow Forbes contributors mentioned how important sleep is and that make-up sleep actually disrupted the body’s natural body rhythms.
Please do not think that you can constantly short yourself on sleep and ‘make it up’ later on. That strategy simply does not work. Based on my neuroscience reading, two things are clear: your body demands consistency and habits are hard to break.
If you have developed a habit of insufficient sleep, don’t worry, you can develop better habits through repetition and patience.
Make Sleep Sacred
Stop taking sleep for granted. Whatever you do, don’t subscribe to the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mindset. If you do, you might be cashing in on that more quickly than preferred. If you need to get up early, go to bed earlier. If you aren’t an early riser, don’t feel that you need to conform. I allow the earth’s rhythm to assist me in a healthy sleep cycle. I don’t feel guilty for allowing the sun and the birds to wake me up.
Remove Smart Devices
Do not allow your phone, tablet, or other devices in your sleeping space. These devices interrupt your healthy sleep cycle if unmanaged. If you don’t have a choice, turn these devices off or on airplane mode. If you are an emergency worker, most likely you will have a pager or allow your phone to interrupt the Do Not Disturb mode for certain apps/phone numbers. You have more control over interruptions than you realize.
Ideal Sleep Environment
Make sure that your physical environment is ideal for sleeping. This may mean you have to take a non-traditional approach to achieve optimal sleep results! Temperature, mattress, sheet, and covers are all obvious choices. Do you need white noise or a fan? Consider whether you can benefit from an eye mask or black-out curtains. Limit sleep interruptions (this includes pets & loved ones). Some couples need to sleep separately for health reasons and it has nothing to do with mutual devotion.
Create a Prosperity Practice
Sacred sleep is one of the most important elements of your property practice and it doesn’t end there. What you do right before bed and just after waking up sets the stage for success (or sabotage). Winding down before bed, reflection, and shifting into a calm state are important.
When you wake, whether you exercise, meditate, or have another routine is based on personal preference. The key is making sure that your prosperity practice supports your goals. Each individual has different needs based on their Zone of Genius.
If you have negative emotions that assault you upon wakefulness, I recommend addressing them right away. I am a high-performer. For months, I had anxiety and worry pounce upon me first thing in the morning. It was detrimental to my life and my career. After several months of intentional work, I have achieved a state of calm. I also know how to implement immediate mindfulness actions should these emotions rear their ugly heads when I wake.
I will also share that it has taken me a long time to allow myself to sleep as much as I need without any sense of guilt or FOMO. Whenever I hear something that wrongfully encourages people to sacrifice sleep or negatively spins sleep into laziness/mediocracy: I remind myself that they are still slaves to misery. They have not accepted that success is sabotaged by excessive self-sacrifice. They subscribe to an outdated mode of being.
Unchain your brain, throw out your negative BS Structure, and embrace that your success depends on sacred sleep!
About me – My name is Erin Urban (LSSBB, CPDC), I’m a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, a keynote speaker, bestselling author, certified career growth and executive leadership development coach with almost a decade of mentoring and coaching successful professional transformations.
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