Summary: <br> As you know, I tend to talk a lot about action because it is how I am geared and it’s what actually gets things done. But what I haven’t given enough attention to is downtime through sleep. I haven’t always been the best at getting more sleep, but this is a serious change I am beginning to make in my life. After adopting a nonsensical mentality of “I’ll work now and sleep when I die” for many years to keep up with everything, this change comes from many people close to me calling it out in my own life. I just can’t keep the pace up. This kind of lifestyle has become a real epidemic in 2015 for all of us.<br> <br> The thing is that I could tell you how busy I am, but my guess is that you are just as busy or may even be busier. There seems to be higher expectations, more work being given to individuals, much shorter deadlines, more people to please, and less time being given to families at home in order to finish this work. Let’s face it – most of our lack of sleep is due to stress or staying up to finish work. While more and more people push society with higher expectations, I want to challenge you to not fall for this trap. The more we give into these false standards, the more stress that we voluntarily bring upon ourselves.<br> I saw signs pointing to this struggle in a documentary I recently watched entitled <a href="http://www.thehappymovie.com/film/">Happy</a>. This documentary is about what makes people happy, but in an effort to see the flip-side of happiness, the documentary also talked about Japan’s workforce literally working themselves to death. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-hendry/happiness-tips_b_3672326.html">Karoshi</a> as it has been named, is such a problem with employees due to Japan not having regulated overtime laws that people have given it a name. Yes, <a href="http://nypost.com/2015/02/06/japans-plan-to-stop-employees-from-working-themselves-to-death/">it looks like there is an effort to make this issue better</a>, but I think it points to a much larger mindset we have all created – one that rewards more work and punishes the rejuvenation we need that is found in sleep.<br> Health not only includes eating healthy and the workouts that most people think of when they hear the word, but also sleep. Maybe when you were younger you thought you could take on the world and keep going no matter what detriment you brought to your body, but have realized that this isn’t a manageable reality. At least it’s not a reality for people who want to get more done. Action is just part of the equation of accomplishing more. You need the fuel found in sleep to finish what you started, because without it a struggle with lack of energy and burnout are both close by.<br> If you think that more sleep each night sounds great, but you are having trouble finding the good night’s sleep you are looking for, here are 25 tips to help you:<br> <br> * Start the day out with exercise.<br> * Have a regular meditation time.<br> * Write down a to-do list for the next day to get everything out of your mind for the evening. Get ahead and stay ahead by doing this.<br> * Eliminate caffeine or only consume it in the early afternoon or before.<br> * Be smart with napping.<br> * Stay away from large meals at night.<br> * Stop drinking after 8pm.<br> * Implement deep breathing exercises.<br> * Know what is mentally relaxing and go there to unwind from stress.<br> * Power down an hour before bedtime.<br> * Set a regular bedtime.<br> * Wake up at the same time every day.<br> * Increase light exposure during the day.<br> * Avoid brighter lights before bedtime.<br> * Take a hot bath.<br> * Try aromatherapy.<br> * Dont stress about sleep.<br> * Paint your bedroom a softer color.<br> * Keep “white noise” in the background.<br> * Make sure bedroom is a cooler temperature.<br>
