Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I used to be proud of sleeping less and used to have the notion that I am very productive. Ten years back, I was working in a business opportunity and used to quote that I sleep and wake up on the same day. Over the years, I realized that it was a wrong thing to do.

When we are sleep deprived, our risk of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity and cancer skyrocket. Sleep loss is associated with a 200 % rise in cancer and 100 % rise in heart disease. It also decreases our memory and ability to think.

When we don't sleep enough, we get fatter. Sleep disruptions drops our metabolism and ramps up food cravings, likely due to the effect on the hormones ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells us to eat, and leptins tells us to stop. When we are sleep deprived, we are all ghrelin and not enough leptin. What does that mean? We will eat pretty much everything that is not glued down, including the stuff in the top cabinet that is hard to reach.

To avoid this problem, it is important to keep a consistent sleeping and waking time, even on the weekends. We need to develop a sleep ritual. Do the same things  at the same time every evening. Rituals can be calming and help draw you away from the stress or high-alert state of your day.  They signal to your body and brain that its time to prepare for sleep. Your mind and body also need time to wind down before bed, so build relaxing activities into your routine. For example, write in a journal for 10 minutes, read a book for 10-20 minutes, listen to calming music, do breathing exercises or meditate. As much as possible, try to make it the exact same action at the same time every day.