Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to just go to bed. If you have
Speaker 1: reached the evening and are feeling overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: Or sad or exhausted, do yourself a favor and go
Speaker 2: to sleep as soon as you can. Most likely everything
Speaker 2: will feel different when you wake adequately rested in the morning.
Speaker 2: So despite the widespread perception, most people do get enough
Speaker 2: sleep from a total hour perspective. In fact, the number
Speaker 2: of hours people sleep per day has been rising over
Speaker 2: the past few decades, according to the American Time Youth Survey.
Speaker 2: But what tends to happen is that people's in an
Speaker 2: irregular fashion, getting too little sleep in the first half
Speaker 2: of the week and then crashing in the second half.
Speaker 2: It makes for exhaustion and an inability to maintain good habits.
Speaker 2: While sleeping less in the first half of the week
Speaker 2: might seem productive because there would be more space for
Speaker 2: work and chores, if you just crash and make up
Speaker 2: the hours in the second half of the week, you
Speaker 2: haven't saved any time at all. You've just moved it
Speaker 2: around at the cost of a lot of unpleasantness. Far
Speaker 2: better to sleep the same amount every single day. In
Speaker 2: other words, we all need a bedtime. I tell people
Speaker 2: that you should only stay up past your bedtime if
Speaker 2: you have a really good reason. However, you don't need
Speaker 2: a good reason to go to bed before your bedtime.
Speaker 2: If you are exhausted for some reason or another, there
Speaker 2: is no reason to stay up. Don't fool yourself that
Speaker 2: you are going to get something great done. If you
Speaker 2: are exhausted, you are not going to finish any of
Speaker 2: your personal projects. If you are exhausted, you are not
Speaker 2: going to get ahead on work. Don't remind yourself how
Speaker 2: far behind you are and forge ahead. Don't try to
Speaker 2: have quality time with your spouse. That won't really be
Speaker 2: quality time at all. Just go to bed. If you do,
Speaker 2: one of two things will happen. One is that you
Speaker 2: will sleep to your normal wake up time. If you
Speaker 2: have gone to bed prior to your bedtime and wake
Speaker 2: up at the normal time, then you have likely either
Speaker 2: made up a small sleep debt or have banked a
Speaker 2: little extra rest. Either way, you will feel incredibly well
Speaker 2: rested when you wake up. When you get enough sleep,
Speaker 2: you feel like you can conquer the world. I am
Speaker 2: willing to bet that whatever seem overwhelming the night before
Speaker 2: will no longer feel overwhelming. It will feel doable, and
Speaker 2: so you will do it. Sleep is a superpower. The
Speaker 2: other thing that might happen is that you will wake
Speaker 2: well rested.
Speaker 1: Before your alarm. This tends to happen if you don't
Speaker 1: have a sleep debt to work off, and you are
Speaker 1: exhausted for other reasons, like an emotionally or physically rough day.
Speaker 1: When this happens, well, congratulations, you now have found time.
Speaker 1: It's found time at a point of day when people
Speaker 1: often hit their peak of energy. If you are up
Speaker 1: before your family or before you need to be, you
Speaker 1: could read, or work, or exercise, or do something creative,
Speaker 1: or sit there and ponder life quietly if you don't
Speaker 1: want to disturb anyone else. I am not particularly a
Speaker 1: morning person, but when I travel from the East Coast
Speaker 1: to the West coast and thus pop up at five
Speaker 1: am feeling like it's eight am, I am able to
Speaker 1: do all manner of great things before breakfast. Going to
Speaker 1: bed earlier than normal can give you the superpower in
Speaker 1: normal life. In any case, it's better than trying to
Speaker 1: forge John to solve everything. In an exhausted state. You
Speaker 1: won't solve everything. You will probably solve nothing and get frustrated.
Speaker 1: So just go to bed. Life will feel better in
Speaker 1: the morning. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, Book and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.