Need Motivation? Sleep More
The Study | The Findings | What Should You Do? | Takeaway
Sleeping less is killing your motivation and mental health. If you want to tick off goals and be more productive, get some rest.
In recent years, supposedly successful people claim they sleep less than 5 hours a day to spend more time on work.
This trend has stuck around, but it goes against the 7 to 9 hours of sleep that biologists recommend.
Even the workaholic Elon Musk upped his sleep as trying to sleep less and work more hurt his brain.
A study finds if you want to increase motivation, elevate mood, and amplify energy levels, sleeping more and napping longer is the answer.
The Study
Researchers investigated how daily fluctuations in sleep duration, timing, and efficiency affected mood, motivation, and sleepiness.
The 119 participants were sleep-restricted university students who had an average age of 23.
They wore a sleep tracker and submitted an assessment on mood, motivation, and sleepiness twice a day. Once after waking up and once before going to bed.
Data was gathered for sleep on 2471 nights as well as for daytime naps.
The study has some useful insights into sleep which we can implement into our own daily routines to increase mood and motivation.
The Findings
Sleep longer, live better
People who slept more than their average for one night had a better mood, higher levels of motivation, and felt less sleepy the next day.
These effects continued into the evening, except for motivation.
My guess is that evening time is associated with relaxation and leisure for most people, which is why motivation began to decrease.
The study found that the positive effects of a longer night’s sleep were highest during the following day.
So to maintain these benefits, you’d have to sleep longer every night.
Researchers also found that less sleep resulted in a worse mood, aligning with the existing evidence.
When should you sleep? And for how long?
The study found that people who slept and woke up later tended to be sleepier during the day.
However, on an individual level, sleep timing didn’t affect mood, motivation, and sleepiness.
They also found that the amount of sleep required for each person to maintain good mental well-being was different.
Suggesting that there is no “one size fits all” rule when it comes to maximizing the benefits of sleep.
Nap like a baby
Napping can reinforce cognitive well-being.
Long naps had favorable effects on mood and post-nap sleepiness, as well as less sleepiness after waking on the following day.
These benefits were seen even after taking into account nighttime sleep too.
Napping could be a productive habit after all.
Bad routine, bad mental well-being
Going to bed and waking up at different times regularly will negatively impact your mood, motivation, and sleepiness levels.
If you struggle with some depressive symptoms like bad mood, low energy, and lack of motivation, the answer could be in your sleep routine.
Simply regulating when you sleep may help alleviate poor mental health.
What Should You Do?
We need to spend time sleeping, there’s no going around it.
Trying to sleep less to be more productive, or not maintaining a routine at all, are sure-fire ways to damage mental health and productivity.
Start by tracking your sleep and monitoring your mood/motivation levels.
This will help you figure out how much sleep is needed and when to set your going-to-bed and waking-up times.
Once you’ve figured out your ideal sleep timings, put it into practice and stay consistent.
You are then more likely to have high energy, mood, and motivation, enabling you to start every day off on the “right foot”.
But life can get in the way. Maybe you had to stay up longer to meet a deadline, or you had to wake up early for an event.
That isn’t an excuse to let yourself and your routine go.
Just like if you overeat one day, you get back to it the next.
Takeaway
Sleep is a necessity, especially if you’re someone who works hard and has goals to achieve.
Sleeping longer will aid success by elevating your energy, mood, and motivation.
Sleep duration isn’t the only factor though, you should also maintain good sleep hygiene.
If you’re tired during the day, maybe the boost you need is from a long nap rather than a Red Bull.
Don’t copy someone else’s routine, everyone lives different lives, so find what works for you.
Remember, sleep quality matters as much as quantity, and the same goes for work.
So try working more efficiently rather than sacrificing your much-needed rest.
Source:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389945723003611
