Rest and Restore

Adequate rest, made a priority in your daily routine is essential to good health and mental stamina. It is often observed that too many of us rationalize or take mis-placed pride in 4-5 hours of sleep or less a night. Don't kid yourself: inadequate sleep is a sure precription for undermining your health, your judgment, and your performance.

“Rituals,” Arnot says, “include a set time with family, a set time for a hobby, for eating, exercising, and working . . . The way to get rituals to work for you is to be certain that you are setting key rituals (commitments of time) when they either work best with your biological clock or boost it.”

“Start,” he says, “by establishing great sleep rituals . . . No activity is more important to ritualize than sleep. Having a great routine that relaxes you and gets you to sleep and fixing a bedtime and a rising time will allow you to reap the maximum benefit from your biological clock.”

“Every top expert says that rule number one for maintaining your biological clock is rising at the exact same time every morning . . . the more we ignore our circadian rhythm, the more difficult it becomes to ignore it.”

“Research shows that . . .when you are sleeping eight hours a night and keeping a regular schedule, the interaction of the circadian and homeostatic processes will help you to maintain, a high, stable level of performance. You will find yourself working more quickly, more efficiently, and more successfully.”

If you want to improve your zzzzzz's, Gaiam is a good source of quality bedding, aromatherapies, and soothing sounds that will help enhance the quality of your rest. Another good source of soothing sounds is The Relaxation Company.