How to Sleep your way to the Top

October 26, 2019

I know, right? That’s a little bit sensational and that’s exactly how I felt when The Little Red Dress (a Women’s club at the Norman Manley Law School) asked me to give a talk with that title.

Shock and horror, but fret not! We were not talking about that kind of sleeping your way to the top.

I am a firm believer that there are only two things that you are supposed to do in your bedroom. Both of which begins with the letter “s”. Go figure!

So today, I'd like to encourage you to get enough sleep!

According to the National Sleep Council, people between the ages of 17-25 need to be getting between 8-9 hours of sleep per night. Anyone over the age of 25 needs to get between 7-8 hours sleep per night.

One of the reasons why sleep is so important is to remove the build up of metabolites from your brain. Metabolites are the bi-product of metabolism and even though the brain only weighs between 3 and 4 lbs, it uses up about 20% of the body’s energy.

So, every night when we sleep, our brain is essentially doing its housekeeping. Not getting enough sleep is going to lead to brain fog, crankiness, and irritability the following day - not to mention the aches and pains.

But more so than that, not getting enough sleep diminishes your ability to learn. Chronically not getting enough sleep can lead to your brain getting smaller. And that doesn’t sound good, does it?