The Risks of Not Getting Enough Sleep

A few years ago I read an article about how all successful people are multi-tasker’s. The article went on to show people who would balance several different tasks and “get a tremendous amount of tasks” accomplished, I was hooked. I would look for every chance I could to multi-task and took on way more than I could handle.

Soon I had so much to do I had to stay up late to get it all done. I would promise people I would do this and that and it got to the point where I would only get two to four hour’s of sleep a night. At first I would wake up at 2 a.m. for work and feel really tired but I downed a 32 oz Mountain Dew and convinced myself this is how all great, successful multi-tasker’s do things.

A couple of months later I was driving the bread truck in the morning, I already had my Mountain Dew, I gave myself the peep talk but none of it was working, I couldn’t keep my eye’s open. I was driving and gave in a just a few seconds (it honestly might have been 40 seconds to a minute) and closed my eyes, when I opened them I was heading head on into a building. The thing was I would have had enough distance to stop but there was snow on the ground. So I screamed, hit the brakes and watched the truck slide, I had about 15 feet before I would have hit the building, I was safe but the truck was messed up, all the bread was all over the place, one tire was ripped because I ran over a large curb.

At that moment I realized the article I read was WRONG, and I had taken on too much! I sacrificed sleep thinking I was getting more done. I want to tell you from personal experience that multi-tasking doesn’t work out better than taking tasks one at a time and you need to get the proper amount of sleep.

I know it’s tempting to push through, get a little less sleep to “get things done” but it’s not worth it and you will sacrifice the next day and maybe even your week. Our bodies need sleep to get refreshed from all the wear and tear of the day, to heal any sickness we have, to get the energy we’re going to need for the next day. I could give you study after study about sleep but you already know how important sleep is!

So I have to ask: are you getting enough sleep? Could you get more accomplished if you slept more?

P.S. Here is a great post to read about napping:http://michaelhyatt.com/why-you-should-take-a-nap-every-day.html