5 Tips to sleep less and have more energy

We all want to be more productive and energetic throughout the day. Let’s look at how we can achieve that with these 5 tips to sleep less and have more energy.

Health experts recommend we sleep an average of 8 hours a day. An equivalent of a third of your life if you live up to 75 years.

If you add the number of hours you spend eating, relaxing, watching Tv, and browsing Social media, that is another a third of your life.

It doesn’t leave us much time to live and do the things we love. It doesn’t have to be that way if you learn to live with ease instead of strain.

Why do we sleep?

Scientists have explored the question of why we sleep but have still failed to find a definite answer to this question. All we have are theories.

What we know for sure is that after a good night’s sleep, we feel alert, more productive, and happier. Going without sleep makes us feel tired and grumpy.

What the body needs

The amount of sleep one needs depends on several factors age, activity, diet and lifestyle, temperament, and genetics. I know people who sleep 5-6 hours a night and feel great throughout the day. I also know people who need 9-10 hours of sleep to feel rested.

In short, sleep is a way your body services and repairs itself.  Keeping the body in harmony with its nature can reduce the number of hours spent on ‘repairs’ necessary for the body to function at its optimum.

These are guidelines on keeping the body in harmony with its nature; if practiced consistently, it will reduce the amount of energy expended by the body. In the long run, reduce the number of hours the body needs to repair and renew itself.

Don’t deny your body sleep

The worst thing you can do for your body is to deny the body sleep forcefully. Do not actively deny the body sleep instead focus on making changes in your habits and lifestyle, and the sleep quota will naturally drop on its own.

Eat Fresh food

If you need eight or more hours of sleep a night, then you need to look at your diet carefully. Consuming vegetables in their natural, uncooked condition is essential in reducing sleep quota and increasing energy in the body.

When you cook food, it undergoes some level of enzymatic breakdown. Enzymatically speaking, cooking food above 118 degrees Fahrenheit is as good as dead.

The body is forced to create its own digestive and metabolic enzymes, causing you to feel lethargic.

Making 50% of your diet, fresh fruits, and vegetables can have many benefits, but one thing you will notice is that your body will need less sleep.

Simplify your meals

Simplicity in the meals you eat can significantly reduce the amount of strain put on the body. Certain foods produce alkalis, while others produce acids.

If you eat an excessive mixture of foods, the stomach becomes confused and produces both antacids and acids, which neutralize each other and make the digestive enzymes lose their edge.

Food stays in the stomach longer than necessary and weakens the ability for the body to rejuvenate at a cellular level. Additionally, the body consumes more energy, and the amount of time the body needs to repair itself increases.

Simplifying the meals you eat means not eating more than two kinds of food at a given meal. Eat vegetables with protein, Vegetables with carbohydrates, and avoid as much as possible to mix protein with carbs because they both produce acids in the body.

Work in batch systems

For most people, mornings are more productive than evenings. The reason for this is that the morning comes after the relaxation of a good night’s sleep. You wake up fresh and alert but start to deteriorate during the day.

The daily pressures of the day create anxiety and stress, which leaks a considerable amount of energy from the body.  Instead, immerse yourself in one task at a time.

Don’t check your emails while you work. Block out a specific time for each activity that way; your body doesn’t tense up unnecessarily. I used to run back and forth between answering every email in real-time while writing and worrying about all the other tasks I need to get done. I felt tense and exhausted.

When I became aware of my energy leaks, I created a system that allows me to work in batches. I don’t check my emails while I write, I don’t check social media while at work. I don’t think about work while I spend time with my family.

All these ensure that I do each activity wholeheartedly without leaking an excessive amount of energy.

Remember, when you strain your body, you will need extra sleep to make up for the strain.

Stress-reducing Practices in the middle of the day

Practices that reduce stress, such as meditation, yoga, stretching, including walking, can help reduce your pulse rate and help keep the body in a restful state.

If you check your pulse rate before and after stress-reducing practices like yoga and meditation, you will notice it will go down by eight counts to ten counts.

In the middle of the day, before lunch, skip checking your social media instead take a 15-minute walk or a 15-minute meditation practice.

If you continue to find time to fit this practice in the middle of the day, in 12 to 18 months, you will feel rested throughout the day.

You conserve energy when your rested and your body will need fewer hours of sleep