Get Sleep Be Happy? Sleep is a Vibe of Good.

Sleep is a Vibe of Good

When you are able to sleep, soundly for a solid 8-hour period you do yourself a huge service. Sleep is a good vibe to get and remain in the gateway of the good feels. Today, sleep eludes many and its importance should not be overlooked.

Anyone who has been gifted with the life of a child knows the physical effects of sleep deprivation. When you do become a parent, you discover a newfound appreciation for fulfilling sleep requirements for your new baby, and also for yourself. If anyone advises you to sleep when the baby sleeps, get on down with a good nap.

Dialing in some good sleep to honour and respect your mental and physical capacities, is a vibe to be harnessed.

It is going on 3 am and I cannot sleep and I know that it would impact me if I had to be up early. You don’t need to be a fancy scientist or have a deep understanding of physiology to know that when sleep doesn’t happen, strange things do.

There have been many a study performed by scientists as to a clearly delineated explanation as to why we, as humans, need our sleep. I have experienced fatigue and exhaustion, and one time hallucinations because of lack of sleep. I know all too well, through life experience that when you are running on empty in terms of your slumber, your world dials in on a lower and somewhat strange feels frequency.

You may deem sleep a time of rest. In a manner of speaking, it sure seems so, but in actual fact, there is a ton of activity that occurs during sleep in terms of processing, restoring and strengthening of our systems. The deeper wave states of the brain are encompassed during sleep. ATP is the molecule in the body used for short term storage and transport of energy – when sleeping the brain restores this molecule.

In a quiet waking state the brain is responsible for twenty percent of the body’s energy use, so sleeping has a noticeable effect on energy consumption.

There are 2 broad types of which sleep is divided: non-REM/NREM sleep and REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement – these two types of sleep vary so widely from one another that physiologists distinguish them as distinct behavioural states. NREM sleep is the first occurring state after a period called slow-wave sleep or deep sleep where the brain utilizes less energy and the body’s temperature and heart rate descend.

The paradoxical sleep of REM sleep is indicative of a smaller portion of sleeping time associated with faster and unsynchronized brain wave movement, fast eye movements, loss of muscle tone and finally the suspension of homeostasis (suspending the state of steady internal conditions maintained by the living)

Sleeping enhances your well-being because it allows you to be chill and allows your system to realign without your conscious participation. Our bodies are immaculately designed and phenomenally mind blowing amazeballs if you take a few to have a little think about that.

The miracle that is your essence of Life Force is something that you would do well to celebrate and acknowledge with some fervour.

Sleep is a necessity and as you go through life, you learn to appreciate the value of it more and more as your body advances in time you know only too well that sleeping yields all kinds of good.

The mental benefits of sleeping and the physical benefits of sleeping compile a long and worthy list. I know as a Mama Bear, I can parent on 3 hours of sleep and I can parent on 8 hours of sleep as that is that nature of that particular game, but I am a much more connected, patient and regulated Mama Bear making more empowered choices when I have had sufficient sleep.

That’s me, below, before I was a Mama Bear and could just willie nillie take naps, mouth catching flies, on the beach whenever it suited me. Surf, sand, sleep? Uh, yes please 🙂

It really is remarkable how powerful the human body is. I learned that sleep induces the production of prolactin in the body – the hormone that allows a woman to breast feed successfully – growing a human and then caring for them with a wacky sleep schedule while still giving them life from your body – how ultimately divinely insane and cool is it that we are able to do this??

Men and women of all kinds have survived days with sleep deprivation. In some respects I would go so far as to say I have witnessed that in some aspects of the collective consciousness, the lack of sleep amongst most “functioning” humans is an epidemic.

I understand the value of working hard to achieve a goal, but if you are doing so at the detriment of your own being, then all the rewards you reap from that will prove useless as you won’t have the capacity to enjoy the fruits of your efforts. Backwards, right? Be chill, sleep sufficiently and regulate your system to its optimal performance and you can dial in the same productivity in half the time.

It is a mindset and state of being shift and all you need to do is commit to respecting your system enough to know that sufficient sleep is where it is at!

Sleep helps you regulate your body. It lends itself to lower blood pressure and supports heart health. It promotes clarity of mind and energetic alertness. If you are sleep deprived, it is not a good vibe. It filters into your activities, your relationships and your performance. It is an act of self-respect to make your state of well-being a priority.

If you have a fast paced lifestyle it can be tricky to endeavour to fulfilling sleep requirements but no need to worry! There is a secret to the goodvibes and it is all kinds of effective:

The Art of the Afternoon Nap

Your initial reaction may be “No way! I can’t nap in the middle of the afternoon!” but I am here to tell you, that no matter your station in life, if you are intent on making an afternoon nap a part of your lifestyle, then you, my good vibe companion, can make this a reality.

Living in Mexico I harnessed a very good vibe down there. I did a bicycle ride down to the beach, have an hour paddle, dial in some outdoor yoga and then home to dial in some food, some time with my boys and then….la pièce de resistance, una siesta! For those of you unfamiliar with the Spanish language, siesta means nap. It is actually a pretty universal word though, so let’s dial that in!

A while back, when I read that taking a specific 20-minute nap to boost your mental and physical acuity during the entirety of your day, I was pretty sure that whomever suggested this, was confused. How can anyone possibly gain from a mere 20 minutes of sleep? It practically takes me 20 minutes just to get to sleep…am I right?

The thing of it is, though, that INTENT is super powerful. I know this because after learning about the power of intent and taking that information as value and seriously, you can really achieve some powerful results. When I intended on blocking out 30 minutes to have 5 minutes on either end of this ridiculous experiment, I did so with a full commitment to dialing it in with precision to test the results of the 20-minute nap endorsement.

Let me tell you fellow humans riding the goodvibelife that the results were undeniable, and went from a first timer to a devout napper in this one 30minute block of time. My energy was refreshed, my alertness was evident and my mental acuity revitalized and renewed. From a mere twenty minutes!

When I worked in restaurants, taking a 15minute snooze in the back staff area during 14 hour shifts proved supremely beneficial – same as when I worked the same hours in the animation studios – A quick little nap on the office couch was the difference in achieving tight deadlines with success.

Napping for children is key, and as it turns out, for adults too! My dude even takes naps in his car if he needs to. Instead of taking a 20-minute break to grab a coffee, take that time to grab some sleep and witness a subtle but profound shift in your energy, mood and productivity. No room for judgement in these parts – just an open mind and a willingness to think about your state of being and how you optimize it. If you can dig it, choose a nap one day this week and let me know how that works out for you!