Sleep If You're Tired

If I could change a habit I had at a younger age, it would be the late nights. In my defense, I feel like I have been misguided for a long time. I developed a lack of respect for sleep as I thought of it as a waste of time. Media and the tech industry glamorized pushing through your sleep, or even sleepless nights. It took me over a decade to understand its importance. As I noticed the lack of mental clarity, I find it surprising that I was able to get a Master's degree in Computer Engineering, summa cum laude! I pushed myself so hard and sacrificed sleep one too many times. Since the short-term results worked to my benefit, I didn't notice the terrible habit I was developing. I would stay up all night the day before a big test (it sounds really stupid now), and study until an hour before I had to take it. Then I would go back home and crash until night-time. Which, as you can imagine, would destroy my sleep cycle.

I had a hunch that I was probably doing it wrong, but the real lesson came when I became a dad. That's when the lack of sleep was pushed to an extreme. Irritable and always with a foggy mind, it was s miracle functioning through the day. Things that read incredibly complex one day, looked so obvious after a good night of sleep. I was kind of shocked, have I been holding myself back this whole time? Since then I have been on a journey to restore a healthy sleep schedule. Rather than using caffeine to get through the day, I try to understand why I'm so tired. Especially in the middle of the day. What I've been trying to do more often is to...just sleep when I'm tired. Sometimes it's a 30-minute break (which replaces a lunch break when I'm from home), other times it's an hour (I can only afford this on the weekend). It happens very rarely these days but I avoid reaching for caffeine when it happens, and I instead reward my body and my brain with some quality sleep.

Thoughts

Respect your sleep. It makes a great difference in how effective and efficient you can be throughout the day. Don't wait to experience it on your skin like I did. Read a book if you need to be convinced (I've been recommended "Why We Sleep"). A tired mind makes more mistakes, is more distracted, has a harder time staying focused, and generally produces lower-quality work. I've been on a new journey for a little while now, I can't say I mastered it yet but I've been doing a lot better. I hope you'll find the strength to do the same.