03 Apr Sleep, to Succeed

When I say that you should sleep your way to success, it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out what you’re thinking and how im being judged as a PR professional!

But what if I said that the amount of sleep you get in day or a week, will help you determine how you fare in your pursuit of success?

The pursuit of success is a journey ridden with obstacles and hardships, most of which are accompanied by stress. Success is without a doubt subjective and takes on different definitions depending on what is more important to each us. From a small business owner’s perspective, success could be a reflection of one or more of the following things: (1) building a large client base, (2) sustaining existing customers, (3) keeping the business profitable despite economic downturns, or (4) having a significant positive social impact through the business, beyond being just profitable. Whatever our metrics for success might be, the one constant in everyone’s pursuit of success is stress.

People who can sustain their notion of success are also good at staying calm.In this article, Travis Bradberry talks about the traits displayed by successful people with respect to keeping their stress under control. Clearly, the more stressful we feel, the harder it is to take any kind of action. On the other hand, not feeling any pressure (i.e. stress) could result in boredom or a lack of drive to push ourselves beyond complacency. Therefore, the ideal behaviour is not to completely eliminate stress from our lives but to keep our stress levels balanced such that stress benefits us instead of inhibiting us.

Sleep is perhaps one of the more underrated biological necessities in our lives. A regular serving of sleep can do wonders to our stress levels. While it is still unclear on why our bodies need sleep, there are several plausible scientific theories regarding the function of sleep in our daily lives. They suggest the importance of sleep from regulating hunger and eating, to energy conservation, rest, repair and regeneration, memory consolidation and learning.

Successful people display two specific qualities. 1) They are happy and grateful for what they have. This can be wrongly misinterpreted as being overly satisfied and complacent. Being grateful only means that we have taken the time to acknowledge certain things in our lives that have had positive impacts. This appreciation for what we have could channel itself into a feeling of positive energy that further enhances creative decision making in difficult times. 2) They get enough sleep.

by: Sohini Bhattacharya (Co-Founder & Partner, Allegoro Communications)