Reflection 19 of 52: Can sound sleep make you a better communicator?
May 12, 2014
I wear a
Jawbone Up bracelet that I use to monitor my sleep, exercise and food intake.
Last week I got a message saying female Upsters (I did not know I was an Upster)
in their 50’s average 3 hours and 32 minutes of sound sleep and that I would be
happy to know I exceeded that average by 11 minutes. I won't share my average amount of light sleep as I am far below my nightly goal.
They claim
sound sleep impacts on our patience, optimism and focus. I thought that make someone a better communicator, so I went in search of more data
about sleep.
What I uncovered is that poor
sleep gets blamed for lots of life’s ills – depression, increase of body mass
index, reduced immunity, increased risk of accidents, etc… The list
is long. Actually the more I read; the more it freaked me out. I knew sleep was
important and that was a primary reason for me to get the bracelet but I did
not realize the direct correlation between specific diseases and sleep. It got
the point of too much information and I was afraid the statistics would keep me awake at
night. Totally counter to my goal.
Instead,
I want to focus on the positives. So I went back to my UP app and found all
these happy “communication related” nuggets to encourage me to get more sleep:
- Sleep and good judgment go hand in hand. When you have big decisions to make, it is better to have 7 hours of shut-eye under your belt. I definitely follow this rule when I am training or facilitating – a good night’s sleep and plenty of water help me be totally present and acutely aware of everyone in the room.
- My fellow Upsters who sleep 7 hours claim 15.9% more energy, 8.7% report more focus and 24% say they feel more attractive. Maybe the visual appeal comes from bright, attentive eyes or the decrease of bags in that region.
- Upsters with bedfellows hit the hay about 35 minutes earlier than those who sleep alone. They said extra sleep improves the memory and the mood. They did not say anything about what they were doing when they hit the hay but they did mention something about getting exercise two hours before bed will help you sleep better. Just saying.
In a nutshell, it appears that higher quality sleeping
habits will help us communicate better. If sound sleep helps the memory, we will
remember things about people and events, enabling us to connect to our audiences
better. If a longer sleep generates more focus, we can enhance our listening skills. And, if our improved snoozing creates energy, we can be more compelling and enthusiastic.
And,
finally if it helps us look better, there is always the law of attraction to make people want to connect with us.
So, in
the final analysis it looks like deep sleep or just more hours in the sack can
make us better communicators.
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1 comments
I totally believe this, and wish I could go back to that time when I would close my eyes at 11 p.m. and open them 7 hours later. How on earth I did it I don't know.
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