Aha! Moment Monday
How many times do you press the snooze alarm in the morning?
I use my phone as an alarm (I know …. dangerous to have your phone so close when you’re supposed to be sleeping) and it’s been set for three snoozes, each five minutes apart. That means when the last song sounds, it’s time to start the day.
Some people wake up without an alarm and use their natural clock as a guide. Others jolt out at the first bell. We know we need sleep but at today’s pace, sleep can be revered as a precious commodity. I used to wear “lack of sleep” like a badge of honor – mostly because I don’t like wasting time and make every life’s moment count – but understanding the restorative value of sleep relative to being productive is, well, eye-opening.
Regardless of how you awake, we all sleep in cycles of REM (rapid eye movement) and deep sleep. Interrupting those natural patterns can reduce our day’s effectiveness.
You see, the body triggers different chemicals relative to sleep and awakening. According to a post by Jamie Condliffe, “As you hit the snooze button and return to sleep and re-start that dopamine drip, your body become a chemical cocktail shaker, as neurotransmitters rattle around providing conflicting influences. The snooze might release some feel-good chemicals, but ultimately it’s pulling your body in different directions. That chemical confusion leaves you feeling disoriented, and makes it difficult to get going.”
What about those projects that we start then press the snooze button on? The ones where we get all fired up about, then pause, then ramp up, then pause, then give more thought to, then pause. Do we lose clarity with each interruption?
Aha! ~ You snooze, you lose.
The time just before you awake is when the body is processing the previous day’s events. When you interrupt that, “… you can expect impairments in your memory, reaction time, comprehension and attention.”
The optimum snooze time (if you must) for sleep? Twenty minutes – same as a nap.
So what’s the optimum snooze time for that project – course, get-in-shape, trip, book, move, advancement, market – you keep putting on the back burner? Decide on that time frame, then set your alarm knowing that when it goes off, it’ll be exactly the right time to fire – clear-headed – on all cylinders.
You’ve got this!
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