The cost of not getting enough sleep sums up to billions of dollars yearly. But this abstract number is only a number right?

But – are you (mostly) getting enough sleep? Are you feeling energized, creative and happy? Or are you paying the price of not sleeping enough? Ignoring the signs as long as you can? I’ve been there – I know how easy it is to do so…and I also know how this can harm us (now!).

You might be asking what the price for not sleeping enough is…AND…more importantly, how we can get enough sleep.

The answer is about to follow!

The “not enough sleep” price tag

The price we pay is our life! Simple as that. I don’t even mean the shortened lifespan or getting diseases more often that you would with enough sleep. What I mean are everyday things.

Not being:

• energized
• healthy
• productive
• patient
• creative
• good looking
• and so on…

Are things that indicate that we are paying our price on a daily basis. It is also the price that we pay when we have/are

• missed job promotion
• a bad or broken relationship
• feeling sick
• feeling tired
• a lack of motivation
• feeling unhappy

And we all could continue to write this list on and on.

The problem under the hood

As easy as it looks to change from the outside – a turn around can be a hard thing to accomplish. A major step to take is to turn from denial to acceptance. Furthermore, we have to convince ourselves that there are time and room to give us additional sleep.

I personally ignored this fact for 1-2 years of my life in the past. Often sleeping less than 5 hours a day. I was driven to do more and more and more and then I got kicked out of the life that I knew. As a result, I had to live on the living room floor in the daytime for months. What an experience! And then I started to listen to my body.

We will have to say “NO” to things and live with the consequences. And we can only do so if we accept that this is necessary to do this to create better versions of ourselves. As a consequence some things might not get done at all, giving us the time to rest.

Implementing this will help us to change rapidly! You will feel better, take better decisions, have better appointments, create better work products and be in an overall better state.

Simply by…

Prioritizing enough sleep

It is a fact that we all have limited 24 hours in a day and that we can only spend every hour, minute and second once. Becoming aware of this fact is a powerful thing. The next powerful thing that you want to appreciate is that this time belongs to you! A powerful question to optimize the usage of time is to ask ourselves what we would do with this specific time if we only had 4 weeks (adapt this time frame to anything that serves you best) left to live. How would you spend your time?

Learn to value sleep as the thing that it is. Your primary source when it comes to your

• energy
• overall well being
• health
• and much more…

If you want to get back your sleep on fast track, learn to use the two-letter word wisely. “NO” – is often the first step and secret amplifier to more sleep. And when we use this “NO” we are not going to do it in a selfish way, but rather in a way that the person that issued the demand understands that this is simply not possible and will help to find a better solution.

So, stop paying the price for not sleeping enough today and start feeling energized and great again!

Take care
Michael