Because of the whole lifestyle I started following, at the end of 2014, I am able to easily get enough high quality sleep while spending remarkably less time in bed.
To be more precise around 2 to 2 ,1/2 hours less than highly recommended by the conventional wisdom 8 hour gold standard.
It definitely took me time and some specific and not quite pleasant side effects, but doing tons of researches and self experimentations, also showed me what were the exact things I needed to tweak in order to maintain my daily sleep quantity of not more than 5 ½ or 6 hours almost year around.
Based on all that I discovered there are plenty of amazing sleep hacking tactics you can use.
The key is to find what is your right combination, stick with it and maybe work towards improving it.
I will not get too much in the technical part, because this is not the purpose of this post, but I would definitely like to point that things like:
Eating OMAD, staying in Ketosis most of the time, using F.Lux on all of my screens and sleeping in the darkest possible room are things that really helped me take my sleep hacking to a completely different level.
Also cannot forget to mention the wonderful sleep tracking applications as such as the Sleep Cycle and Pillow.
I personally prefer to use both.
Adding proper sleep schedule, never skipping the use of mask, ear plugs and the cold temperature of my bedroom, actually made things way more essential and even effortless.
But since reached stage of my life when already live this for the past 1. ½ to 2 years, I figured out that all of the things mentioned above are more than extremely useful, but they are definitely not the only thing when it comes to reaching success on this life and sleep optimizing journey.
More likely these days I feel like, those things are nothing more than instruments or even accessories.
If not used the correct way they might become totally pointless.
Because of having my current state of mind and level of experience, I am able to really see the bigger picture.
I realized there is another if not more at least equally important, powerful and mighty tool.
Side note: I am pretty sure at this point of the article the more advanced individuals know or at least guessing, what is the exact thing I am talking about.
Call it cliche or even naive, but for me this is the feel of excitement.
I can easily tell that the only reason why all of the things mentioned above work so effectively for me is the level of excitement I have for everything I do.
The function of the technical side is to allow your body get the highest possible quality in less time, which of course is definitely a necessity unless you do not want to deal with some massive side effects.
Most commonly this boils down to entering the deepest phases of sleep a lot faster.
But if you do not have a purpose to stay awake, after a while you will more likely switch back to the average or normal.
Depends how you prefer to call it. I am not a fan of both.
You need to have an exact idea of what you are going to do with the extra time you have.
The best purpose you can possibly imagine is to use the extra few hours to work on your goals.
I do not mean goals the others may or may not have for you.
I talk about working towards turning your dreams into reality.
I am pretty sure you know exactly what I mean, but if not I highly suggest to dig deep in your soul and you will figure it out pretty quickly.
I can guarantee about that.
It really does not matter if you want to master certain skill, an art, instrument, work on your business or simply chase your childhood dreams what ever they might be.
The only important thing is to have a burning desire to do it.
You have to be extremely excited of the idea you are going to wake up a lot earlier and you will do those exact things.
Things that trigger an emotional response when you think about them.
You have to really appreciate that additional to your daily life amount of time.
It is what will really make you want to follow every aspect of the technical part without skipping anything.
In my humble opinion this is a truly important foundation.
This is also how everything started for me.
I also believe doing something you are not really into will most likely not lead to a long term success.
How to pick the right thing?
It may be obvious, but during different stages of our lives we have different dreams and goals.
The ability to switch from one to another plays it’s own key role as well.
It will also keep the excitement going.
It is perfectly fine if you want to do multiple things. This kind of what I do and it works more than perfectly for me.
In order to help you understand better what exactly I am talking about, I would like to give you this example.
When back in the middle of 2014 I started messing with different sleep reduction protocols. Mostly the polyphasic: “Every man”, and some Nasa Power Naps.
I was finishing my first album/mixtape and some previous design of my web page.
Once got those done I immediately moved to the goal of getting my certification as fitness trainer.
Next thing on the menu was to step up my video editing skills and made this one.
At this point was already relatively well adapted.
For the next few months I did another music video, finished and released my second album and got another world wide certification as a nutrition specialist.
These days I mostly work on some entirely different stuff like writing and Youtube videos, but this really doesn’t matter.
What matters it the fact they excite the s**t outta me.
This is also my exact reason to never skip any aspect of the technical side of things.
Conclusion.
The best tip would be to never underestimate both sides.
Following this simple rule is what will lead you to the long term success.
Doing the whole diet and all of the other things with no real reason may be completely pointless, the same way relying only on excitement or desire may produce a lot of negative side effects.
Keep in mind the second has the potential to get you in some really dangerous and even life jeopardizing situations.
Not to mention it can also completely destroy the quality of the day.
Always remember sleep deprivation is real and it is not a joke.
It can lead to a lot of bad things you really do not want to deal with.
*Please do yourself favor and trust me on this one.
Make no mistake, less quantity does not mean poor quality.
If you are not able to get it in less time, I would suggest to sleep the amount your body needs.
We are all different and often those self improvement tactics more or less require some personal adjustments and tweaks.
I do not recommend you the usage of any sleep reduction protocols, until you have your diet right.
Some foods and eating patterns will allow you to have better life with less sleep, while the consumption of others might lead to some detrimental consequences.
Accept it and reach success.
Reason.
The main reason for this article is the fact that when I was adapting nobody told me that the one of the most powerful tools on this journey is the simple desire to accomplish more with things you love to do.
I learned amazing techniques, but I also realized that most of the people get too caught up seeing only the left or right side of the equation.
The other side or what you have in mind as purpose is vitally important as well.
Follow this simple rule and after a while you will notice you’ve reached a point where you do all of the little hacks without even paying attention to it.
They will simply become part of your life.
I hope that makes sense.
Yours truly:
Peteonthebeat