Suppose that you are the president of the United States of America. You’ve got foreign dignitaries coming that night to a lavish dinner in the White House. You’re going to get up and say a few words, and dance with the first lady (or first gentleman). You’re going to be charming, powerful, and witty.The evening comes, the guests arrive, and the affair comes off without a hitch. You are dashing, the center of attention, a suitable symbol for all that’s right with the Western world.

Obviously, no one maintains this level of performance consistently. To do so would be super-human. Most days, even as president, you drop back to a lower level of operation. You sign executive orders, handle important phone calls, and meet with your staff, but you don’t have to be “beaming.”

Back to reality — in your everyday life, in whatever your occupation, you alternate between periods of performance and recovery. You’re not hibernating during recovery; rather, you’re regrouping your physical and mental resources and replenishing your spirit and emotions for those times when you may be called upon again to “perform.”

Sleep is the Key

Who can you think of today who holds any kind of position of responsibility who doesn’t experience stress? The reality is that everyone experiences stress, perhaps far too many people, at far too high a level. When you get sufficient sleep on a regular basis, you enable your body to recover from the stresses and strains you experience during the day.

When you rob yourself of the necessary sleep you need on a consistent basis, the recovery period from stress that proper sleep provides becomes more important than ever. While recovery also comes as a result of being mentally and physically relaxed, getting deep sleep is critical for the challenging tasks you face on a day in, day out basis.

Deep Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enables you to more fully engage in conceptual, first-time, and breakthrough thinking. If you have to learn a new routine, new instructions, or new equipment, the amount and quality of REM sleep you get the night before will decidedly impact your abilities the next day. If your REM pattern is disrupted, even eight hours of sleep may not yield the benefits you need to be effective.

Paradoxically, you’re most likely to resist allowing yourself a recovery period, i.e., getting good sleep, precisely at that time when you’re most in need of it. This explains why you find yourself watching yet another television program past the time you know you need to be in bed, or attempting to read yet another chapter, when the best thing for you right now would be to cut some zzz’s. If you’re at war with yourself when it comes to getting the sleep you need, perhaps these suggestions will help:

* Have you checked your mattress lately? You may not realize it, but the quality of your sleep is directly related to whether or not you have a mattress that supplies the proper support. A bad mattress engages your muscles in activity all night. You wake in the morning feeling dog tired, because you are. You’ve been working all night.

* Particularly in the summer, make sure that the room you sleep in is cool and refreshed. You’d be better off sleeping in a slightly chilled atmosphere with an additional blanket, than a warmer one with less blankets.

* Allow yourself enough room to move while sleeping. You’ve probably seen time lapsed photography in TV commercials where one or both sleeping partners move about during the night. In actuality, we all do. Make sure you have a bed sufficiently large enough to allow you and your partner the freedom of movement. If you’re afraid of clunking into one another, you’ll restrict your movements, and unknowingly, diminish the quality of your sleep.

* Turn off the ringer on your phone, or if you have an answering machine attached, switch the appropriate lever to silent. As I have pointed out in many of my books, too many people sleep with their heads by the phone because they have an aged loved one far away, or they worry about the one call in 15 years that might haul them out of bed at 3:00 a.m. There’s not much realistically you can do at 3:00 a.m., anyway. You’d be better off getting 15 years of sound sleep, by a long shot.

* Avoid caffeine at least six hours before retiring, and alcohol all together if you’re interested in having good sleep that night. Alcohol, in particular, is sleep disrupting. Yes, you’ll fall asleep quickly, but invariably you’ll arise too early. Then, you’ll likely have trouble getting back to sleep.

* Go to sleep when you’re tired, not because the clock happens to say a particular time. When you ignore the message your body is giving you, you pay a price. A study conducted in Great Britain found that your spontaneity, flexibility, and originality of thought can be seriously undermined by as little as one night with too little sleep.

Developing Good Sleep Habits

If it’s been months, or years, since you’ve engaged in the habit of regular, sufficient, sound sleep, you’ve got an unfamiliar, but pleasant task ahead of you.

Most sleep researchers agree that getting sufficient sleep is a habit that you can develop. Conversely, not getting enough sleep is a bad habit that you developed over the years but never considered it as such. Here are some ideas for redeveloping the habit of having good sleep every night:

* At least one night a week, get to bed extremely early. If say, on a Wednesday, you’re able to get nine or, my goodness, even ten hours of sleep, you may gain renewed energy for the rest of the week that you didn’t think was available.

* At least one Friday evening in every four or five, come home, eat a light dinner, and go right to bed. If you’re lucky enough to conk out by seven or eight in the evening, and don’t awake until seven or eight a.m, you may experience the sweetest 12-hour stretch of sleep that you can remember. Moreover, you’ll have a Saturday unlike those in your recent past.

* Prepare your room for sleep, and not much else. When I speak at conferences around the country, and I ask people how many have three or more TVS, nearly all of the hands shoot up these days. People tell me they have TVS in their kitchens, even in their bathrooms, and certainly in their bedrooms. I know this is going to come as stiff medicine, but it’s time to take the TV out of your bedroom. Even if you watch the boob tube for hours on end, when you go to your bedroom, and lie down on your bed, (other than for sex!) it needs to be for the expressed purpose of going to bed. Watch TV someplace else, read someplace else, and eat someplace else, but maintain your bedroom as a sanctuary.

Here’s a short list of other ideas, many of which may even seem palatable to you:

• Keep your room dark, or wear a night blindfold.
• Buy a snore control device if a partner keeps you awake, or to improve your own sleep.
• Don’t work out too hard before retiring, it may keep you too keyed up.
• If you’re so disposed, take a glass of milk before you sleep. It can help.
• Let others around you know when you want quiet, because you are going to sleep!

(Editorial note: This is covered extensively in Breathing Space: Living & Working at a Comfortable Pace in a Sped-Up Society.).

Sleeping Away from Home

Suppose you’re traveling for work or vacation, and will be staying in a hotel room. Upon check-in, here are some tips to increase the probability that you’ll have a full night’s sleep:

* Explain to the check-in staff that you have a huge presentation to deliver in the morning, and that your sleep is crucial. That alone might prompt them to give you a room that is known to be in a quiet section of the hotel.

* Specifically ask for a room where you’ll have peace and quiet. In general, these are rooms away from elevators and vending machines, opposite of the street side or front of the hotel, and not on the second floor. The second floor is too close to the banquet rooms, lobby, and front entrance, where people come and go and, quite naturally, make noise.

* Ask for a room without a door adjoining another room, where the guest from hell is likely to be staying. Too many supposedly progressive, service-oriented hotels and hotel chains contain this dreaded door. It is all that separates you from arguing couples, insomniac musicians, and those who feel compelled to watch CNN Headline News at 3 a.m.

* Investigate getting ear plugs, which will reduce about 70% of the sounds you might hear from your external environment. Or buy a sound screen which creates a blanket of “white noise” sound around you to drone out the effects of the more obtrusive sounds outside your door.

Vendors for these devices include:

Noise Filter Cabot Safety Corporation 5457 West 79th Street Indianapolis IN 46268 Phone (317) 872-6666 FAX (919) 7

Sound Screen and Sleep Mate Marpac Corporation P.O. Box 3098 Wilmington NC 28406-0098

About Napping

What effects, you may ponder, does napping have on your ability to sleep soundly during the night? Generally, if you take a nap between the hours of one and three, you’ll be fine. Your body temperature takes a natural dip at this time, allowing you to nod off quickly. Also, if you nap for less than 20 minutes, then you don’t incur REM sleep, and hence you can wake from your nap refreshed and alert. If you sleep longer than 20 minutes, you may engage in REM sleep, and actually awake feeling groggy.

Your nap needs to be short and sweet, and offer quick refreshment. You want to avoid taking naps as a substitute or adjunct to not getting enough sleep the night before. If you begin to rely on naps to make it through the day, you could possibly short change your sleep at night. As long as you nap in mid-afternoon, you’re generally going to be okay.

The most risky time to nap is after five or six in the evening. Why? You incur a higher probability of disrupting your normal sleep pattern. You’re more than likely to not want to go to sleep at your traditional hour, but somewhat later.

Have You Gotten Enough Sleep?

It may take you a few weeks, a month, or many months, but you can get back into the groove when it comes to having good sleep! Sound sleep will give you the recovery time you need from the stress you experience during the day, keep you sharp and alert, and maybe even restore your sex life. Here are some signs that you’re getting the sleep that you need:

• You spring out of bed upon awakening.
• You’re able to take strong, deep breaths.
• Your voice is clear and strong.
• You experience no fatigue during the morning.
• After work, you have enough energy to have a life for the rest of the day.
• You find yourself whistling or humming.
• You have the energy to be nice to people.
• You think to yourself, your boss or spouse is not so bad after all.