Longer Lie Ins And More Sleep = Lower Productivity?

I definitely agree that longer lie ins lead to lower productivity.

I do great on 6 hours of sleep. I go to bed at 10:00 pm and automatically wake up around 4 am. (I didn't train myself to do this. It just happened.) If I try to stretch it out, or add another hour because I got to bed later than usual, it almost always wrecks my productivity.

Even if I just lie in bed for a few minutes too long it can dent my day. How come? Two explanations I've heard:

- When you're horizontal, your brain doesn't get as much active circulation as when you're vertical. (Because when you're upright, circulatory processes have to kick into a higher gear to get blood to your brain against the force of gravity. Hence, better blood flow.) So lying abed drift-thinking can more easily lead to negative ideation of one kind or another.

- If I lie abed awhile, I'm essentially doing "feeling mode" rather than "action mode." I'm making choices based on "feelings" rather than based on "reason" / positive action / goals / purposes. The longer I lie there, the harder it is to get into action mode. Then I'm more likely to spend my day in feeling mode, reacting to life, rather than "pro-acting" and genuinely being productive.

I used to think I was an insomniac because I was only sleeping six hours. So I read numerous books about sleep over a period of a year or so.

Absolutely the best book about sleep I came across was, "Say Good Night To Insomnia," by Gregg Jacobs. Jacobs is a professor at Harvard Medical School and this book is based on a highly effective program they developed there. It's a good read, not stuffy or "academic."

Jacob's book is also one of the best general self-help books I've ever read. He teaches a very clear, easy to use method of "cognitive restructuring" that's very good for helping you to develop more control over your own mental functioning, your own inner dialogs, your negative thinking patterns, etc.

Jacobs also talks about some of the extensive work done with people who HAVE TO sleep less, and who also HAVE TO be in top performance mode at the same time - such as astronauts.

They've identified what they call "core sleep." It's often about 5 hours worth per day, and not necessarily in one piece. As long as you're getting your core sleep, you can function just fine indefinitely, without any loss of performance or decision-making quality, and without negative mental or physical health effects.

However, we MAY suffer serious performance loss even though getting core sleep because of our negative attitude toward the sleep experience. For example, thinking "I'm going to be a basket case today! I only slept for five hours last night!" is a sure way to set yourself up for a bad day. Such "negative sleep thoughts" are also a primary factor in creating insomnia.

How you think about your experiences - for good or ill - goes a long way toward creating the kind of experiences you have. But you can use these simple techniques Jacobs teaches to purposefully "restructure" your thinking.