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How Changing Your Mindset Can Improve Your Sleep

Changing your mindset around sleep and rest will make it easier to get the Zzzs you need to be at your best.
How Changing Your Mindset Can Improve Your Sleep

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Do you feel guilty when you take time to rest? If so, you’re not alone.

Many people find it hard to put down their work or responsibilities in order to get a good night’s sleep. They may experience feelings of guilt, laziness, or boredom when they take time to get the recommended amount of rest.

But having this mindset can be detrimental to your overall health and well-being. Maybe you even want to change your sleep habits, but something stops you from putting down your work and taking time to recharge.

If this sounds like you, it’s time to change your mindset around sleep to make it easier to get the rest you so desperately need to be at your best.

How Hustle Culture Shapes our Views

Many of the reasons we struggle with sleep and rest may actually be rooted in cultural beliefs.

“Hustle culture” is a lifestyle that teaches people to glorify constant work and long hours. It puts work-life harmony on the back burner.

Although it’s certainly possible to work long hours and produce great work without sacrificing sleep or rest, some of these cultural factors make people feel that sacrificing their work-life balance means they’re doing something right.

It can be hard to break out of a hustle culture when you’re in an environment with others who embody this toxic mentality.

While work-life harmony may look different for everyone, we all share a need for seven to eight hours of quality sleep each night.

The Current Mindset Around Zzzs

In today’s culture, many people associate sleep and rest with low productivity. That belief may sound something like:

I’m going to catch a few Zzzs​ → If you snooze, you lose!

If this pattern looks familiar, it may be time for you to examine your thought patterns and habits to see if you’re embodying hustle culture, even subconsciously. Do you think you’re missing out when you choose sleep or rest over work?

As with hustle culture, there may be environmental or cultural aspects of your life that compound this mentality. But, as with so many things, the first step to fixing the issue is becoming aware of it.

Lack of Sleep and Burnout

Burnout is also an increasingly common problem in the modern workplace. Recovering from burnout can take weeks, months, or even years. Ultimately, it will make you less effective in anything you do and can lead to poor mental health.

When you set boundaries to prioritize rest and view sleep as a key to productivity, you become more effective in all your endeavors

How to Adopt a New, Productive Mindset Around Sleep

To combat the hustle mentality, you need to replace it with a mindset that serves you and your needs.

Once you view getting quality sleep and rest as motivation, your desire to make space for it will increase. To encourage this, you can start to change your beliefs by reframing them. For example, you might say to yourself:

I’m going to catch a few Zzzs​ → If you snooze, you win!

Reframe your mindset to see sleep for what it is — something that is essential for you to be at your best, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

In the long run, your brain function, mental health, and immune system are strongest when you’re committed to getting a solid seven to eight hours of sleep, every night. Furthermore, being well-rested can consistently improve your effectiveness at work in comparison to those who sacrifice their work-life harmony.

When you show up to work well-rested, you think faster, have more energy, and are able to access more creativity.

3 Steps to Change Your Mindset and Get More Zzzs

Step 1: Become aware of your mindset around sleep and how it may be negatively impacting you.

Step 2: Assess what needs to be adjusted in your routine. Start by working backward. Look at what’s taking time away from your rest and see what you can rearrange in your schedule to regain control of this time.

Step 3: Establish firm boundaries. This is essential. Make it a personal rule to clock out of work at a certain time, turn off notifications on your phone, and say “no” to projects that push you over the hours you’ve allotted yourself to work each week.

The Bottom Line

Changing your mindset around sleep will make it easier for you to get the rest you desperately need to perform at your best.

It can be hard work fighting the Hustle Culture norms that demand you sacrifice your mental and physical health to be successful, and while reframing your mindset might not happen overnight, the benefits of prioritizing quality rest can last a lifetime. They may even prolong your life, so you’re able to accomplish and experience more in the long run.

Many people need guidance in finding the motivation they need to change their mindset around sleep and rest. They may also find themselves confronting external factors that make it difficult for them to get quality sleep. If you’re struggling to prioritize your schedule and improve your overall well-being, consider working with an Arootah coach.

What’s your current mindset around sleep and rest? What improvement do you think we need to make as a culture around rest and work-life balance? Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

Sources:

https://headversity.com/resources/blog/

https://realsimplegood.com/why-diets-dont-work/

https://blog.doist.com/productive-sleep/

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/work-burnout-signs-symptoms/

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be and should not be taken as professional medical, psychological, legal, investment, financial, accounting, or tax advice. Arootah does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or suitability of its content for a particular purpose. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read in our newsletter, blog or anywhere else on our website.

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