In the past week, I’ve averaged about 5 to 5.5 hours of sleep each night. Significantly less than I had previously been averaging.
Strangely, however, I haven’t been decreasing in either productivity or energy. I can only help but credit this to a couple of things. There may be other factors also involved that I don’t know about because I am not an expert (or even an amateur) on how the body and sleep work.
The last week, I’ve gotten up at 5am to read my Bible and be with God, studying his word. I’ve gone to corporate prayer from 6-7am every morning, and then I either go for a run with my “run club” buddies or go back and dive straight into work. Occasionally, I’ll have 15-20 minutes, and I’ll take a short power nap.
I work, often without a lunch break, or at most, a 10-15 minute lunch break, then end around 5pm. I sometimes have some free time then, but this week, I’ve had activities every evening, and will until next Thursday.
As I write this, I’m finally getting a bit sleepy, my body knowing that it needs to catch up on a bit of sleep, but I’ve felt so much more attentive and ready for each day now, and having these rhythms for each day has been so helpful in making sure that I’m not wasting away my mornings, historically the worst time of the day for me in terms of productivity.
Getting less sleep is certainly not a prescription for being more energized, but I do believe that having a healthy routine in the mornings, and specifically, having time with God each morning, is a key to having energy and readiness for your day.
For me, right now, less sleep is giving me more energy, and I’m going to try as hard as I can to keep that routine. I’ll let you know how it goes.