Use Sleep as the Foundation of Personal Development

When you are working on your personal development plan, you have to make sure that getting adequate rest is at the top of your priorities. Getting enough sleep does a number of positive things to keep you healthy and mentally alert and productive. Knowing the benefits that will work with your personal development goals helps to make sure that you are able to tailor your goals and the details of your plan to meet your needs when it comes to enhancing your personal development.

Increases Creativity

If you want to be more creative, getting more sleep is a quick way to ensure this. Many people working on their personal development, pick up a hobby that requires some level of creativity. When you sleep enough, your brain gets the rest it needs to be fully active for creative pursuits. Some of the most successful creative minds make sleep a priority and you should too.

Maintaining a Healthy Weight

When you are working on your personal development plan, being healthy is critical. If you are trying to improve your health as part of personal development, you know that being a healthy weight is important regardless of your age. When you are constantly tired, you are more likely to eat as a way to promote energy. This can lead to excessive calorie consumption and weight gain. When you are well-rested, your brain is better able to regulate your appetite and prevent overeating.

Increasing Your Stamina

You need stamina to do just about everything, but if you are not getting enough sleep, you probably notice that you do not have the vigor that you once had. Did you know that after a single night of good sleep, you can significantly restore your stamina? As you continue to get adequate rest, you will notice that your stamina starts to level out and you are no longer lacking it. You need to be able to power through your personal development goals and this requires the high level of stamina that good sleep provides.

Improving Mental Clarity

Being able to think clearly is something that you should never take for granted. However, most people who are chronically sleep deprived are unaware of how poor their mental clarity has become over the years. They are used to essentially operating at a lower level so they do not know that their mental abilities could be even clearer. When you sleep well, your brain has the ability to fully refresh and rejuvenate so that you think more clearly.

Controlling Inflammation

Inflammation is a process in the body that can cause a number of problems, ranging from muscle soreness to problems with your heart. You want to keep inflammation to a minimum to protect your overall health and help you to prevent a number of potentially deadly diseases. Eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep work together to keep inflammation low so that things like heart disease and joint pain are not able to cause problems in your life.

Improving Memory

You rely on your memory every day and you know that a poor memory makes it hard to do everything from get your job done to remember where you set your keys. Sleep plays a major role in your ability to remember things, both short-term and long-term. Getting an average of eight hours per night is proven to ensure that your memory is in peak condition all throughout the day.

Reducing Your Stress

You surely know the dangerous effects that stress can have and it can completely detail your personal development goals and efforts. Stress exhausts you and it does things like alter your ability to focus and concentrate. When you are getting enough sleep, you will find that stress does not affect you as badly as it does when you are tired and not getting adequate rest. Couple good sleep with stress-reducing techniques and to keep your stress under control.

As you can see, these benefits all work to enhance any personal development plan that you are working to create. You should track your sleep so that you can make sure that you are always getting enough. As an adult, you want about seven to nine hours per day. Create a sleep schedule and make sure that you are sticking to it seven days a week. Monitor how you are feeling and take note of the positives that your new sleeping schedule is creating for your goals and life overall.

- Rosemary Kitchen

Resources
http://www.walkbythewayjournal.com/rest/7-benefits-of-slee