The other day, a student at jiujitsu said, “not sleeping is the new smoking.” Dan was somewhat joking but he was being genuine at the same time. Sleep is essential, and lack of sleep does harm to the body.

In my opinion, the three prongs of health are, eating, exercise, and sleep. These three need to be carefully considered in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but also essential when looking to optimize your performance. When any one of these three are lacking the mind and body suffer in their ability to perform and excel.

In any typical week, my day starts at 5am or 6am and I don’t get home to rest until 9:30 or 10pm. That means I need to be especially careful about how I spend the time I have when I get back home for the day. My schedule is unique in that I have some down time during the middle of the day, to take a nap or rest, but I like to spend that time with family. So it become very important for me to establish and follow a nighttime routine. In both my morning and night routine I avoid looking at my phone. I don’t do anything work related because that takes too much thinking, especially when I want to wind down at the end of the day.  There are a few other things I keep in mind as I establish my evening routine.

Here is a video with Dr. Satchin Panda and Dr. Thonda Patrick on Found my fitness. It talks about the inter connection of eating and sleeping, as well as the importance of sleep.

On nights where it is possible for me to cut my food consumption off around 6pm, I notice I have the best rest on those nights. Even though I am a little hungry at times, if I have the discipline to follow through with the evening ritual, it’s no problem. The next day I feel energetic, and ready to get after the day.

Following a sleep cycle that is 7-9 hours seems to be essential for my success both on and off the mat. I am sharp and my energy levels are at the highest. When I am able to prioritize my sleep, the other two prongs of eating and exercising fall into place. However, the other things don’t seem to influence a good nights rest. Sometimes training too hard can disturb my sleep or cause restlessness. I try to find time to take a nap when that happens, so that my average sleep in a night doesn’t dip below 7 hours.

This video with Arianna Huffington and her book seems like a good reference on the importance of sleep and nighttime routine as well.

Listening to these two high performers, it helps us learn from their experiences. There is no endurance in sleep deprivation. In fact, sacrificing sleep probably means your performance will suffer. Therefore you need to have a time schedule that you adhere to during the day and trust that your productivity during the day will endure and prevail.

So, establish a sleep routine that works for you. Allow yourself to figure out what is too little sleep and what is good sleep. Be disciplined in following your bed time, because there is no budge to when you need to wake up. Prepare for your morning routine by being disciplined with your nighttime routine.