The Best Kind Of Sleep
The best sleep you can get is the one that comes after you are completely and utterly exhausted, but have achieved the goal you set out to accomplish. No other sleep can compete with this. I have experienced some of the best nights of sleep after a long, exhausting yet successful day.
I have tried drinking alcohol before sleeping. The sleep was longer, but it never felt good enough. I have tried being physically tired, reducing caffeine, and sleeping for longer hours. It was better in comparison, but still not as satisfying as the sleep that comes after you feel physically broken from purposeful effort.
It makes me wonder whether what we truly crave is a goal for which we do not mind exhausting ourselves. Achieving it lifts a burden from our mind and instantly floods it with positive hormones along with a sense of lasting peace.
This is the peace everyone craves. All those adages about working hard and enjoying a good night’s sleep were true. They simply failed to mention that you also need a clear direction for those efforts. Mere slogging through the entire day is not enough. You might still sleep well, but the quality will not be the same because mental peace will always be missing.
And so, while what I am about to say may sound like a cliché, it still needs to be said: you need to exhaust yourself more. Not from the gym and not from walking those ten thousand steps. Those are important, but that is not what I am referring to. I am suggesting that you exhaust yourself by doing something that also brings you joy.
You will never hear a startup founder say that they are getting their beauty sleep every day. An investor would instantly reject such a founder because everyone understands that this is how you build a good physique, not a good business. To build anything worthwhile, you have to sacrifice yourself.
A good starting point is to identify what it is in your life for which you do not mind slogging for hours, even to the point of physical exhaustion, so much so that you can barely think straight. If nothing comes to mind, then build projects that give you the satisfaction of conquering seemingly insurmountable tasks.
I have often had the best sleep when I was trying the hardest to resist it. Every time I tried deliberately to sleep, it eluded me. I would struggle until morning because I was trying too hard to fall asleep. Eventually, I gave up trying to sleep and instead chose to work so much that I began looking forward to sleep.
That is also why many people who work in corporate environments struggle to sleep. It is not that they are not tired or burned out. It is simply that they are not exhausted in the same way a builder of something is. Working with passion and heightened focus for hours will tire you deeply. I feel drained after writing three chapters of my story, even though I remain glued to my chair the entire time.
Magnesium glycinate might help, but not as much as working on an individual project that keeps you awake until 2 am on a Friday night. Ruin your nights for your passion project. Exhaust yourself to such an extent that your body wants to crawl toward the bed. Then notice how incredibly sweet that sleep feels.