Pillar of Happiness Physical: Sleeping 6-8 hours a night

So why do I value sleep so highly that it is a pillar to happiness?

I struggled with sleep for a period in college. Senior year I was sleeping Monday-Friday 4 to 5 hours a night due to heavy course load and late night 2-3 hour exercise routines and making up for it be sleeping 10-12 hours on the weekend or just sleeping in class. Toward the end of senior year I was beginning to have random nosebleeds and had high blood pressure even though I felt physically fit. My grades began to suffer and I could tell I was not truly learning the material as I had before. Socializing was difficult as I could not keep a level emotional level and did not have the energy to feel empathy. Spiritually I felt like I was everywhere instead of in the present moment. While there were other causes to these issues, if I had slept more the effect of these issues would have been much diminished.

Sleep is the foundation to living an enriched and fulfilled life. While sleep can not guarantee a happy life, it is a critical component in creating an environment for oneself that allows for good and easy living. Lack of sleep effects physical fitness, mental ability, disrupts spiritual peace and makes socializing harder. While there is something to be said about having a little bit less sleep in order to operate better, I will save that for a future blog post.

While different people in different periods of their life will have different sleep requirements, but I think we all have a good sense when we have not slept enough the night before. So please, take care and get the rest needed. You and everyone around you will be happier for it.