Written By : John Hawkins
January 7, 2012

My latest Pajamas Media column is called, Five Keys To Sleeping Well Tonight. Here’s an excerpt from the column.

“Oh boy, sleep! That’s where I’m a viking!” — Ralph Wiggum, The Simpsons

“Better sleepers are 6 percent more satisfied with their lives than average sleepers, and 25 percent more satisfied than poor sleepers.” — 100 Simple Secrets Of Happy People (More on that here.)

You spend roughly a third of your life sleeping and that time has a much bigger impact on your waking hours than most people realize. Problems sleeping can bleed over into almost every area of your life. Lack of sleep can mean a lack of willpower. It can make you cranky and lazy. It can mean the difference between being good and bad at your job, having a successful and a failing relationship, or being healthy and sick.

I know a lot about sleep, in part because I’ve studied it, but also because I’ve gone to different extremes. When I was working on becoming a blogger full time I spent years getting only 4-6 hours of sleep a night because I was doing the equivalent of two full time jobs and something had to give.

On the other hand, after I went full time as a blogger, I learned a lot about optimal sleeping habits. Whether it’s handling an eight hour drive on three hours’ sleep, staying up 24 hours in a row, switching from a first shift schedule to third shift and back again in the same week, or getting up at 3 A.M. — I can handle it. That’s not to say that it’s always a piece of cake, but you would be surprised at how much better your sleeping habits can become with a little practice and how much of a difference it can make in your life.

So, how do you do it?

Once again, you can read it all here.

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