Light and Healthy Holidays Book

This book is fantastic.

"For anyone who wants to be successful, sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. The conclusions presented in Power Sleep are based on recent studies of the neurological, chemical, and electrical activity of the sleeping brain, which show that even minimal sleep loss can have profound detrimental effects on mood, cognition, performance, productivity, communication skills, accident rates, and general health, including gastrointestinal system, cardiovascular functioning, and our immune systems. Given the role of sleep in determining daytime functioning, most alarming to me is the current extent of sleep deprivation in our society. At least 50 percent of the American adult population is chronically sleep-deprived and a similar percentage report trouble sleeping on any given night. And it's getting worse by the decade. This devastating trend can be found throughout the industrialized world.

... If you understand exactly what the brain accomplishes during various stages of a night's sleep and what your individual sleep requirement is, you're in a position to become a very different person. People who learn about sleep come to value sleep and adopt better sleep habits. After a few weeks they discover, perhaps for the first time, what it really feels like to be fully alert all day long. Their increased efficiency gives them enough hours in the day to work, and to play. They become better spouses, better parents, and better in their careers. They become more energetic, healthier, more successful, and happier with their lives. That's life as it should be." ~ James B. Maas from Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance

Sleep.

It's super important. And, in today's hyper-busy world, it's easy to overlook its importance. There's some odd quasi-heroic ideal associated with *not* getting sleep. Weird.

The fact is we are wired to sleep a LOT more than we do. It's quite obvious that if we want to optimize our lives, we need to prioritize our sleep!

Who better to help us do that then Cornell Professor James Maas'one of the world's leading authorities on sleep?!

Below are some of my favorite Big Ideas from this book. You can hear more about this book here:

1. Sleep Is Powerful - Even more so than you may think.
2. How About You? - Getting enough sleep?
3. Sleeping Ten Hours - Yah. Every night.
4. Power Sleep - It's time to rock it.
5. Absolute Synchrony - Rhythms are huge.

Here's to optimizing our lives and starting with an optimal night of sleep! :)

I've added Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance by James B. Maas to my collection of PhilosophersNotes. (Which help you change your life, 20-minutes at a time, with the best Big Ideas from 600+ of the best books on Optimizing your life via 6-page PDFs/20-min MP3s on the go!)

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