Sleep is one of the most important things people need to survive and thrive in life. More specifically, if you are a leader of a team or part of any team you are always going to have things running throughout your mind. With this being the case, getting the right amount of sleep and sleeping well is so important to your well-being as a leader.

Don’t Overstimulate Before Bed

There are a lot of reasons why decreasing the amount of screen time before bed is a good idea, but most of all is for the general fact that it makes it harder to fall asleep. There are studies that have shown that being on your phone, or doing something that is very intense on your brain before bed, can make it harder for you to fall asleep.

This may be difficult to do when there are pressing needs for your company. You may want to make sure you do an activity that will remove those work thoughts from your mind and also allow you to calm down before bed.

What are some things I should do before bed?

One thing I would highly recommend that I have seen a lot of leaders do is a light reading of a fun fictional book. It allows your brain to move away from reality before bed and focus on things that won’t keep you up at night. The problem with reading books before bed is that when someone reads an intense non-fiction book, it can cause them to overthink and prevent a good night’s sleep. The benefit of reading an easy fictional book before bed is that it will allow you to move away from whatever kind of hard day you had, and focus on other things.

What are some things you shouldn’t do before bed?

You should try to avoid activities that will stimulate your mind, such as working through logical problems or watching a TV program. Any sort of exercise may want to be avoided before rest, as exercising also prevents you from calming down quickly. You may also want to avoid looking at your emails and reading through emails as this denotes as screen time, and often you will be seeing emails that will stimulate your mind.

Do a Calming Activity

To further the previous example of reading an easy book before bed, it is super important that if you are doing an activity before bed, that it is calming. A few examples of calming exercises could be; reading, meditating, journaling, stretching, or even a self-care routine. Some of the greatest leaders have an amazing self-care routine before they go to bed. Whether it be taking a long shower and then doing a relaxing facemask or just a relaxing bedtime routine without electronics, any form of self-care before bed can be very helpful for a good night’s sleep.

Make Sure Not to Think About Work Even Close to Bedtime

This is such an important thing that leaders do when they are trying to sleep well. Thinking about work or how stressful your day was can put a huge toll on your sleep. The goal of every day is to start your day smoothly and end it smoothly. The only way to do that is by having a good amount of sleep. If you are not sleeping well, it probably means that you are not getting enough rest or that you are waking up in the middle of the night. Ways to combat that are all of the exercises listed below.

How Can I Stop Thinking About Work Before Bed?

There are so many different things that you can do to help you prevent thinking about work before bed, but here some tools that great leaders use. One thing that is a really great tool for finishing your day off well is using a journal. I would highly recommend writing in your journal every morning and night. The key to this is being able to refresh your brain in the morning about any leftover thoughts you had the day before that you tried to move on from.

Journaling at night will help you jot down any stresses or blesses that was on your mind during the day. Journaling requires your focus. When you are journaling about things that happened in your day not related to work, you allow your mind to switch from work thoughts to general life thoughts.

Conclusion

All in all, getting a good night’s sleep is a very important thing that you need to have as a leader. As a leader, you need to make critical decisions that will affect others’ lives, so having a good night’s rest can allow you to make a decision based on more energy.

Following these three things leaders do to make sure to sleep well, will definitely help your rest at night. Make sure to take care of yourself, journal, and focus on work during the right time.

Ben Tejes writes for Ascend Blog where he covers Nevada bankruptcy and Maryland bankruptcy with the goal to help lead people to achieve debt and financial freedom. He also covers topics such as Filing bankruptcy in Oregon, Chapter 13 Debt Limit, and How to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy. When not working, Ben enjoys going on adventures with his wife and three young daughters.