Brain Rules for Bloggers: Sleep and Stress, The Essential S’s

This is Part Four of the Brain Rules for Bloggers series, based on
John Medina’s Brain Rules. More links at the bottom of the post
(Assuming you aren’t asleep by then, of course!

Brain Rule #7: Sleep Well, Think Well (and blog better)

You there… Yes, you with the Starbucks Grande in your hand, and the dark circles under your eyes. Go take a nap, will ya?

Yes, I know there is so MUCH to blog about. I know about all the social media demanding your attention, the blog design that needs tweaking, the emails you need to answer. I know that the internet is open 24/7, that there is never, ever enough time, and that something has to give — but that “something” shouldn’t be your sleep.

On the surface, sleep may seem like a waste of productive time - but to your brain, snore-time is crucially important.

Denied downtime, your brain begins to falter, affecting mood, attention, working memory, and many other functions. Loss of just one night’s sleep can cause a 30% drop in cognitive function. Lose two nights, and the drop is 60%. More worrisome? The effects of sleep loss is cumulative, according to Brain Rules: “When sleep is restricted to six hours or less for just five nights… cognitive performance matched that of a person suffering 48 hours of continual sleep deprivation”

Ouch. But sleep is more than just a mental restorative to the brain - it’s time spent processing, replaying, sorting, and learning from the days events.

Ever notice that overwhelming problems often seem to solve themselves the next morning? It’s not just a matter of perspective. If you sleep on a problem, the brain appears to keep processing - and answers really *do* come more easily when you awaken.

The good news? Your sleep patterns *don’t* need to match those of the rest of the world. If you write best at 4am, and sleep best during the day light hours, go for it. And work in a nap, too. NASA research, among others, shows a marked improvement in their pilots when allowed to take a nap. Struggling to find the right words? Take a nap. At a loss for writing inspiration? Take a nap!

Being a blogger doesn’t need to mean living on lattes - caffeine can indeed be a brain boost, but it doesn’t compensate for poor sleep habits. Adjust your day and produtive times to your natural sleep schedules, allow for naps, and remember that sleep isn’t an inconvenience or a waste of time. Your brain stays busy while you sleep, working on your blogging problems and ideas, among others. Sleep better, Blog better. It really does make a difference.

Brain Rule #8: Stressed Brains Don’t Learn The Same Way (and they don’t write the same, either)

There’s no big secret to this one - stress is, well… stressful. But the effects of stress on the brain are complex.

Short (momentary) low levels of stress actually make the brain perform better. That’s why some instants of crisis are burnt into our memories, and why we react quickly and nimbly to emergencies.

But when the stress is too great, or goes on for too long, the opposite occurs. Mental function declines, memory circuits just dont work right, decision making becomes difficult, moods swing, frustration rises, and eventually, behaviors become psychotic.

Under extreme stress, the hippocampus (a very important bit of the brain) becomes vulnerable. Neural networks can be disrupted and disconnected, new neurons are not created, and neurons may even begin to die off in the hippocampus. Serious stuff.

So long term stress causes the brain to suffer, and that in turn will cause your blog to suffer. Being stressed means you won’t write well, you won’t research well, you wont problem solve or network well.

Complicating matters, blogging itself can feel stressful. There’s often a sense of Now now NOW about it… a great deal of competitiveness, many anxiety producing glitches from software, webhosts, Google, security issues, and so on.

So what to do about it? Make lifestyle changes to help you cope with stress. Meditate, exercise, eat well, and.. remember that sleep thing I mentioned up there? Get some! It all helps cope with stress.

But reducing the cause of stress is your best longterm solution. So instead of hiding behind the demands of blogging, go ahead deal with the larger problems in your life: resolve family and relationship issues through counseling, make active steps to correct financial stresses, and so on.

The troubles of your personal life may not be overtly visible on your blog, but it still impacts your blog via stress, and the strain stress puts on your brain.

So go ahead and destress - before you *and* your blog wind up like the little blue man above! (And don’t forget to take that nap, while you’re at it!)

________________________________________________

MindTweak: The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
-Jim Goodwin/ Sydney J. Harris(_________________________________________________

Next up in the Brain Rules for Bloggers series?
The Third Essential S: The Senses.
And here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 .
For more information on these or any of the Brain Rules topics, be sure and check out what I clearly think should be THE book of the year — Brain Rules, by John Medina. It’s available on Amazon: Brain Rules (Book & DVD) or you can just hop on over to www.BrainRules.net for a multimedia mind melding experience.