Sleep: Present and Future Beliefs

As I work on improving my sleep, a new perspective I am forming is:

I am battling between how much I want to get done in the present and how ready I will be in the future.

If all else being equal - the sooner I rest now, the more ready I will be in the future.

This equation is easy to solve for when I feel ready for whatever is in the future (or the future post-sleep.)

When this equation gets trickier is when I know I am not ready now and sleep will not make me any more ready later.

Planting of Sleep Belief

This belief started in my undergrad years. Where missing classes to do more social events instead of actually studying and “using” cram weeks to catch up.

Welp - those cram weeks were… full of socializing too and what happened is by the night before the exam, I would ask myself: am I ready for the test tomorrow?

The answer would always be: No.

That’s where I have this line of thought: skip sleep now, actually study because of all the pressure, and hopefully pass the class.

The result: it worked!

There were classes I had zero chances of passing the test, I probably failed those tests - yet, I still passed the class. How?

The curve!

Someone did worse than me - on the test OR they dropped the class after the drop grace period.

This happened for me all the time - I don’t think I failed a class.

SO - that’s where the belief planted itself.

Staying present and “doing more” will benefit future you. From studying, to playing around, to clubbing. ANYTHING to skip sleep.

My father also said:

You can sleep when you’re dead.

Long Term Effects of Belief

Now that I am older - recovering from staying up all night is difficult and well, I don’t have classes to pass anymore - just life to live.

That’s what makes sleeping hard - I have this belief that I can trade off my present “for a better future”.

Problem is - future me just feels horrible with less sleep.

This is a message to Present Me from Future Me:

Sleep earlier and more! That’s the best thing you can do for your future now.

That’s the belief I choose to build.