One of our most fundamental needs as a human being is to spend and recover energy. This is called oscillation.

The opposite of oscillation is linearity.

This is when we spend too much energy without recovery, or too much recovery without sufficient energy expenditure.

Other than eating and breathing, sleeping is the most important source of recovery for the human body. It is also the most powerful of the circadian rhythms that include body temperature, hormone levels, and heart rates. Even small amounts of sleep debt and insufficient recovery have a significant impact on strength, cardiovascular capacity and mood, as well as on overall energy levels.

During my years as a health instructor, I read many health studies and reports that state mental performance, reaction time, concentration, memory, and logical and analytical reasoning all decline steadily as sleep debt increases.

In one especially dramatic study, psychologist Dan Kripke and his colleagues studied the sleep pattern of one million people over six years.

Mortality rates from nearly all causes of death were lowest among people who slept between seven and eight hours a night. For those sleeping less than four hours, mortality rates were one and a half times higher. In short, too little recovery and too much recovery appear to significantly increase the risk of mortality.

The longer, more continuously, and later at night you work, the less efficient and more mistake-prone you become.

In my opinion, it is not about working overtime that makes you effective, it is the management of your energy.

Please take a moment each day to ponder and think…

Ask yourself these simple questions: “Who am I?” and “What am I doing?” and “Where will I go when everything ends?”

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director, QI Ltd