I’ve shared before about my previous life in sports. I shared how it was when I had yet to learn how to deal with my mental health. A recent conversation with a friend spurred this post. Mostly because I know we’ve all been through hell this past year and because it’s something that’s become quite important to me.

Sleep.

Eight to nine hours minimum. 

I’ve several mechanisms to deal with my mental health – therapy, meditation, floating, massage, exercise, diet, and sleep. I’ll never forget coming home from Hawaii on a red-eye and being told, don’t go to sleep when you get home. I couldn’t hang. I got home around noon and wasn’t back in the office for another two days trying to get the jet lag sorted out and traveling as much as I was meant, not sleeping in my bed and traveling to different time zones across the country. The west coast return trips were the worst. The exercise was nonexistent, my diet was crap, and my stress levels were through the roof. It wasn’t good. 

When I finally left the sports world for good in 2015, I didn’t do anything for almost two months. It was the first time I didn’t find some way to keep busy between jobs or start some project to give me something to do. I was exhausted, and my body wouldn’t let me go further without rest. I sometimes had insomnia and was already a hard sleeper, so I knew I needed to reset my brain, body, and sleep schedule.

These last 18 months amid a pandemic have made me appreciate the priority I now place on sleep. I don’t remember exactly how I recalibrated my body. But I do know that I’ve learned I’m not a morning person. That’s ok. Not everyone is. I have learned how to structure my day to compensate for that. Sometimes you have to work events until late into the night. I’m one of those people with no qualms about coming in 30 minutes late if I worked until 11 p.m. the night before. The reason is that I know I’m at my best when I get adequate sleep. No one wants me cranky. If I have an early morning, I compensate by going to bed earlier. That may mean recording shows I was looking forward to watching or declining an invitation to meet friends for dinner. 

I talk to so many people who work in sports now who just don’t believe they can get enough sleep because of the stressors of the job. You have to change your mindset to change your habits. You have to put your health first. You have to stand up for yourself. We need more employers who recognize this fact and support it. My mental health is a non-negotiable in my job search. I cannot and will not allow myself to be pulled back into a toxic environment. 

Make sleep a priority.

Everyone is different. Some people only need six to seven hours. I am not one of those people. I don’t understand my biology well enough to know why I need eight to nine hours, but I’m not functional if I get under six. Not even with coffee. There are a lot of studies out there about optimal sleep and why you need it. But, everyone is different in regards to what they need.

Caffeine is one of those things that can affect your circadian rhythm. Most of you know I love my coffee. I don’t drink it after lunch. I’ve always struggled with shutting my brain off to sleep, and I’ve found ways to improve my ability to go to sleep that doesn’t involve melatonin. When I do need that extra help, mainly because of adrenaline, I use Olly Sleep. Some months ago, I discovered this little device called a Hatch Restore. Many products like Hatch are on the market, but I found that it replaced what I previously used my alarm clock, phone, and Amazon Echo to do.

Hatch Sleep is a sound machine, sunrise alarm, smart light, meditation app, and alarm clock. They even make a line of their products specifically for kids. My Hatch routine is set to give me 30 minutes of forest sounds while I read, a 10-minute visualization meditation, and finally, six hours of rain sounds with the clock off so I can sleep in complete darkness. I also wear a sleep mask – a habit built around living in Atlanta for four years. 

The one thing I wish I could take back to work-life from the pandemic is a midday nap. Sleep has so many benefits for productivity, and I’ve found a midday nap helps me feel more productive. I hope we’ve learned during the pandemic that we must slow down. We put so much emphasis on actions that adversely affect our mental health and well-being as a society. We work too hard, do too much, try too hard to get people to like us, and run ourselves into the ground, all to prove we’ve got what it takes.

What if proving that we’ve got what it takes meant recognizing when we need a break or go on vacation, truly unplugging from work for that time, or learning to be present in our lives and not worrying about next month, next week, or next year?

What if proving that we’ve got what it takes meant getting the necessary sleep to be functional without copious amounts of sugar and caffeine? That was me before – downing so much sugar just to stay operational. I consumed an extra 60 calories with every cup of coffee before I learned to drink it black. Better sleep means better work output and better results. 

I’m no doctor or sleep expert, but I know this – in my list of priorities, my mental health is at the top. I will always opt for the best option for me, which means eight to nine hours every night.