If you're exhausted all day and then wide awake the moment your head hits the pillow,
The problem is not that you need to be more tired.
Your body is still switched to its alert setting and you can move it back to calm in about 2 minutes.
Now let's begin with what actually lets you fall asleep.
Because this one thing is the opposite of what most people assume,
And the rest of the video grows out of it.
Falling asleep is not something you achieve by trying harder.
Here is the catch,
Your body never updated its idea of what danger is.
There is no predator now,
But an unpaid invoice,
A difficult email,
A deadline,
Or simply a mind too busy to settle.
Now hold those two pieces side by side.
One slip only arrives once your body crosses into the calm setting.
2.
After a switch-on day,
The stress chemicals are still circulating when you climb into bed.
Lay them together and the result is clear.
It is also why the harder you chase sleep,
The further off it feels.
Chasing is effort and effort keeps the alert setting running.
The worse the nights get,
The more wired the days become and the loop keeps turning.
A long slow out breath wakes up your vagus nerve,
The nerve that carries your body down from alert into calm.
This is the one that does the heavy lifting,
So if you only do a single thing,
Do this.
How much you get done is not decided by the hours you put in,
It is decided by the energy you have to spend.
And that energy is rebuilt while you sleep,
Not doing less and not stepping away from the work that matters to you.
But breaking the cycle of burnout so you can carry on building everything you are building,
Your business,
Your work,
Your life,
Without trading your health for it.
So if you remember one thing,
Let it be this.
You do not fall asleep by trying harder.
You fall asleep when your body crosses from its alert state into a calmer one.
