A few emails ago, we challenged you to do a daily meditation. This is because there is overwhelming evidence that meditation is beneficial for mental health. Meditation has been shown to reduce stress, depression, and anxiety. It also boosts mental performance by improving focus, clarity, and mindfulness. Hopefully you’ve started (or continued) to incorporate meditation into your regular routine. Even five minutes out of your day can have significant benefits!

Your circadian rhythm is your internal biological clock which regulates everything from sleep, eating patterns, mood, hormone regulation, and energy levels during the day. Disruption to your circadian rhythm can lead to insomnia, fatigue, loss of appetite, depressed mood, and decreased physical and mental performance. This is particularly apparent when you are jet lagged - I’m sure you’ve all experienced how bad that can be!

Besides decreasing the risk of numerous chronic diseases, sleep helps to regulate appetite, improves mood and mental clarity, and increases immune function (which is particularly important right now!). Bottom line - sleep is essential for your mental and physical health and performance.

My primary advice to ensure world-class sleep is to defend your last hour. To do so, I developed a comprehensive pre-sleep protocol.

Here are three tactics you can use:

The benefits of optimal sleep are enormous and have a huge impact on performance and health. Along with enabling your brain to wash itself, deep sleep cues delta brain waves, which drive recovery and regeneration.

From every possible perspective – physiologically, psychologically, emotionally and energy-wise – humans need to sleep deeply and regularly engage in proper recovery. To be as inspired and energized as possible in your daily life and work, you need to invest in your recovery.

There is a shift in corporate culture underway toward supporting naps as a high-performance tool that also has massive health benefits.

What we know is that there are specific cleaning cells inside the brain called astroglia that are between the neurons. When they are activated, astroglia scoop up waste products and drive them towards blood vessels so they drain away from the brain.

When you are awake and hustling, this system is shut down. Only when you enter a deep sleep and delta waves prevail, do the astroglia activate and do their work.

We drive ourselves day and night. We never rest. We never step back. We push and push and push.

Why is this a problem? Because that’s not how the brain works. It’s not how the body works. It’s not how performance works. And it’s not what optimizes our health and longevity.

In the #hustle culture of manic busyness, it can be hard to remember the basic facts about personal growth. Mentally and physically, human beings are built to adapt to stress, but it will not happen if we don’t take time to rest and recover. That’s when the growth occurs. We cannot grow, let alone heal, if we are constantly on the go.

There is widespread agreement that one of the common pathways involved in all human disease, especially chronic diseases, is inflammation. We also know that chronic stress is one of the primary contributors to elevated inflammation levels in the human body. As a result, any conversation about optimal health and performance needs to include an exploration of how we can decrease systemic inflammation. We all need to make an effort to recover and regenerate more effectively so we give ourselves the best chance to avoid conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and depression.

As the foundation of all health and performance, sleep is something you need to take seriously. And while you may not have access to a sleep coach like the pro sports teams do, you can still put a protocol in place to help you achieve optimal sleep.

The other day, a friend of mine who used to work crazy hours told me about his desire to become a true Sleep Master. He had at long last accepted the science of sleep, which I talked about a few months ago in this blog. Exhausted all the time, his health and relationships were suffering and he was making a change.

An interview with Dr. Greg Wells - It's okay to dream big, but start small. With "1 per cent tips," Wells advocates staying focused on micro-improvements (using spices, not sauces, to cut calories; walking 15 minutes a day to potentially lower risk of breast and colon cancer 24 to 40 per cent). "Microchanges are sustainable forever," he says. "When they add up over time, it's like compound interest for your body and mind."