I don’t know about you, but on those rare occasions when I sleep in on a weekend morning, I often feel guilty about missing a good part of the day rather than happy and relaxed knowing that I got some extra sleep.

Why is that? While some of it is the legitimate realization that I might have missed a part of the morning that I enjoy (leisurely breakfast, reading or watching the news, catching up on sports highlights), the other part is (I think) that part of society that encourages us to push and drive ourselves to constantly succeed.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a mother or father at home looking after kids, or an entrepreneur launching a new business, there’s always an Instagram or blog post that takes “being your best” to a new level. We glorify overachievement and consciously (or subconsciously) vilify sleep as weak and time-wasting.

We need to stop doing that. Research has shown just how significantly “under-sleep” negatively impacts our body and our performance. This article refers to under-sleep as “the new sugar”, and a health time bomb. You can read more about the impact here.

There’s even specific advice out there to deal with those guilty feelings of sleeping in on a Saturday morning. The company behind the meditation app “Headspace” has some great advice on how to shift your thinking about extra sleep from negative to positive:

And finally, there’s that other guilty pleasure that so many try to hide: napping. Other than taking too long a nap and feeling groggy, there really are no negatives to this activity, just a long list of positives. And if you want to learn how some famous men and women (such as Churchill, Da Vinci, Thatcher and Clinton) used napping to their advantage, this list of 15 top nappers will get you thinking.

Thank you for reading!
Ian Hull