The importance of sleep is often neglected when people talk about personal development and how to maintain good health. In order to lead a healthy lifestyle, people decide to go to the gym, cut down on alcohol, and even start eating clean but forget one vital part of our daily lives. An average person sleeps for 26 years in their lifetime. That is almost a third of one’s life! That is why having proper sleep is essential for physical and mental functioning during the day. If you have any sleep problems, enrolling on sleep courses can help you improve your sleep.
In this article, you will learn about the top sleep courses for personal development and why getting enough sleep is important. For more insights from experienced entrepreneurs, sign up for our EWOR Platform and gain access to over 17 courses and a plethora of resources.
Why Does Sleep Matter?
Do you know that even when our body is resting, our brain is still working overtime when we are sleeping? It helps to process new information, allows your mind to recharge and keeps your body healthy. This can, in turn, improve your mental capacities, productivity and focus.
Not getting enough sleep can affect your health negatively. It is usually recommended to get around seven to nine hours of sleep per day for an average person. If you don’t meet these hours continuously, this could result in negative consequences.
With a lack of sleep, our focus and reaction time decrease substantially, which leads to more injuries and incidents. Moreover, those who don’t get enough sleep are at higher risk of short-term problems, like excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired memory, relationship stress and a worse quality of life. With chronic sleep deprivation, other potential sleep problems can occur, like obesity, heart attack, depression, stroke, reduced immune system function and high blood pressure.
Top Sleep Courses
There is a variety of sleep courses that can help you to increase your understanding of sleep and its effects on your body. Some are free to enrol, while others require a small payment. Here are the most popular ones.
Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society is a course that offers the science behind sleep, as well as its personal and societal relevance. In the first part, you’ll get a chance to learn more about how different substances like caffeine and nicotine affect your sleep, on the cellular level. The second part of the course covers sleep disorders like excessive sleeping and insomnia.
This course is best suitable for people who would like to learn not only how to sleep better, but also understand how sleep works and its importance.
Sleep Deprivation: Habits, Solutions, and Strategies Teach-Out by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
To keep up with the fast-paced modern life of the 21st century, people have to work twice as hard and twice as long just to make ends meet. Giving up sleep in comparison does not seem that big a deal, but it is!
In Sleep Deprivation: Habits, Solutions, and Strategies Teach-Out, you will learn more about the dangerous consequences of sleep deprivation and its effect on your health. This course also includes:
- How sleep works
- Learning about bad sleep habits
- Possible solutions to sleep problems
- Strategies that can improve sleep quality
The Sleep Doctor
The Sleep Doctor offers two courses “Improve Your Sleep Quality”, and “Solve Your Insomnia Without Pills”, created by Dr Michael Breus, PhD.
These courses are focused on identifying what factors are affecting your sleep and learning the truth about sleep pills. Moreover, you will receive additional information on what kind of food is best for good sleep, as well as additional ways that can help you sleep better.
The Mastery of Sleep by MindValley
The Mastery of Sleep is a 28-day training conducted by Dr Michael Breus. You will identify your chronotype and debunk many sleep myths. This training also includes:
- Increasing focus
- Becoming resilient to stress
- Sleep robbers and solutions to them
- Learning how to fall asleep fast
Restoring Deep Sleep to Enhance your Health by Udemy
Restoring Deep Sleep to Enhance your Health course will provide you with basic information on how to fall asleep quicker and wake up energized. Moreover, you will learn how to overcome sleep problems. The course covers:
- Effects of sleep deprivation
- Importance of sleep
- Solutions to sleep apnea
- Best positions for sleep
What Are The Benefits of Sleep Courses?
Personal development is not only about learning how to do more, it is also about improving one’s health and increasing one’s focus and productivity by having a healthy lifestyle.
By enrolling in a sleep course, you can improve your sleep quality and wake up well-rested and energised to conquer the world.
Studies have shown that having a good night’s sleep has many benefits:
- It helps boost your creativity and clarity of mind.
- Good sleep can improve your stamina. When you are tired, you are less likely to finish some complicated tasks due to exhaustion. But with enough sleep, you will no longer lack the stamina to complete important tasks.
- Entrepreneurs’ life can be quite stressful. But did you know that having a good sleep schedule can lower your stress levels and make you more resistant to it?
- Sleep can improve your focus, performance and concentration. Your problem-solving skills will also improve.
- Getting enough sleep also improves your memory and strengthens your immune system.
Healthy Sleep Habits
If you are not ready to commit to a sleep course, the following sleep habits could be useful for you.
- Sleep in cool temperatures. This will help you to fall asleep faster. Plus, according to Sleep Foundation, it benefits your immune system, reduces stress levels, and stabilises your blood sugar levels.
- Have a consistent sleep schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time can help you fall asleep faster and have better sleep.
- Sleep in a dark room. Sleeping in a dark room and dimming the lights before you go to bed helps your body to understand it is night.
- Dinner time. If you can, avoid eating before going to bed as it can harm your sleep quality.
- Have an evening routine. Doing the same things every evening signals to your brain that it is time to go to bed soon.
- Avoid blue light. The reason why many experts recommend not using your phone one hour before sleep is because of blue light. It interferes with your sleep schedule and prevents you from getting the best sleep possible.
- No coffee in the afternoon. According to Cleveland Clinic, coffee stays in your body for approximately ten hours, and its half-life is five hours. When you drink coffee at 5 pm and go to bed at 10 pm, caffeine is still in your system. You might not have a problem drifting off to sleep, but because the substance is still in your body, you will not reach the deep stages of sleep.
- Exercise regularly and have a healthy diet. Among other benefits, it also helps you sleep better.
Conclusion
Sleep is a vital factor in our daily lives. With the invention of lights and gadgets, people tend to sleep fewer hours than their predecessors, and it is detrimental to our health.
More people are suffering from different sleeping disorders, some more serious than others. That is why learning how to get a good night of sleep is important for your physical and mental health. With the help of numerous sleep courses, you can now considerably reduce the negative consequences that are caused by an irregular sleeping schedule.
