Lack of will power often results in more stress and a lack of self-control; you will be thinking what has sleep go to do with will power?
The power of will power and sleep is huge – poor sleep saps will power. The biologist and the neuroscientist agree to this fact. For starters, sleep deprivation impairs how the body and brain use glucose, and no amount of will power or gadget in the world will help you once you are suffering from sleep deficiency.
The less you sleep, the more you lose self-control. When you are tired, your cells have trouble absorbing glucose from the blood stream. This leaves them under-fuelled then you are exhausted with your body and brain desperate for energy. I can see this in people when they don’t have enough sleep, and then they want energy, and this results in cravings and temptations.
Your pre-frontal cortex, the energy areas of the brain will be impaired with lack of sleep and it loses control over other regions of the brain, and the body gets stuck in a physiological fight or flight state. This then results in the loss of self-control.
Now you can see that sleep has a huge impact on how we gain will power and self-control rather than blaming ourselves or feeling guilty about losing control; maybe we should focus on getting a good sleep that will enhance our ability to resist temptation.
The good news is to increase the quality of your sleep time. I often suggest to a new mother or exhausted parent to get more sleep and never compromise sleep in order to be an effective parent.
We can put certain things off but not sleep. For better will power, get more sleep!
Please let me know your thoughts on this.
