Steemkids Health: The Art of Balancing Works, Rest and Dreams

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

But how about we rephrase that to Adequate rest daily keeps the doctor away?

Every day, I see young people striving hard to "build their future". In the hustle and bustle, they forget that they need approximately 7-9 hours of sleep daily.

To infuriate the matter, a certain Nigerian content creator took to his timeline to admonish young people to limit their sleep hours. According to him, you need to "Cut down your sleep if you want your dreams to become a reality."

Now this is the problem!

I spoke with young techies and professionals during that period and realised that not only do they deprive themselves of adequate rest, but they also engage in harmful practices like consuming coffee and tea to stay awake.

Like, what!!!?

Consuming coffee and tea exposes you to a high level of caffeine. Excessive intake of caffeine does 3 things to the body.

1. It disrupts your sleep patterns.
2. It causes addiction.
3. It leads to caffeine-related health issues. Examples are increased heart rate, insomnia, anxiety, etc.

Studies reveal that young adults and students who regularly get less than 7-9 hours of sleep every day stand the risk of experiencing a 40% decrease in personal productivity compared to their well-rested peers. This loss of productivity can affect your academic performance, job-related tasks and overall quality of life as a young individual.

Now this begs the question, "How can you get proper rest despite having an active and over-demanding lifestyle?"

It is simple!

1. Practice healthy sleep habits
We have 16 hours daily to do whatever you want. What I do is break my day into twos.

8 hours for work. 4 hours rest. 8 hours of work. 4 hours sleep.

This way I can consistently stay active day and night without burning out. You can devise ways to get healthy sleep regularly.

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2. Manage your schedule efficiently
Most young people struggle with time. They want to do everything at once. Managing their schedules efficiently becomes a problem because life doesn't work that way.

It gets easier when you break your tasks into tiny bits and appropriate hours daily to complete them. For instance, you write on Steemit, work at a bakery, and go to the gym frequently. Draft out a schedule for your daily tasks.

5:30 a.m. Gym
6:30 a.m. Freshen up
7:00 a.m. Be at the bakery
1:00 p.m. Short nap
5:00 p.m. Create Steemit post for tomorrow

The list goes on. When you are done hang it somewhere on the wall or pin it to your digital To-do list.

3. Seek help for any chronic sleep problem(s)
It could mean cutting down on unnecessary engagements that bite into your time. Talking to your therapist about your insomnia and so forth. Just get it fixed promptly!

Good to say that rest is sweet after labour. But best to say that rest is sweeter in between labour. Those who have adequate breaks in between their daily life activities have longer and healthier lives. You deserve this too.

Cc:
@yhudy
@patjewell
@ngoenyi
@eliany