"Eight Days A Week"

It seems like as a culture, we do more with our time than we ever used to. How many times during the day do you witness someone reaching for their smartphone while waiting at the grocery or at the coffee shop waiting for their order. We are a “busy” group people, cramming “8 days a week” of productivity in to a 7 day work week, without the appropriate recovery time. So here I go, to propose an 8 day sleep schedule to match our “eight day” work week. A small but meaningful change that can make this work is by sleeping 1 additional hour a night if possible, or whenever you can practically obtain it by naps. Let me explain.

If you sleep 7 hours a night to be functional, but really need 8 hours to be optimal, then you are deficient of 1 hour of sleep per night, or a total of 7 hours a week by the weekend. That’s one whole night of sleep you lose by being deficient only 1hr a day! On the contrary, sleeping 1hr extra a night yields 7 additional hours by the weekend, worth an ENTIRE night of sleep!

I think you can see the potential benefits here by making this small but meaningful change in your pattern. Some of the many benefits of increased sleep are improvements to your immune system, reduction of stress hormones (like cortisol), improved mental focus and clarity, musculoskeletal healing and growth, improved memory, control inflammation cycles, increased creativity, and many others. So sleep well tonight, doctor’s orders!

Dr. Adrian is an adjunct professor at Cal State Los Angeles, and a Doctor of Chiropractic / Strength and Conditioning Specialist in private practice for 17 years in South Pasadena.