If you watched 60 Minutes the other night, you probably saw the clip on sleep. The gist of it was that not getting enough sleep can lead to several known issues: overeating, decreased mental agility, decreased response time, decreased sexual appetite and more.

So it made me think of my current situation. Sure, I make a decent amount with internet marketing but we're never satisfied, are we? :)

I asked several friends how much sleep they get on average per night and here's what they said-

Wes Mahler: ~8 Hours
UberAffiliate: ~7 Hours
Jonathan Volk: ~7 Hours
Brandon Hopkins: ~7 Hours
Steven Truong: ~5 Hours
Me: ~6 Hours

You've seen these guys. They're doing pretty well for themselves and, as you can see, they get at least seven hours of sleep each night.

Then there's me. I get around 6 Hours per night and that's been pretty constant for the last few years. Coincidentally, for the last few years, I've put on some extra pounds. Seriously, I used to be around 170 and lean; now I'm 190 and rounder. As I said, yeah- I make decent money but think of how much more I could be making if I was firing on all pistons. The same goes for you. If you aren't getting enough sleep per night, you might want to reconsider.

If you do a search on this topic, you'll find some interesting stuff. If you want to read up, just do a search on 'sleep and weight gain.' Among the first results, you'll find this article by Colette Bouchez titled The Dream Diet: Losing Weight While You Sleep. Here's the interesting part:

...have you ever experienced a sleepless night followed by a day when no matter what you ate you never felt full or satisfied? If so, then you have experienced the workings of leptin and ghrelin.

How Hormones Affect Your Sleep

Leptin and ghrelin work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness, explains Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta. Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite, while leptin, produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you are full.

So what's the connection to sleep? "When you don't get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food," Breus tells WebMD.

The two combined, he says, can set the stage for overeating, which in turn may lead to weight gain.

This alone kind of shocked me. I mean, it makes sense but it explained a lot about my current state.

Like many other Americans, I was fooling myself into thinking longer days would lead to more work. In reality, I probably got less done and with decreased quality than if I were bright-eyed and bushy tailed from a good night's sleep.

Now I'm not blaming a bad diet or bad work ethic on not getting enough sleep. But I am saying it can contribute to these limiting factors. And when it comes to your business, you should do everything you can to make it work more efficiently and profit more. If that means getting your 7-8 hours/night, then so be it. And who doesn't want to sleep more? Sleep is amazing.

Personally, I jumped on the sleep train last night at around 10PM just to get a jump start on this experiment. The experiment being: whether an increased amount of sleep will lead to an increase in productivity and money in general. I must admit, I do feel much better today than I normally do but that could be placebo. I'll have to see how it goes over the next few weeks.

If I didn't mention you in the post, please feel free to comment on how many hours you get per night. I'm sure it would be interesting to know.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 8:44 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.