How much sleep do you get last night?

If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur, you've probably 'burned the midnight oil' more than once to get that report, project or web change done for your company. And, you've probably felt like ____ (feel free to put whatever you want in this space.

Why? Because you probably sacrificed sleep to complete your task. Sleep is the most underrated healthy thing we can do for ourselves and yet when we're "under the gun", we let sleep go.

Case in point, I've been staying up till 1am in the morning for the last week to complete a project. Was it worth it, no way! Now, I've got the _______flu and I'm dragging my sorry butt through the day. (I should know better!)

People underestimate the importance of sleep and how much stress it puts on your body when you lack it.

For example, inadequate sleep can cause the following in the human body:
- Decreased resistance to colds and the flu
- Irritability and depression
- Fatigue
- Your I.Q. actually being lowered by a few points (I don't know about you, but I need all my brain cells working in peak form)
- The equivalent of being drunk (many disasters were caused by sleep-deprived employees. ex. ferry in New York crashing into dock and killing many people)
- Quicker aging - that's right people, want to age slower, get adequate rest
- Increased blood pressure - sleep deprivation stresses the body
- Higher incidences of cancer, age-related diseases
- Impaired learning and memory - hard to learn and retain new information

I could go on, but sleep researchers are still discovering why sleep is so important.
Occasionally you may need to stay up late, and you may be a person who doesn't need 8 hours of sleep - you may only need 6.

The point is this - get to know how many hours of sleep you need, when you have more energy, less energy and your sleep-wake cycles. Sleep is more restorative and important than just about anything you can do short of eating well and exercising.

Want to minimize stress in your life? Get your beauty rest - it's an entrepreneur's sercret weapon!

And, if you want to eliminate stress and have more time to sleep - I'll show you how in my One Hour Stress Buster Power Hour.

Happy napping,

Lisa - "Small Biz Stress Buster"