If you have a big meeting or presentation coming up then make sure you finish it the day before it is due. When you sleep on it, it will consolidate the learning/knowledge. You might even get an insight that you didnt have the day before.
Three of the things we know about sleep and performance are:
1) A nap improves brain function
Sleep and meditation both seem to rejuvenate the brain’s Pre Frontal Cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for the most important tasks that we do day-to-day including problem-solving, prioritising, decisions making and, sometimes most importantly, stopping unwanted behaviours and thoughts from occurring. Sleep has been shown to improve all of these functions.
2) When we sleep, we consolidate learning
While our bodies rest, our brains are going haywire. The millions of neural circuits are re-playing some the learning that has taken place during the day and are reinforcing it, making the neural connections thicker and stronger. If you have been repeating something during the day, trying to consolidate it into memory, chances are that the consolidation will happen most effectively when you are asleep that night.
3) A quiet mind leads to insight problem solving
If there is a new connection to be made, a new problem to be solved or an ‘a-ha’ moment to be had, you are most likely to achieve these with a quiet mind. While our current ways of thinking have strong neural connections within the brain, having been reinforced over many years, it is the new connections that provide the insights we sometimes need. These new connections are weaker and we require a quiet mind to actually ‘hear’ them. Brain analysis shows that these insights are preceded by a quietening of brain activity – something that happens automatically when you are about to drift off to sleep, and just as you wake up.
To read the other 12 Performance Habits click here
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