In this 15‑minute video Brendon Burchard explains why getting 7‑8 hours of sleep is essential for cognition, creativity, stress resilience and decision‑making, citing over 50 years of sleep research. He argues that popular myths about “polyphasic” sleep or short naps are unrealistic for most people. Burchard offers a step‑by‑step, low‑effort system to increase sleep quantity and quality: start by adding 45‑50 minutes to your nightly sleep by going to bed earlier; incorporate brief daytime rest through 20‑minute meditation or silent walks to lower adrenaline; eliminate evening stimulants such as caffeine, sugar and refined carbs after mid‑afternoon; create a screen‑free, dim‑light wind‑down routine 60‑90 minutes before bed that includes reading and gratitude practice; and adopt a morning ritual that avoids immediate screen use, focuses on gratitude, stretching and planning. He frames these habits as counter‑intuitive but simple, promising that consistent practice will lead to feeling rested, energized, and able to live a “charged life.” The video ends with a call‑to‑action to subscribe, download his free book, and join his newsletter.
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Hey, everybody, it's Brendan. And in this video, let's talk about you finally getting some more sleep. You know, I've always been a big proponent of pushing this topic on people very strongly because we've known for a very long time, only about 50 years of real research, that if you're not getting enough sleep, your cognitive abilities throughout the day go down, your creativity goes down, your stress goes up, your bad decision making goes up, and your ability to handle conflict or life challenges and be resilient and happy and positive all goes to sh. So what do you do? How do you get more sleep? How do you finally manage this part of your life? Because, look, we all have a lot of expectations, a lot of demands in our lives. And so at some point, we start believing the hype out there that, oh, hey, you can get by on, you know, three, four hours of sleep. Don't worry about it. Just sleep a little less, get up a little earlier, and we start telling ourselves this big lie that we can get away with less sleep, even though we have 50 years of science saying we can't. Especially today. You know, there's this popular myth that, oh, you know, you can take, you know, sleep for two hours, you know, rest, take a nap for 30 minutes here and there, or sleep for four hours and nap and meditate throughout the day to catch up. And the reality is, we know that's not possible for the vast majority of people. People say, Brendan, the Navy SEALs can do it. I'm like, yes, but you're not a Navy seal. And they hate it. And they call it Hell Week when they do that. Okay, most normal, average, must perform, must be awesome. Care about your high performance and have to be smart people throughout the day, really must sleep seven to eight hours a night. So if you're not getting that on consistent basis, what can you do? Well, first and foremost, if you're not getting that much, don't all of a sudden take this pressure on yourself about sleep in the sense of saying, well, gosh, I'm only sleeping four hours sleep. I better figure out my eight hours. It's like, calm down, dude. Here's how I want you to start. Just get 45 to 50 minutes more sleep tomorrow, tonight, this week than you usually do every night. Just knock out another 45 to 50 minutes. How do you do that? Go to bed 45 to 50 minutes earlier than you usually do. That's all. Just start with that. And that if that picks you up that fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth hour of sleep, rock on. If you have no Problem sleeping eight hours regularly throughout every single night. Then you, you know, go watch one of my other videos. But for those who have that challenge, you're just not getting that eight hours of sleep on a consistent basis. Here's the first counterintuitive thing that you can do, and it's going to sound weird, so let me walk you through it. Rest more during the day. One of the reasons people don't sleep enough and can't fall asleep is because they're keyed up all day. They're building this momentum, this tension, this stress all day. And then at night they get in bed, they're like. They're like, totally whacked out on a roller coaster, and they cannot bring the adrenaline down. You need to teach your body to have the ability to recover. And actually, if you recover throughout the day, it's easier to put yourself to sleep at night. It's almost counterintuitive. So how do you do that? Well, we know, for example, that that people who meditate sleep better at night because they've learned that ability to manage their mind, to slow it down, to chill out. So try this. If you've never tried it before, meditate every single day for about 20 minutes. Just find a time during the day to meditate, to sit down, close your eyes. If you've never watched my video on YouTube called the Release meditation technique, give that a try. I've taught over a million people now how to do the release meditation technique. It's very simple. You close your eyes and repeat the word release to yourself over and over and over. When other thoughts come up, you just return to the mantra of release. And that's all you do. Eyes closed, repeating release for 20 minutes. Super simple, incredibly effective. If you're someone who's like, dude, I don't want to try meditation. I tried it. I don't like it. I didn't release. I don't like it. I. That's cool. Then go for a walk for 20 minutes during the day. Without your phone, without your phone, without anybody with you by yourself. Don't speak. Try not to think too much. Just wander for 20 minutes outside. Just walk around. Have 20 minutes of silence. No stress, no screens. Breathing with each step. Just think about your breath and walking for 20 minutes. Just try that now. If you really want to go advance, do all that I mentioned, either walk or meditate twice per day for 20 minutes. It's going to teach your body to have a rhythm and to slow down. And you'll find you start sleeping better at night. You Won't even know why. Well, I'm telling you why, but I'll tell you. It's that simple and that straightforward. You must find your time throughout the day to have a few moments to wind down, to chill out, to meditate, to rest, to relax. It will help you relax better at night. The second thing that you can do is stop drugging yourself. A lot of people can't sleep because they're having caffeine at, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 o' clock at night and their body is all keyed up and its hormones and your processing, your digestive system are out of whack. The drugs include caffeine, include sugar, include white carbs, include all those things that are whacking your system out. Especially after that 3:00 clock hour in the afternoon. You think, oh, gosh, you know, it's fine if I have some coffee at 6 o' clock at night because I've done that for years and I could still sleep okay once in a while. It's not okay. You need to knock off the caffeine, knock off the sugars, and knock off that high white flour, sort of starch, carbohydrates after 5 o'. Clock. Just don't do it because it's whacking out your system and your sleep. So a lot of reasons. You don't, you feel fine, you don't feel full. You're like, I don't understand, I ate hours ago, I should go to sleep fine. Your body really does need its time to wind down, okay? It really does need it. Which leads us to the third point. Wind down in that hour to 90 minutes prior to sleep. Dim the lights in your house. Don't look at any screens anymore. That means no TV and no handhelds. You're not twittering and Facebooking and doing all the other things on your phone. And I really mean no texting either. Just stop in that last hour. That means if you want to read a book, go ahead, read a book. Don't read like magazines with dozens and dozens of pictures to start dropping dopamine in the back of your brain stem. Just read one thing, read one article or one book or journal and plan your day with no noise, no tv. I mean, I know you guys, you might have the kids and they might be loud and everything else, but. But then turn the TV out for yourself. And you're like, but Brendan, I gotta fall to sleep the tv. No, you don't. You just taught yourself to trust me. Thousands and thousands of Years of human history passed with no television. They slept just fine. I'm sure if you've ever gone camping or been in the great outdoors, you're like, wow, I sleep amazing. It's because you're not watching television, I hope. Now, people, they're in campgrounds, Travis, Watching their iPads, you know, it's like you got to turn it off, dim the lights, no screens, no sounds and stimulations. Just chill the last hour and allow you to kind of glide yourself into bed. Calm, cool. You'll sleep like a champ. Last thing number four. Very simple. When you go to bed, your thoughts, you got to get them under control. The way to do it is be in a place of gratitude. Just say thank you. That's it. When you get into bed, just say thank you to your God, to your creator, to yourself, to the world, the cosmos, whatever your personal faith or beliefs are. Just go. When you think about anything, if you think about anything is just be grateful. Just think about all the things you're grateful for in your life. Don't think about all things you need to do tomorrow. That's going to whack you out. Just think about the things that you're genuinely grateful for in life. Because you know what a happy heart rests. Well, so if you can just be happy and grateful for the things that you do have in life, the person and the choices you've had in your life, the blessings that are all around us all the time, the good things that have gone on in your life, just think about those. It'll help you fall to sleep much more peacefully and easily. You'll drift out just fine. Wait. Set your alarm for eight hours later before you go to bed so you know you're getting that time and try to do it. If you wake up early, just lie in bed thinking about all things you're grateful for in life. Maybe some of the things you have to do as you wake up to slowly wake yourself up. Don't wake up and immediately check your screens. That sets the anchor and it trains your brain. Got to get up, gotta handle, gotta handle, gotta handle. And that's why you're waking up too early, often and kind of freaked out. And you can't stop because you're actually conditioning your brain to get up and check all these things. Don't do that when you wake up. Instead, have a morning ritual that doesn't include checking in everything. Check into yourself, think about your thoughts, maybe stretch your body, do your exercise, your workout, then plan the day and get at it. If you keep these things in mind. If you actually practice them, you'll start to have a whole new experience. With sleep. You'll feel better about it. There'll be less pressure about it. You'll sleep great. You'll wake up great. You'll start to feel more energized, more engaged with your life, more enthusiastic, because you actually, for the first time, feel rested, clear, ready to tackle on the day. You'll get to experience what we call the charged life. Hey guys, it's Brendan. Did you like this episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, first, you can subscribe right here to my channel, which I hope you will, so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly basis to change your life. Second, you can get my brand new book for free by clicking the link right here. And third, you can also go to my website, sign up for my newsletter so I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, updates on my events, new podcasts, and everything else that we don't do on this channel here. If you like to do that, just go ahead and click any of these buttons you see right here. Look forward to seeing it on the next video. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.
