Two nights of camping left the speaker with under 5 hours of sleep each night, and the following two weeks were brutal. A study found that a 5% reduction in REM sleep raises mortality risk by 13%. The speaker treats sleep as the one habit worth protecting above all else.
I usually sleep over 7 hours per night. And last year I went on a camping trip and I got 2 consecutive nights of sleep that was really low quality and was under 5 hours per night. And I found the 2 weeks after that camping trip really, really hard. And it goes to show just how a breakdown of sleep can quickly cause things to go off track. And there's just an overwhelming amount of evidence now that sleep has a huge impact not only on your physical health,, but also on your cognitive and your emotional health. And there is evidence that for every 5% decrease in REM sleep, which is your high-quality sleep, there's a staggering 13% rise in the probability of death. And I'll put that study in the show notes. But look here, sleep is everything. You have to nail it and you have to make it a non-negotiable in your life. I work harder on this habit than any of my other habits, and that's why it easily sits as number one for me.
