168 hours in your week.

If you are not sleeping for at least 56 of those hours, you’re hamstringing your productivity, because you’re short-changing your energy.

But sleep hour are a bit more granular than this. Your 56 hours of sleep each week shouldn’t break down to 28 2-hour naps. 7-8 straight hours of sleep per night is what adult human body needs to optimally function.

I’m not pulling this out of the sky. This is science.

This is why college student “all-nighters”, “burning the midnight oil”, and the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” philosophy are all wrong.

Technology does have consequences.

A Gallup study from a few years ago revealed how much less sleep Americans are getting now, compared to the 1940’s. In 1942 the vast majority of American adults were sleeping 7-8 hours every night. Not so much now.

I am far from a technophobe. But, I can’t help but think screens have a lot to do with this shift.

We have 168 hours each week. Cut that by a third for a proper amount of sleep. We’re down to 112.

How will you use your remaining energy?