make sleep your superpower

Sleep gives you mega energy and makes you smarter, stronger, happier, and healthier-and we're born knowing exactly how to do it. In this installment of our Power Up Program, WD Editor in Chief Meaghan B Murphy shares science-backed strategies to help, er, put you to sleep.

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I cringe when someone talks about "needing" only five hours of sleep, as if it is a point of pride or makes them superior. Nope-it's likely making them less productive, happy, and healthy and more stressed while making everything feel harder for them. What they're really saying is that they can get by on five hours of sleep.

But why not get one or two more and thrive? That's the message more and more business leaders and other energetic, successful people have started spreading-yay!

One is Arianna Huffington, my sleep hero. It took collapsing from exhaustion in her office, the result of routinely logging 18-hour workdays, for her to make a change, but when she did, everything in her life improved.

She became one of the first baller women to push for smarter conversations around sleep, talk about its role in success at work and in life, and advocate for extra hours in bed rather than in the office.

DON'T SNOOZE? YOU LOSE.

The research on sleep is unequivocal: Not getting enough sleep for multiple consecutive days makes you irritable and stressed; increases your risk of depression, anxiety, and burnout; messes with your immune system; and can leave you dragging overall throughout the day. One study suggests that during a good night of sleep, ATP (what your cells use for energy) may flood the areas of your brain that are active during the day, helping restore cells there. You've probably experienced the consequences of a rough night (or several), so I won't waste time trying to convince you that sleep is critical. What I will try to convince you to do is prioritize sleep if you're not currently getting seven to nine hours a night, which science suggests that the vast majority of us need to be at our healthiest and happiest.