The Foundation of Health and Happiness: Better Sleep

Better nights mean better days, and this science-backed strategy can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your slumber

Any resolution to improve health, seek happiness, be more productive, or otherwise enhance life is best accomplished when coupled with sufficient, quality sleep. Good sleep is a foundational element of well-being, promoting physical health, mental sharpness and emotional stability.

We know this not just from many large studies of self-reported information on sleep and mood coupled with clinical health and mortality data, but thanks to volunteers who go into sleep labs and agree to be deprived of shut-eye, so scientists can gauge what happens the next day.

It’s not pretty.

A single bad night of sleep fuels next-day anxiety, curbs joy, hinders decision-making and slashes productivity — based on scientific findings I detail in my book, Make Sleep Your Superpower. Chronic poor sleep, night after night, damages the mind and body like a slowly sinking foundation eventually destroys a home, leading to high blood pressure, chronic disease, depression, cognitive decline and early death.

Multiple new studies illustrate the long-term physical, mental and emotional effects of poor sleep, and how one bad night can ruin your day.

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