These are marvelous facts and figures for accomplished individuals whose performance depends on optimal sleep.
Now let’s consider the slumber number from its original intent; sleep just for sleep’s sake. For a sense of wellbeing that isn’t necessarily predicated on performance or productivity. No athletic triumphs in the offing. No particular feats in the workplace or the home.
What if a good sleep isn’t about end-goal or achievement as motive? What if you have no job, no family, no particular game plan … but you’re still very much in the flow of life — whether you’re homeless or idle rich or somewhere in the expansive middle?
Do we need an outer motive to justify a good sleep, or can our mere Existence be reason enough?
It should be, because Arianna’s vital underlying message is about de-emphasising Productivity and accentuating Repose based on her own powerfully poignant example of burnout and the merits of slowing down in order to tune in. This is the lingo of our current challenging global paradigm shift. It’s an underlying message in the Self Help arenas of the world, as well as future events like Synchronistory which emphasise the beauty of our multifaceted being beyond competitions, awards, or individual /collective achievments.
This isn’t to diminish the competitive-productive element from the equation. It’s also intrinsic to our human nature. But we should be wary that it not become impetus or reward for rest, otherwise the original problem is cleverly cloaked with new clothes and misses Arianna’s original Thrive premise.
Thriving isn’t (necessarily) about achievments and how to sleep your way toward them … camouflaging Sleep as the newest performance enhancer. It’s about something more internal, more obscure and fundamental to being a human.
Like a gravitational pull, we still forget that Life is more than just quantitative performance and demonstrable results. It’s about the unfoldment and discovery of our essential, well-balanced being — even if all we ever produce in life is one authentic breath :-).
Originally published at medium.com