My husband was quite unhappy with our daughter’s explanation that her teenage biorhythms prevented her from being able to sleep before midnight, resulting in about 6 hours of sleep on school nights. I need my 8 hours of sleep, or something close to it. I simply don’t function well with much less, while my husband does ok when he works late a few nights in a row.

We all have different sleep needs and different biorhythms our culture suffers from sleep deprivation in general. Due to cultural pressures and false role models we simply try to stuff too much into a 24 hour day, and our mental and physical wellbeing suffer. Sleep is not a waste of time even though it consumes about a third of your life. Sleep is actually productive even though passive. Sleep is therapy, physical and mental. Physically, it is during sleep that our cells heal and regenerate. Mentally, we digest in our subconscious what we experienced during the day.

Arianna Huffington, founder and editor of the Huffington Post, researched and wrote theThe Sleep Revolution “after collapsing from exhaustion” a few years ago. Huffington writes: “Sleep is a time of intense neurological activity—a rich time of renewal, memory consolidation, brain and neurochemical cleansing, and cognitive maintenance. Properly appraised, our sleeping time is as valuable a commodity as the time we are awake. In fact, getting the right amount of sleep enhances the quality of every minute we spend with our eyes open. Here are links to her sleep-quality questionnaire, and to her 12 tips for better sleep. How do you fare?

Sleep is restoration time, make it sacred. Make your bedroom your sanctuary that feels peaceful and protected, quiet and calm. No TVs and tablets, but rather tisane and fresh air, a good book, and a mechanical alarm clock so you can leave your phone outside.