Productivity has become warped in the sense that when many people picture people who are set up for success, they might think of someone who wakes up at 5 am and performs all the extremely difficult tasks that they themselves may not be able to do. This leads to misconceptions regarding what is important for success and what should take the backseat. However, the most important and most productive practice is the one that people seem to think of as lazy: sleeping. 

Sleeping is the most important practice that has the capability to improve nearly any part of your life. Waking up early is not productive. Going to sleep late after being up late doing work is not productive. The most productive thing that you can do is get a good night’s sleep. 

Benefits of sleep include a boost in the immune system, an increase in cognitive function, and an increase in alertness. That paired with the fact that sleep enhances muscle recovery and is crucial for aiding mood, it is easy to see why sleep is extremely important for any person, especially for teenagers. 

The average teenager gets 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep per night, which is nowhere near the CDC recommendation. The CDC recommends that teenagers get 8-10 hours of sleep per 24 hours. This number is the number of sleeping hours, not the amount of time spent in bed. This is important as many people base their schedule around being in bed for 8 hours. The average person can take up to 20 minutes to fall asleep, and some may take even longer. With this being said, it is important to base a schedule around getting 8-10 hours of sleep per night rather than 8-10 hours of being in bed. Going to sleep around 20 minutes earlier will aid in this. 

In order to reduce the time that it takes to fall asleep, it is important to develop good sleep habits. This can include scheduling to turn on the blue light filter on your phone and other devices an hour or so before bed and make sure you refrain from caffeine consumption during hours before bed.