The role of sleep in going green

Modern life is busy, there’s so many distractions as we now live in an always on society. Everything, all the time may sound convenient, but it’s created a new type of slavery.

Often we find the only “me” time we can get is late at night when we’re too tired to fully enjoy it. We grab a few hours sleep and then it’s back into it again, setting up a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation.

Often we keep this crazy routine just to keep food on our tables and a roof over our heads, but sometimes a good slice of our working lives are spent making money to buy stuff we don’t need.. or sometimes really even want.

How often have you just had to have something and once the initial euphoria of attaining your goal has ebbed, that something becomes another bit of clutter or worse still, a liability. Then there’s our labor saving devices; which we toil to pay for, keep running, upgrade and repair.

The tiredness we feel contributes to us cutting corners, costing us more money and costing the environment too. It’s really a ridiculous pickle we’ve got ourselves in.

Here’s some examples:

– When people are tired, they will often get take-out instead of cooking at home. That’s great if you have an organic restaurant next store, but it usually means jumping in the car to go and grab something that’s not particularly nutritious and has a big carbon footprint to boot; or nuking a highly processed frozen dinner.

– Using the dryer to dry our clothes as we’re too tired to hang out the washing

– Not having the time or energy to make the kid’s lunch and giving them cash to buy it instead.

– Making mistakes with items that then break and then need to be replaced.

– Wandering around a supermarket in a daze and not considering our purchasing choices.

– Driving our cars inefficiently

– Forgetting to turn lights or appliances off

There’s so many inefficiencies in our lives that are exacerbated by a lack of a good night’s rest. Try and make a point of trialing a week where you get proper rest each night if you can and see what a difference it makes in your personal energy levels and the decisions you make.

So next time you have a bit of a sleep in, your excuse can be that you’re doing it for the sake of the environment and your wallet!