Challenge #1

Go to Sleep!

We are ready for Challenge #1! It does seem like a simple challenge, but for some this will be difficult, including myself.

Growing up and even today my mother is a total “night owl” and I believe it stems from her working the evening shift for many years. However, the habit of not going to sleep until after midnight or later each night passed on to my generation and I unfortunately have passed this habit on to my son. For night owls, we seem to obtain a “second wind” at about 10:30pm. I can get up, clean and eat a second meal with no issues at this time of night.

So, your week #1 challenge is to sleep! Yes, sleep. During this first week (and hopefully for the duration of the fast) you need to get between 7 and 8 hours a sleep each night.

A new study suggests that beyond leading to poor decision making, sleep deprivation actually makes us more optimistic in our judgments, particularly those about money. Researchers at Duke University studied healthy volunteers as they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and found that the less we sleep, the more likely we are to focus on potential gains and ignore potential risks.

Sleep deprivation actually changes the way that our brains process information. Lack of sleep makes us:

• More sensitive to positive outcomes-Not “keeping it real”


• More likely to pay attention to the upside and not the consequences of using the credit cards.

Therefore, we make financial decisions and don’t look at the risk and reality about our finances. In other words, we live in the “fog” and continue to go into depth monthly.

So this week, set a bed time and stick to it. Turn the TV off and just go to bed. You will wake up refreshed with a clear mind and ready to make good financial decisions.