We need sleep to get our heads on straight

Patti Horoho is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General who served as General of the U.S. Army Medical Command. Her job was to oversee the health of army personnel and their families — about four million people worldwide.

During her command, she introduced a pilot program that she called “The Performance Triad,” which focused on maximizing diet, fitness and sleep.

Step one was to begin improving each soldier’s sleeping habits. She made this observation:

“If you have six hours of sleep or less for six days in a row, your cognitive performance is the same as .08 intoxication. We’ve never let a soldier in our formation be intoxicated. Why would we allow soldiers to have cognitive impairment?”

She also notes that people who sleep less tend to eat more — on average 500 more calories per day than well-rested people. Horoho says the key to top-level productivity begins with a good night’s sleep.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Outliers,” made a similar observation. In his research he noted that, while average Americans get slightly less than seven hours of sleep each night, top performers get closer to 8.5 hours of sleep each night.

Horoho also says that we should look at sleep as ammunition for the brain:

“You need to go into battle with your brain having enough sleep, so that you can make the right decisions, because lives depend on it.”

This is exactly what Elijah needed to do in order to get his head on straight in the aftermath of his encounter with Jezebel.

“Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.” (1 Kings 19:5)

Peace, Skip

James “Skip” French is the pastor of Highland Christian Church located at 1500 Forest Hills Blvd. in Bella Vista. Opinions expressed are those of the author.