Lifehacker, over the years, has been a very good source of articles on sleep. And I’m a regular follower on this topic as I find sleep to be the single biggest contributor to my energy. There is a noticeable difference between days I’m sleep deprived and days I’m not.
I was once theorizing about sleep with a light sleeper and my thesis around having great sleep was going to bed feeling mentally tired. Physical tiredness is ideal as well but it’s still optional. Mental tiredness is critical. There was no science behind this assertion though.
So, I must admit I was happy to note a line in their latest article on sleep and productivity that said ‘for the highest quality of sleep, you need to be drained, both physically and mentally.’
I cannot agree more. A caveat here – we all have different mental capacities and as a result, it’s vital that you do what it takes to stretch your minds. The reason I say this is because I notice the difficulty some incredibly smart people have – they need a lot more mental activity to feel ‘drained’ and hence, they take ages to fall off to sleep. I, on the other hand, have no such problem. :-) Leave it to you to draw your own conclusions..
A Learning a Day 
