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Your Dream Team

With Toastmasters contest season fast approaching, I thought I'd share a contest speech that survived three contests last year, went through 15 drafts (I have them all), numerous practice sessions in front of two clubs, in the living room in front of a big dog and a cell phone, and in the driveway working on my footwork!

I received good feedback on using parts of the speaking area (contest-speak for stage) to emphasize transitions from one point to the next - and to refer back to earlier points.  There are two "maps" one for the speaker's perspective and one for the audience's perspective.  The solid lines are movement, while the dashed lines are prompts to refer back to an earlier area.

Did I get carried away?  I don't think so.  Having every detail mapped out and refined gave me the confidence to compete and improve each time - and confidence-building is what we do!
Speaker's Perspective

Audience's Perspective


-RM


Image courtesy of Super-Mapio from Pixabay

Your Dream Team

Dave pulled another all-nighter.

Sue has been known to take a nap now and then.

Madam Contest-Master, fellow Toastmasters, and guests, who do you want on your team? Would you choose dedicated Dave? Would you choose sleepy Sue?

If you chose Dave, you need to Wake Up! By wake up, I don’t mean emerge from slumber.  No, I want you to change your attitude towards sleep. I’m going to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of sleep, and then revisit our recruiting exercise.

The Good

Sleep is a good cure for more than tiredness. The most effective doses range from brief naps to a good night’s sleep. Sleep occurs in 90-minute cycles: Shallow, then deep, back to shallow, shallow, then deep, and back to shallow.  Naps exist in that first cycle, and how far you get into the cycle determines what kind of nap it is, and what benefits you receive. When you start to sleep you don’t know that you’re sleeping. You start to lose awareness after six seconds.  If you nod awake within 30 seconds, you experienced a microsleep. Up to about 5 minutes, you will insist you weren’t sleeping. This is a catnap. It is most beneficial to cats. I mention this to get a higher ranking on YouTube. 😉

A ten-minute power nap will restore alertness to a sleep-deprived individual for a couple of hours. Longer naps yield diminishing returns – if you’re driving all night, take ten-minute power naps every two hours. If you’re on duty, perhaps in a cockpit, and you’re permitted one nap, aim for a 26 minute “NASA nap.” NASA’s research shows that beyond half an hour your body goes into a deep sleep where it’s harder to wake up and you end up groggy rather than refreshed.

Beyond the 40-minute mark, deeper sleep helps the brain commit new information. In fact, if you study new material right before falling asleep, you’ll learn the material while you sleep!  (This works for memorizing speeches too!) During deep sleep, energy is restored, and the immune system is boosted. If you wake up at this point refreshed, ideally midafternoon in Barcelona, this nap is called a siesta. So, there you have the different naps in your sleep toolbox – 10-minute power nap, 26-minute NASA nap, and 90-minute siesta.

Daytime naps are a good tactic if you’re tired, but nighttime sleep is a better strategy.  A good night’s sleep includes three or four more sleep cycles, each with increasing benefits. Research shows 7 to 9 hours of sleep will combat cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and stress.  It will make you happier, healthier, smarter, stronger, and thinner too!

You too can get good sleep!  Avoid caffeine after lunch.  Dial the thermostat down 5 degrees, turn out the lights and get to bed with enough time to get about 8 hours of sleep – say from 11 to 7.  Nature will do the rest! 

The Bad

Lack of sleep doesn’t just mean you miss the benefits of a good night’s sleep, it can be bad for you. British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher (who once said sleep is for wimps) and President Ronald Reagan were both well known for their routine four to five hours of sleep.  Both eventually suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.  Alzheimer’s has recently been linked to elevated levels of a brain protein called tau - caused by a lack of deep sleep. In fact, every major psychiatric illness is correlated with sleep deprivation.

How hard is it to mess with a good night’s sleep? The Guardian newspaper recently reported that all it takes is one hour of lost sleep, as demonstrated by a global experiment performed on 1.6 billion people across more than 60 countries. This experiment, code name daylight saving time 😉, takes place twice a year. In the spring, when we lose one hour of sleep, there is a 24% increase in heart attacks the following day. In the autumn, we gain an hour of sleep, and there is a 21% reduction in heart attacks. That is staggering.

The Ugly

If lack of sleep is bad, its effects can be ugly. You wouldn’t drink and drive.  You’re getting better about distracted driving.  What about drowsy driving?  Sleep deprivation can impair as much as alcohol can, and microsleeps cause 100,000 accidents in the US each year. But you now know how to handle driving drowsy – power nap – NASA nap – or full night’s sleep.

Turn In

Let’s revisit our recruiting exercise. 

Dave reached a level of impaired decision-making equivalent to a DUI just half-way through his all-nighter.  Dave prioritized a project over his health.  Dave is cranky. 

Sue is mellow.  Sue knows the secret of sleep.

Now, with your better understanding of the importance of sleep, should Dave be on your dream team?

I rest my case.

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Location: Mill Creek, WA, USA

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