Nothing can throw someone’s game off more than a terrible night’s sleep or no sleep at all. Sleep deprivation is one of the leading causes of lost workplace productivity to say nothing of how it affects relationships and the ability to stay focused. While the National Sleep Foundation says people need seven to nine hours of sleep a night, recent research done at the Centers for Disease Control revealed that most people are only getting about six. If they’re lucky.

Physical health and emotional well being are intimately linked to the ability to rest and to sleep well. Science has no idea why humans must sleep but science does know that, without it, the lack of sleep can lead to physical and mental lapses and breakdowns, reports Inc. Magazine. The simplest of medical understandings is that sleep is critical to the brain functioning in a such a way as to clear out the toxins that have been building up all day.

According to recent research performed at Harvard Medical School, the average man or woman loses 11 days a year in lost workplace productivity which averages out to be a personal financial loss of around $2,200 every year. What it is costing American business, however, is upwards of $63 billion in lost productivity every year. In addition, more research out of the University of California at Berkley reveals that sleep deprivation causes people to lose the ability to read facial expressions and to be able to interpret them properly.

So, how to get a good night’s sleep?

The first thing that must be understood is one’s body clock and the natural rhythms of one’s physical body. Those are personal circadian rhythms and they help people to put a system in place that allows for the proper amount of sleep according to how one’s particular body functions.

Always have a set schedule with regard to sleep. This is especially true for the weekends when everyone seems tempted to sleep a little later than sunrise. The human body is easily conditioned and throwing off the circadian rhythms on the weekend will just throw off one’s sleep pattern for the rest of the upcoming week. Give the body a plus or minus a half hour or so but sleeping late on Saturday may mean it will be tougher to get to sleep on Sunday.

Notice body rhythms during the day. Everyone has a “down time” during the day when they are sluggish. This is the perfect time to take a nap. However, a nap is not a three hour snooze fest during a boring football game. The human mind goes into REM sleep within 40 minutes. Once the brain has entered that, dreams begin to form. If one allows that to happen, one will be more tired upon waking up than when one fell asleep. A 20 to 30 minute power nap is the best. One will awaken refreshed because REM sleep had been avoided.

Don’t toss and turn. The mind has to be conditioned to think that the bed is a sacred place reserved only for sleeping. If sleep doesn’t come, get up and do something else. However, don’t work or tend to social media. It will only cause additional stress. Do something quiet and peaceful until drowsiness returns.

Sleep research says that a cooler environment is what’s needed and that sleep thrives in the coolness. Also, shut off the phone. Over 30 percent of people actually go to bed and leave their phones on and over 70 percent check their phones as soon as they open their eyes in the morning.

Get as much natural sunlight in the morning as can be had. It tells the brain that it is morning and time to get the day started. Finally, don’t just jump right into bed. Give the mind and the body an hour or so to wind down and relax before hitting the proverbial hay for the night.