The Importance Of Sleep (Well) !!

June 21, 2020

< Sleep Is Your SuperPower by Matt Walker > by TED Talks

J.P. Morgan once had a friend who was so worried about his' stock holdings that he could not sleep at night. The friend asked, ‘What should I do about my stocks?’ Morgan replied, ‘Sell down to your sleeping point’ Every investor must decide the trade-off he or she is willing to make between eating well and sleeping well. High investment rewards can only be achieved at the cost of substantial risk-taking. So what is your sleeping point? Finding the answer to this question is one of the most important investment steps you must take.

– Burton Malkiel

Worries, doubts, and anxieties are normal and part and partial of our life. It’s quite natural to worry about our unpaid bill, an upcoming job interview, or even where to go for our first date. Our worry increase during this COVID 19 pandemic, especially worrying about losing our job, money not enough, losing our investment in stocks. As a retiree, we worry about getting lesser dividend or interest income from our investment or deposit in the bank to support our daily/monthly expenses.

Constant worrying, negative thinking, and always expecting the worst can take a toll on your emotional and physical health. It can sap your emotional strength, cause insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, and muscle tension, and make it difficult to concentrate at work or school.

As above quoted, you may need to readjust your equity composition in your portfolio if you are losing sleep over your investment. You may also need to relook into your overall expenses if anything you could reduce or adjust. During good economic times, we may overestimate our ability to have a pay increase year by year, hence increase our “lifestyle inflation” without realizing that we are paying too much on certain “luxury” items that may cause problems when we have a situation like this.

The dangers of lifestyle inflation <source: theweek.com>

It is important to look at our “personal cash flow” and debts level again, a more prudent personal financial planning is much more important during this tough period as the challenging economic situation may continue for quite some time.

These 5 Reasons Are Why High Income Earners Still Struggle With Debt <source:steveadcock.us>

"In the book “The Millionaire Next Door“, Dr Thomas Stanley studied high net worth individuals for many years and found a striking similarity among them: most wealthy people don’t spend money like you’d think.

In fact, those with a high net worth typically live in modest homes and drive normal cars. Wealthy people – people with a lot of money, tend not to be the ones driving expensive luxury cars.

High-income earners spend more because they make more, creating an expensive lifestyle that needs a high income and endless credit cards just to maintain itself.

And funding expensive lifestyles – even for those who earn a great deal of money, very often produces credit card debts that can quickly spin completely out of control. A lot of us struggle with lifestyle inflation.

We start making more money and, in turn, we begin spending the majority of what we earn – simply because we have it to spend."

Below are a few good links of articles related to the importance of sleeping well.

How Sleep Strengthens Your Immune System <source: healthline.com>

"Sleep helps the immune system.

Numerous studies have reported the benefits of a good night’s sleep, and now researchers from Germany have found that sound sleep improves immune cells known as T cells.

“T cells are a type of… immune cells that fight against intracellular pathogens, for example, virus-infected cells such as flu, HIV, herpes, and cancer cells,”

How Sleep Affects Your Immunity < source: sleepfoundation.org>

This content was created by the National Sleep Foundation:

When it comes to your health, sleep plays an important role. While more sleep won’t necessarily prevent you from getting sick, skimping on it could adversely affect your immune system, leaving you susceptible to a bad cold or case of the flu. To keep yourself sniffle-free this season, here’s what you need to know.

Sleep and Cytokines

Without sufficient sleep, your body makes fewer cytokines, a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation, effectively creating an immune response. Cytokines are both produced and released during sleep, causing a double whammy if you skimp on shut-eye. Chronic sleep loss even makes the flu vaccine less effective by reducing your body’s ability to respond.

Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency < source: nhi.gov>

"Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.

The way you feel while you're awake depends in part on what happens while you're sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.

The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others."

Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment, go for more exercise as it helps to relieve our tension and stress, as well as boosting our immune system. You may also try to take up “Yoga or Tai-Chi “ class or doing some meditation and deep breathing exercise to relax your mind and muscles.

I try to walk or slow jog for at least 10-15 KM every day and same time can take some photos and enjoy the nice scenery surrounding us. The stock market will continue to be very volatile for quite some time, a +/- 10-20% will be quite often at this point in time. Buying now means you need to have a much longer holding period as things look very uncertain, even though we may succeed to have the vaccine for COVID 19 eventually, but it may take much longer time to reach us.

Understand the "market cycle " and look for a much longer investment time horizon if you have the intention to buy stocks now and for those who are worrying too much about their stocks holding, as above mentioned/ quoted, you may need to "sell down to your sleeping point " base on your risk tolerance.

Cheers!

STE

Below are some photos which were taken during the CB (Circuit Breaker ) period.