The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
The first thing experts will tell you about how many hours of sleep we
need is that there is no “magic number.” The amount of sleep that is ideal
varies for every individual, and is influenced by factors such as age, genetics,
overall health, how much exercise a person gets, and many others. While you
may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may
clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, some research has found
that long sleep durations (nine hours or more) are also associated with
increased morbidity (illness, accidents) and even mortality (death.) This
research also found that variables such as depression were significantly
associated with long sleep.
Since there is such a wide variety of opinions from countless studies and
experts, and since the amount of sleep needed varies from person to person,
I’m not going to take a scientific approach here. Instead, I’m going to share
my own real-world results, from personal experience and experimentation,
some of which may be somewhat controversial.
How To Wake UP With More Energy (On Less Sleep)
Through my own experimentation—as well as that of many other
Miracle Morning enthusiasts who have tested this theory—I’ve concluded
that, for the most part, we need as much sleep as we believe that we need. In
other words, I’ve found that how we feel in the morning when we wake up—
and this is a very important distinction—is not based on how many hours of
sleep we got, as much as it’s based on how we told ourselves we were going
to feel when we woke up.
For example, if you believe that you need 8 hours of sleep to feel rested,
but you’re getting into bed at 12:00 midnight and have to wake up at 6:00
a.m., you’re likely to tell yourself, “Geez, I’m only going to get six hours of
sleep tonight, but I need eight. I’m going to feel exhausted in the morning.”
Then, what happens as soon as your alarm clock goes off and you open your

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eyes and you realize it’s time to wake up? What’s the first thought that you
think? It’s the same thought you had before bed! “Geez, I only got six hours
of sleep. I feel exhausted.” It’s a self-fulfilling, self-sabotaging prophecy. If
you tell yourself you’re going to feel tired in the morning, then you are
absolutely going to feel tired. If you believe that you need 8 hours to feel
rested, then you’re not going to feel rested on anything less. But what if you
changed your beliefs?
The mind-body connection is a powerful thing, and I believe we must
take responsibility for every aspect of our lives, including the power to wake
up every day feeling energized, regardless of how many hours of sleep we
get.
I’ve experimented with various durations of sleep—from as little as four
hours to as many as nine. The other variable in my experimentation was
actively telling myself how I was going to feel in the morning, based on the
amount of hours I slept. First, I tried each duration of sleep, telling myself
before bed that I was not getting enough sleep, and that I was going to feel
exhausted in the morning.
On four hours of sleep, I woke up feeling exhausted.
On five hours of sleep, I woke up feeling exhausted.
On six hours of sleep, you guessed it—exhausted.
Seven hours…. Eight hours… Nine hours… The hours of sleep I got
didn’t change how I felt when the alarm clock went off in the morning. As
long as I told myself before bed that I wasn’t getting enough sleep, and that I
was going to feel tired in the morning, that’s exactly how I felt.
Then, I again experimented with each duration—from nine hours to four
hours—this time reciting a bedtime affirmation and telling myself that I was
going to wake up feeling energized in the morning: “Thank you for giving
me these five hours of sleep tonight. Five hours is exactly what I need to feel
rested and energized in the morning. My body is capable of miraculous
things, the least of which is generating an abundance of energy from five
restful hours of sleep. I believe that I create my experience of reality, and I
choose to create waking up tomorrow feeling energized and excited to take on
my day, and I’m grateful for that.”
What I found was that whether I got nine, eight, seven, six, five, or even
just four hours of sleep, as long as I consciously decided, before bed, that I
was getting the perfect amount of sleep—that the hours were going to
energize my body to feel wonderful in the morning—I consistently woke
feeling better than I ever had before. However, don’t take my word for it. I

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encourage you to experiment with this yourself.
So, how many hours of sleep do you really need? You tell me.