"We are all broken, that's how the light gets in." — Ernest Hemingway

Hey,

I have been trying to solve my sleep for almost two years now.

I wake up early. In winter, 5 to 6am. In summer, 3 to 4am.

But I find it so hard to go to bed early.

When I was a kid, around 9 to 11 years old, I was obsessed with going to bed early. By 9pm I was already in bed. Because I was so afraid I would miss school in the morning.

What beautiful days. Nothing on our minds.

I never found it hard to sleep back then. I was always tired. But nothing pushed me to stay awake.

Now, when you have your own business, things are different.

You dream of sleeping. And you wish you could work more without going to bed at all.

Then, after months, you find yourself so tired that you want to sleep for three days straight.

But even that, you cannot do.

The real problem.

I asked myself, do I really need to force myself to sleep?

Because when I am tired and I want to sleep, my mind just cannot stop thinking. I end up getting fewer hours and forcing myself to wake up early anyway.

I barely get five hours most days.

And when I force it, I get angry.

Angry because I know I cannot perform well in the morning. Angry because I know I will wake up late and the whole day will be wasted. And I do not want that.

The anger makes it worse. Now I really cannot sleep.

What my dad told me.

I told my dad about this issue the other day.

He said, "Ah, I also sometimes cannot sleep even when I have work the next day. I do not get angry at all. If I cannot sleep, I just stare at the roof. Maybe grab something to eat. Then try again. If not, I stay calm until I find myself falling asleep. And even if morning comes and I still did not sleep, it is just one day without sleep. What is going to happen?"

Now I have never seen my dad not having good sleep. He falls asleep in three minutes. Every time.

So he keeps it light. He does not force it. He does not waste energy fighting it.

And he gets it.

It stuck with me.

When he said that to me at the restaurant, something clicked.

Because this can be applied to all of our problems.

I already have this perspective with other problems I face every day. Especially in my business. I enjoy it. I keep it light. I never force it through.

But I learned that late.

With sleep, I never thought about it this way. Because for me sleep is so important. I thought I would lose my mind if I did not get enough of it. I had this fear that something bad would happen to my brain. That my performance would drop. That everything would fall apart.

And do not get me wrong. Sleep really does affect you.

But eight hours? I think it is a lie. Look, it is a big debate and I do not want to go through it. But seven hours is perfect for me.

The point is not the hours.

The point is the force.

James Clear said it better than I could:

"Don't ignore the problem, but keep it light. Take action with a smile. Adding tension won't solve your troubles faster.

Even when the problem is hard, it doesn't need to harden you. Unknot yourself. Body loose, head clear, and then take the first step.

Be happy in the doing."

Ask yourself this.

What if I am making the problem deeper than it deserves?

What if the force I am adding is the reason it will not leave?

Some problems grow because we squeeze them too tight.

Some problems solve themselves when we give them space to breathe.

Not every struggle needs a war.

Sometimes the answer is not to fight harder.

Sometimes the answer is to loosen your grip.

Life Hack:

Sometimes we need to ignore our problems for them to be solved.

Give them space. They leave soon.

Organise your life in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2030... Get Second Brain 6.0

Osama (OLS)

P.S. — Keep it light. The problem does not need you to suffer while solving it.