The Sundown Challenge
If you’ve followed my blog—or know me at all—you know I get to work alongside people who are building meaningful things in the world, in their homes, and in their businesses.
These are leaders with vision, passion, and fire-in-the-belly drive. The kind of people who bless others just by showing up.
Some are young. Some are seasoned. Some are well into the fourth quarter of a long, good run.
All of them are working hard unto great things.
Lately, though, many of them have been quietly carrying the same thought:
I can’t do it all.
No one else sees it—but they feel it.
Vision + passion + drive, combined with a deep desire to be great at family, life, and work, can leave even the strongest leaders exhausted. Keeping all the plates spinning eventually takes its toll.
Maybe you can relate. (I know I can.)
Recently, I worked with two clients who were seeing real success — their output was strong, but the cost was unsustainable. Both were running on about five hours of sleep a night. For months. Five hours had quietly become their “new normal.”
So we shifted one thing.
Instead of work hard, rest later, we focused on rest first—then work hard.
I asked them a simple question:
If you could get 25% more sleep each night, would you expect more joy, creativity, and impact in your day?
Both said, “Heck yes.”
Then I added: What if the only change required was learning to think differently about your day?
Still in.
The Sundown Challenge
Most people think their day ends at midnight. But we are not aiming to be “most people”
Historically—and biblically—the day began at sundown. “There was evening, and there was morning…”
So we tried this:
Step 1: Choose a consistent “sundown” time—around dinner—when work is done. Unplug. Be fully present with your family. Let the day end there. And thus the new day begins, here, as well. Fall asleep grateful for how the “day” began —with the people who matter most.
Step 2: When you wake up, write down one thing you’re grateful for. Somewhere you’ll see it. (One client wrote it on the bathroom mirror.)
That’s it. We practiced this for one week.
The Result?
They didn’t suddenly sleep ten hours—but they averaged 6.5 hours a night. That’s a 30% increase.
Even better? They wanted the day to begin earlier in the evening, so they started protecting that time. Family-first became natural, not forced.
This isn’t a trick. It’s ancient wisdom. It’s how humans lived before the light bulb—and how we were designed to live now.
We work best when we work from rest, not toward it.
Try it. Pass it on. Let me know how it goes.
And really—who couldn’t use a little more rest?
Peace,
Craig
craig@r12coaching.com
