I was reading an article recently from the Happier Human blog and the topic was about all the benefits of gratitude.

And some, I didn't even know about.

You've heard me talk about how gratitude can increase your happiness and optimism, while reducing stress and complaining.

But check out these 3 unusual benefits of gratitude:

1) Gratitude increases your productivity.

Those who are insecure have difficulty focusing because many of their mental resources are tied up with their worries. On the other hand, those who are highly confident are able to be more productive, because they can direct more of their focus towards their work. This operates at both a conscious and subconscious level – we may be getting mentally distracted by our worries, or more commonly, parts of our subconscious mind are expending energy to suppress negative information and concerns.

As gratitude has been shown to increase self-esteem and reduce insecurity, this means that it can help us focus and improve our productivity.

2) Gratitude improves your sleep.

Gratitude increases sleep quality, reduces the time required to fall asleep, and increases sleep duration. That means gratitude helps with insomnia!

The key is what’s on our minds as we’re trying to fall asleep. If it’s worries about the kids, or anxiety about work, the level of stress in our body will increase, reducing sleep quality, keeping us awake, and cutting our sleep short.

The next time you have trouble sleeping, play the gratitude alphabet game. Start with the letter A and think of one thing you're grateful for beginning with that letter. Then do the same thing for B, C and all the way to Z. So much better than counting sheep. :)

3) Gratitude increases your energy levels.

Research shows that gratitude and vitality are strongly correlated – the grateful are much more likely to report physical and mental vigor.

If you weren't a believer in gratitude before reading this, I bet you are now! :)

And if you aren't making gratitude a daily practice, I encourage you to start today.