The ultimate performance hack anyone can do

Even when your routine is optimized, eating clean, training consistently, and stacking the best supplements, if your sleep is off, everything else seems to start to crumble as well.

The problem?  Most people treat sleep as an after thought.

Here’s the truth:

Lack of sleep hinders metabolism - even one bad night can make you more insulin-resistant.

It also accelerates aging whereby not getting enough deep sleep starts to build up toxins.

And poor sleep throws off your hormones, affecting both testosterone and estrogen levels, alongside growth hormones and cortisol.

Not to mention, sleep is the point in the day where your body does the most recovery of your brain, muscles, and immune system.

This happens when you don’t sleep well

If you ever wake up groggy, unmotivated, or even inflamed, it’s your body telling you something is off.

When you don’t get enough deep sleep...

You age faster, with poor sleep being linked to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and an overall shorter lifespan

You gain weight as lack of sleep limits the time for fat burning while increasing cravings

Your immune system gets shot, even just from one bad night

You experience cognitive decline as your brain clears out plaques linked to neurodegeneration when you sleep

Your sleep is being disrupted by these things

A lot of your struggles with sleep typically come from things you unknowingly sabotage for yourself.  The good part is none of this is complicated to fix.

Your bedroom is too hot

Your body needs to drop by 2°F to enter deep sleep otherwise this is a typical reason why you might be tossing and turning.

Fix it: Maintain a temperature around 60-67°F in your bedroom.  You can also try a bed cooling system like a Chilipad that regulates the temperature of your bed or simply take a cooler shower before you sleep.

There’s too much light at night

We all know it’s much harder to sleep when there’s light in your room.  What you may not know is your phone’s blue light is triggering your brain to think it’s daytime, which disrupts your ability to fall asleep quicker or get into a deeper sleep.

Fix it: Black out your room at night by using things like blackout curtains and an eye mask.  Cut screens from your bedtime routine at least 60 minutes beforehand and if you can, use red lights before bed as it has been known to help stimulate melatonin production and it doesn’t really interfere with the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

Eating and drinking too close to bedtime

While late night eating is going to spike your blood-sugar levels, interfering with melatonin production, drinking closer to bedtime can disrupt your sleep simply from having to go to the bathroom.

Fix it: Although harder to achieve at times, building a routine that stops you from eating or drinking anything 3 hours for bedtime will assist in a smoother transition into consistent deep sleep.

Getting maximum recovery from optimized sleep

It’s really not necessary to overhaul your entire routine but stacking a few simple habits goes a long way.

You could...

Get morning sunlight, signalling to your body that’s daytime and essentially setting your circadian rhythm.

Build a sleep schedule an stick to it, the more consistent here the better

Ensure your room is completely blacked out, with no light leakage anywhere

Start your wind-down routine 2 hours before bed so you aren’t up late frantically trying to get everything done

Limit your caffeine intake before noon as caffeine lingers in your system long after you’ve had it

Try a 3-Night Sleep Experiment

Give yourself three nights in a row to see how you feel from optimized sleep.

Night 1 - Light reset

2 hours before bed --> limit your blue light exposure and any bright light

1 hour before bed--> opt for a book over scrolling through your phone

Night 2 - Temperature reset

Set the temperature to 60-67°F and use breathable bedding (linen, bamboo, or a cooling pad)

Add the light reset

Night 3 - The wind-down reset

Consciously stop any food or fluids 3 hours before bed.

Wind down adding the light reset and the temperature reset

What to look for:

Do you fall asleep faster?

Do you wake up less throughout the night

Do you feel more rested in the morning?

To get a deeper measurement of how optimized your sleep becomes, track with an Aura ring or Whoop band.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with doing it the old fashioned way where you wake up in the morning and gauge how rested you actually feel - you’ll know right away when you get optimal rest.

TLDR TRIO

🌡️ Ensure the temperature in your bedroom is optimal for sleeping

🛌 Create the darkest environment you can for where you sleep

🧘‍♂️ Get in the habit of winding down 2 hours before bedtime