Hi friends! Today, I'm going to share with you 10 things that are going to change your life. I had poor sleep my entire life, and I just logged what is potentially the best sleep score in human history: 8 months of perfect sleep.
Sleep is the most important thing a human does on a daily basis. I'm going to share with you what I did to achieve that perfect sleep score; they do not require $2 million a year, and I'm going to give them to you for free today. [Music] All right, what I've done to make this easy for you is I've listed out the 10 levels and 7 days of the week.
So tape this on the bathroom mirror or in your bedroom, and put a star by each day you accomplish a task. When you achieve level 10, send me a note and tell me you've become a professional sleeper. Now, I know that sleep doesn't solve all things, but it helps me feel well enough and full of energy that I want to do everything else that's good for me.
All right, number one is to identify as a professional sleeper. Currently, grind culture is the dominant way of understanding sleep, which is that you don't need a lot of it, and you're actually weak if you get it. "Money never sleeps," pal.
That's foolish; don't do that! The wise thing to do is to make sleep your number one priority. You will feel better, you will look better, and everything in life will be easier.
Level two is to have a consistent bedtime. This is really important because you're telling your body, "We do sleep at this time every day," so you can make adjustments in your life. Have dinner earlier, plan earlier, put it on your schedule.
Think of this as your most important meeting of the day. When you show up to work on time or have meetings with your friends, if you're even 5 minutes late, you apologize. Don't disappoint yourself; show up on time.
In my family, when bedtime arrives, Tage and I will stop whatever we're doing and run to our bedtimes. We do this tongue-in-cheek; it's funny because we're saying to each other, "We respect bedtime in this family. " We know we're going to be better family members with each other if we get our sleep.
For my bedtime, I've chosen 8:30. I love the morning time, especially the 4 hours of time I have all by myself. No one's calling me, no one's messaging me; I have it all to myself.
So I really like to go to bed at 8:30, and then I have the morning wide open. That said, you do you. If you're a night owl and you prefer to go to bed later, that's okay.
Just choose your bedtime and be consistent. Level three is to have a wind-down routine. I know from personal experience that when I go to bed and I'm thinking about the day's problems or some opportunity—anything that's on my mind—if my head hits the pillow, all night long I'll just think about it.
So what I do now is let Sleep Brian enter the equation 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime. If an incoming thought says, "Oh, you should be worried about this," or "You should think about that," Sleep Brian says, "Thank you, suggest sleep mode is now engaged. " So I would encourage you to create a ritual: read a book, go for a walk, engage in some favorite hobby, but avoid screens and avoid anything that's going to get you aroused.
Don't have fights; don't tackle hard problems. Get ready for bed. All right, level four is to eat early.
I know this because I tried hundreds of experiments with food types and eating times, and I found that I slept the best with blueprint food and my last meal of the day at 11:00 a. m. Now, that may sound early to you; it is, but I got used to it.
Now, this does not mean that you need to eat at 11:00 a. m. as well.
What this means is it's an invitation for you to try to explore eating earlier and also to try to avoid big, heavy meals at the end of the day that could really have a negative effect on your sleep. When I go out for social events, I will eat something. Sometimes I try to find light food, like steamed vegetables or something like that, because having a plate in front of me with food makes everyone feel comfortable.
If I don't have it, then everyone's like, "Why are you not eating? " and it's a whole thing. So I really try to blend in to avoid creating chaos in social situations.
All right, level five is hopefully an obvious one: you want to avoid stimulants or anything that's going to disrupt your sleep. That includes alcohol and caffeine. I know personally that if I drink any alcohol in the latter part of the day, my deep sleep is going to be about 80% less—it just decimates my sleep.
So I now have no alcohol. Then, of course, caffeine; we metabolize caffeine at different speeds, but I've stopped all caffeine as well. It really has helped me improve my sleep.
So just consider that these things may potentially be degrading your quality of sleep and be mindful of what you consume and when you consume it. Level six is to regulate light in the evening. A few things for you to keep in mind: I have an app on my computer, Flux, that eliminates blue light from the screen.
If I’m watching a movie with friends, I'll put on a pair of blue light blocking glasses. Sure, B, do you want a bite? I'm on a diet, but thank you!
My room is. . .
Entirely blacked out with curtains, and if I'm traveling, I will wear a mask. So, you're trying to avoid, uh, light that is going to otherwise disrupt your sleep. Just be mindful—probably the most important thing here is to try to eliminate screens in that downtime before bed.
Level seven is to maintain an ideal temperature for your sleep. Now, I think Goldilocks got this right: not too hot, not too cold. Of course, we can say specific numbers, but everyone's different.
More important is that either being too hot or too cold is going to create suboptimal sleep. There are also considerations with a partner and other members of the family, so just be mindful that you don’t want to be in either one of the extremes. For my own personal temperature control, I use an Eight Sleep mattress.
During my deep sleep, it's down to 71°F, and then during my REM, it's up to 73°F. Consider changing your thermostat or air-on settings, experimenting with different types of bedding, and opening doors for increased airflow. Level eight is creating a peaceful sleep environment for you, for your family, and for your children.
Now, I have three kids. If I could travel back in time, I would sit everyone down and say, “We are a sleep family, and here are the rules of how we do sleep: We go to bed on time, we never get up at night, we never wake anyone up unless we feel like our life is being threatened. ” You're doing them a favor, and you're setting them up with good habits that will endure throughout their lives.
But also, other things—one of my neighbors has barking dogs, so I called her, and she was more than willing to say, “I understand your bedtime is at 8:30, so after 8:30, I will make sure they're in their home in their kennels. ” Very considerate! So, you can do things with neighbors, with partners, with friends.
Don't feel shy about asking; oftentimes it makes a better environment for everybody. Now, one more thing to mention is that for my sleep environment, I do nothing in my bedroom except for sleep. I don’t read in there, I don’t watch movies, I don’t hang out—it’s for sleep.
Because I'm telling my body, “When you get into this position, your objective is sleep. ” If you're doing things all day, then your body can get confused. So, it’s really important to have a dedicated sleep environment; it will improve the quality of your sleep.
And there's one more thing, which may be a little bit controversial: If you can sleep alone, you may want to consider it. My wife said, “No, not here. ” It’s pretty hard to synchronize the sleep routines and preferences of two people, and there can be a lot of wake events between the two.
So if it’s a possibility, and you can have that conversation, you may want to strongly consider sleeping independently because it may yield higher quality sleep for both of you. Level nine is light. The first thing I do in the morning, I wake up around 5:00 or 5:30 naturally every day, is I turn on 10,000 lux, and I do that for a few minutes.
It tells my body, “You’re awake. The day is beginning. ” It helps with mood, it helps with energy, and again, it tells the body, “We get up at this time, and now we’re up.
” It’s so important to tell your body exactly when to go to bed and when to wake up, and you start having these compounded benefits as you repeat these behaviors continually. I think that’s why, in large part, I was able to achieve an 8-month perfect sleep score: I was able to tune my body so well that I knew exactly what to expect every single day. Now, if you don’t wake up at 5:00 or 5:30, or if you have a preference to go outside, please do so.
The sunlight is great! I, too, enjoy the sunlight. I typically try to avoid the times of day between 10:00 a.
m. and 4:00 p. m.
when the UV index is high, but the morning and the night are great times to get sunlight exposure. Level ten is gathering data. Now, I would have put this at number one, but it does cost money, and I’ve been mindful trying to put everything that’s free ahead of it.
But data has been the most important thing I’ve done. It’s helped me create intuitions and knowledge about what improves my sleep and what worsens it. My main tool for tracking sleep is my Whoop band, which tracks how much sleep I got each night, the quality of that sleep, and how much I exerted myself each day.
Just to put this in context, imagine you’re training for a one-mile race. You couldn’t do it without a stopwatch; you couldn’t just guess how fast you’re running. Even though you can approximate your speed, you don’t know if you’re improving or not.
So that’s ten things for you to become a professional sleeper. You can do this! Get into the habits and make them non-negotiable.
If your favorite show drops and your bedtime, don’t watch it. Go to bed. You’re telling your body, “We have a routine, and we’re going to be consistent on that routine.
” And you may find that so many of your other problems in life are going to resolve themselves when you’re getting routine, high-quality sleep. So, when you go through the levels and you master them, send me a note and tell me you’ve achieved mastery. It will change your life, I promise.
