The Science Based Nighttime Routine That Changed My Life

What is your morning routine? >> Morning routine. >> Morning routine.

>> What's the millionaire morning routine? >> Morning routines are overrated. After two kids and multiple businesses, I've learned that complicated rituals to prime your day can't compete with one thing, which is how you set up your body the night before.

And something I realized later on in life is that it's not how you start your day, it's actually about how you finish. So, in today's video, I want to share the science-based nighttime routine that's completely changed my life. It's practical, and most importantly, it's doable for busy people with kids.

By the way, my name is Dan Go. I've been a health coach for the past 20 years. I've been a trainer.

I've owned a gym for about 11 of those years. I sold that gym in 2018, and now I'm helping high achieving entrepreneurs optimize their bodies and health with ease and minimal stress. Now, on to the video.

So, the internet is flooded with advice on the perfect morning routine. They tell you you got to meditate, cold plunge, read, walk, journal, chant affirmations, etc. , etc.

And this is all good if you're single with no kids and living in your parents' basement. Morning routines are overrated because they are rigid, time-consuming checklists disguised to create a false sense of progress, but rarely deliver actual results. The real performance secret is what you do before you wake up.

A great day starts at night. The right evening routine can prime your body and mind for deep sleep, which will help you regulate your hormones, improve recovery, consolidate your memory, and give you the energy to wake up super sharp. It also creates a boundary between your work and your personal life.

It should de-stress your body and help you prepare to crush the next day. Most importantly, a consistent nighttime routine anchors your body's clock, known as your circadian rhythm. This leads to easier mornings, better energy, and an improved mood.

So, here's the anatomy of an effective science-based nighttime routine that's not going to break your bank or be super complicated. And here's one little note that I want to leave is that by adopting this nighttime routine, you will have your kids adopted, too. And the same habits that help us sleep better will carry over to them.

And this will make everyone's mornings way better. And if you don't have kids, just disregard this note. So, step one is to increase daytime light exposure.

So, experts suggest getting 15 minutes of morning sun. And quite frankly, that's not always realistic with kids. My rule is to get light whenever you can.

Bright natural light resets your internal clock and supports deep sleep. In the summertime, I get mine by playing with my kids in the pool after work. In between that, I will step outside for a walking meeting or stand in my backyard during breaks just to get a little bit of sun on my body.

And while the most optimal time is to get sun on your body in the morning and also at sunset, I find that it's just best to not have things to be so optimized for you all the time. Get daylight whenever you can. Get sunlight on your body and then once you do that, that will be a net positive for your sleep later on.

Now, in addition to step one, I have step 1A, which is to block out stimulation. So, a couple of things I avoid for better sleep is no caffeine past 12:00 p. m.

because it takes for me about 12 hours to clear and also making sure that I have no vigorous exercise at least 3 hours before bed. Now, the caffeine rule is probably one that you heard before, but the exercise one kind of surprised me. I thought late night training would actually help my sleep, but what it did was spike my heart rate and adrenaline.

So, back when I was doing jiu-jitsu, the only class that I could attend was at 7:00 p. m. And when I did that 7:00 p.

m. class at night, I found that I couldn't fall asleep until 1 or 2:00 a. m.

My mind was racing. My heart was pumping. I was too energetic afterwards.

So, to ensure that I had a great night of sleep, I made sure I was doing no vigorous exercise at least before bed. Step two, decrease nighttime light exposure. So, as the sun sets, you want to reduce your light exposure, especially to blue light.

When you expose your body and your eyes to blue light, it tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime and this suppresses melatonin and also delays your sleep. So, in our house, we dim the lights and we wear blue light blockers. And if you want to take this further, you can try red incandescent light bulbs.

These bulbs are darker and they help mimic sunset, which signals to your brain to start winding down, helping you fall asleep faster and more deeply. And this step is, I find, one of the most important ones, especially for parents. I talked to so many parents and I think one of the most underrated ways to start priming your kids to go to sleep is to start dimming your lights.

But what do most parents do? They leave the lights super bright, especially at night. And they don't realize that this is interfering with their children's ability to go to sleep faster.

And if there's anything that you know about having kids, you want them to go to sleep as fast as humanly possible. Now, step three is what I call the mind dump. So, when you go to sleep, you don't want lingering thoughts keeping you up.

And one thing I do at the end of my workday is I write down three to six priorities that I want to get done the next day. This is using something called the Ivy Lee method. This helps me come to my desk the next day without wondering what I have to do.

And this is amazing because I don't have to think about it right before I go to sleep. I also set a hard stop for emails and Slack messages at 6 p. m.

And every high performer knows that getting the wrong message at night can derail your focus and delay sleep. Step four is taking a hot shower. Now, low-key, one of the greatest cheat codes for a great sleep is actually having a hot shower because it raises your core temperature and the rapid cool down when you step out of the shower signals to your brain that it's time to sleep.

This is going to help you fall asleep faster and also improves sleep quality by syncing with your cicadian rhythms. For myself, this also marks the end of a day. It's like telling your body, "Yo, the day is over.

It's time to relax. " This provides me a mental break from my workday and it allows me to rest and digest for the rest of the night. Now, step five is what I call the 321 method.

So, the 3:1 method is a stupidly simple nighttime routine that can give you massive benefits. And it goes like this. So, the first step is to stop eating at least 3 hours or more before bed.

This is going to improve sleep quality by helping your body rest and digest. And researchers have actually found that when people eat right before they go to bed, they have a 44% chance of waking up later at night. Now, number two is drinking my sleep tea that you can see right here, right before bed and then having no liquids until the next day.

Now, 2 hours before bed, I drink a sleep concoction that contains chamomile, glycine, and a little bit of sea salt. The chamomile helps me go to sleep a little bit quicker by inducing some sleepiness. The glycine helps me get better quality sleep.

And the sea salt actually helps me prevent from waking up in the middle of the night to go pee because it allows me to absorb the water that I'm drinking. Now, the last one is going to be stopping blue light exposure at least 1 hour pre-bed. And as stated earlier, blue light is like poison for a great night of sleep.

So, I'm making sure I'm getting away from screens at least 1 hour before bed or I'm wearing blue light blockers to prevent any blue light from going into my eyes. And the 32:1 method is a simple system, but it has yielded incredible results, especially when it comes to sleep quality. Step six is disconnecting than connecting.

So, I thrive on time to myself, but also I want to stay connected to my wife. So, every night we do both, and it works for us. So, first off, we go off and we do our thing.

And admittedly, it's about numbing our minds and de-stressing. For her, it's watching shows like Emily and Paris on Netflix. And for me, it's either playing a video game or watching videos on YouTube.

And for the final hour of the night, we connect and we spend quality time together. For me, it's the perfect balance between having personal space and also watering the plant that is our relationship. Now, the final step to this is setting a soft and a hard stop.

It is important to have similar sleep and wake times. And this is actually dictated largely by when you go to sleep. So, I set a soft cap and a hard cap for my bedtime.

My soft cap is 9:30 p. m. , which is my ideal target, and my hard cap is 10:30 p.

m. , which is the latest I'll allow myself to stay awake. The hard cap is important because it is going to ensure that I still get the 8 hours I need to perform my best the next day.

So, here's a sample timeline of what this routine looks like. Between 8:00 a. m.

to 3:00 p. m. , I'm getting any form of exposure to natural daylight.

By 12:00 p. m. , I have a hard stop of no caffeine.

Between 3:00 p. m. and 400 p.

m. is when I'm starting to end my day, so I'm doing the mind dump. From 5:00 PM and onwards, I'm making sure that I'm dimming light and also having my final meal.

700 p. m. we set up our kids for their bedtime routine.

7:30 p. m. is when I do my shower.

And 7:45 p. m. to 9:00 p.

m. is when I do those mind-numbing activities. And around 9:00 p.

m. to 10:30 p. m.

is when I start connecting with Mr. Go. So, I have to say all times are subject to change, but this is usually what happens in a nutshell, give or take.

So, this routine has been absolutely life-changing for me. It's taken me years to figure it out, but once I did, it completely changed how I woke up and also how I spend my nights. First, it actually primes my body for an incredible sleep.

Just getting daylight during the day, dimming the lights at night, it sends a powerful signal that it's time to shut down and go to sleep. Second, it does two big things. Number one, it helps me fall asleep faster.

By stacking simple habits like the 3:1 method, the hot shower, even like the blue light blockers, my body is ready to go to sleep by the time my head hits the pillow. Number two, one of the most important things is it helps me stay asleep. So, something you may not have known about me is that ever since I was a kid, I have been waking up multiple times at night.

And the combination of cutting late night eating and limiting liquids means I can now time travel to the next morning without any interruption. Before my nights felt long due to constantly waking up and trying to fall back asleep. And now I just put my head on a pillow and when I wake up it's the next day.

It's incredible. And finally, this routine has freed me from the pressure of these morning checklists. You don't need a long ritual to feel optimized.

I just wake up, I brush my teeth, and I start my day. And that simplicity has been one of the most relieving parts of this whole routine. So morning routines get all the hype, but the truth is your day is already decided the night before.

A nighttime routine sets the stage for everything. Your hormones, your recovery, your focus, and even your mood when you wake up. Without quality sleep, no amount of cold plunges, green juices, or meditation naps will save you.

Nighttime routines work because they create boundaries, signal to your body that it's time to wind down, and anchor your body's internal clock. It's not about stacking more habits onto your life, but about clearing space for the most important one, which is a deep restorative sleep. So, if you want constant energy, a sharper mind, and better health, stop obsessing about how you start your day and start obsessing about how you end it.

Thanks for watching.