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Gerard Dawson's avatar

Go outside, too. As Huberman stans will surely point out, daylight (especially in the AM) does wonders for the circadian rhythm. Walk the dog, walk the kids to the bus stop, gaze eastward and remember your distant ancestors.

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Bianca Dămoc's avatar

Exercise. Exercise. Exercise. I cannot overstate how important this is.

I've always been an active person, but I've had my off and on moments as well. Along the years it's become soooo obvious to me that if I don't have a solid routine to exhaust my body, I will struggle to fall asleep. Exercise has always been the common denominator.

I've been training for a triathlon for 6 months. Out like a light every night.

Exercise.

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Sean Byrnes's avatar

Agreed! A surprisingly large portion of the population suffers from sleep apnea, and it's worth getting a sleep test to find out. My diagnosis changed my life 20 years ago, because it turns out I needed surgery to correct my sleep apnea and afterwards I had the first good night sleep of my life.

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campbell.macdonald's avatar

Love this and agree with all of it. I have found the Oura ring has helped to understand which of these levers impacts me the most to help convince the stubborn side of me eg alcohol: very bad, weed: not great but much less so.

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raymond's avatar

I also have an Oura ring and it’s made a positive impact on my wellbeing. I think the goal of a wearable sleep tracker should be to help you identify trends as you work toward a world where you are more educated about introspection.

You really do need to be educated with data in order to improve your health. It’s hard to know these things because we’re never taught in school how to live a healthy data driven lifestyle. The problem is that a lot of people depend on wearables too much, or just don’t implement any insights that the devices provide.

I’ve had my Oura ring for half a year now and am still learning a lot about sleep habits. I was also shocked to learn that I would get on average ~1 hour less sleep than I had thought I was getting. I learned how unhealthy late night meals lead to an increased body temp as my digestive system works down to break down all the salt, and thus worse sleep. And the gentle nudges that my optimal bedtime is approaching helps signal to my brain that it’s time to move away from screens and into my bed.

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campbell.macdonald's avatar

I’ve had one for 3 years and was going to give it up but have been impressed by new metrics, especially around resilience.

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Scott Monty's avatar

This echoes one of my favorite quotes:

"And now, Watson, I commend to you the universal answer to almost all problems."

"What's that, Holmes?"

"Sleep."

https://youtu.be/8IYBuV9Q5Bs?si=lDq4mQ_I9WPd42kA&t=2374

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Adam Singer's avatar

of course you have a quote for this, love it

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Ed Y.'s avatar

I struggle the most with no screen time before sleep.

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Bogdan Veliscu's avatar

What you put in your body especially close to sleep time has huge effects on the quality of your sleep. Also turns out exercise close to the sleep hour doesn’t help either. I keep a kindle on my bedside and I read a few pages and then I get sleepy.

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