How to Get More Restorative Sleep

Sleep deprivation might be the new smoking.

New data from 3,143 US counties ranks getting <7 hours of sleep as the 3rd strongest predictor of a shorter life, trailing only smoking and obesity.

Correlations between habits and life expectancy on county level:

• smoking: every 1% increase in people who smoke = 0.28 years off the average life expectancy.
• obesity: every 1% increase in people with obesity = 0.18 years off the average life expectancy.
• insufficient sleep: every 1% increase in people who get <7 hours of sleep/night = 0.08 years off the average life expectancy.

There may be no more potent longevity drug than consistent, high-quality sleep.

Bryan prioritizes his day around his sleep schedule. That wasn't always the case.

In his 20s, with a few young kids and building a start up, his sleep was total chaos.

He'd grind his teeth at night so intensely that he thought he'd for sure be toothless in the morning.

High-quality sleep changed his life. It took him years to build the habits and systems that led to eight months of 100% perfect sleep. As far as we know, this is the best in the world.

In this blog post, we're going to teach you…

• what is deep sleep
• what happens during restorative sleep
• 10 habits to improve deep sleep

What is deep sleep?

Deep sleep is the third stage in the sleep cycle. It supports muscle repair, cardiovascular recovery and maintenance, immune function, healthy hormone regulation, brain detoxification, and memory consolidation.

Missing it is very bad. A lack of deep sleep is linked to high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.

Most deep sleep happens in the first half of the night. If you miss your deep sleep window, it's gone (mostly).

See in Bryan's sleep data below that all of his deep sleep happened in the first 3rd of the night. You might see the same pattern in your own data.

Bryan aims for 3+ hours of restorative sleep a night. This includes both (rapid eye movement) REM sleep and deep sleep.

What happens in the body during restorative sleep

• brain cleaning: During early night deep sleep, glial cells shrink by up to 60%. These are cells that support and protect nerve cells. When they shrink, they create tunnels for cerebrospinal fluid to power wash the brain, clearing neurotoxins. Every wake event stops the cleaning process.
• cellular clean up: Autophagy (your cells' recycling system) turns on, repairing mitochondria and DNA, lowering inflammation, and increasing natural killer cell (cancer-killing cells) activity. During good sleep, there's up to 50% fewer DNA double-stranded breaks (DNA damage) compared to fragmented sleep.
• endocrine health: Growth hormone surges 10-20x, driving muscle repair, tissue remodeling, collagen restoration, and fat metabolism. Cortisol (a stress hormone) drops to its lowest point, allowing for testosterone production to crank up. Your appetite control strengthens with leptin rising and ghrelin suppressed. Insulin sensitivity improves 20-40%.
• cardiovascular: Blood pressure lowers, arteries relax, and adrenaline drops, improving endothelial function (blood vessel lining) and lowering inflammation.
• gut/microbiome: The parasympathetic dominance (the chill nervous system) stimulates improved digestive processes and builds a healthier microbiome.
• brain balancing and integration: Brain networks stabilize, memories consolidate, and learning integrates. Improved mood stability, reactivity, and decision making follows the next day.

Start with this

Bryan's heart rate before sleep (HRBS) last night was 41 bpm. That's in the 99.8th percentile of 18-year-olds.

As a result, his sleep was perfect. Zero sleep stress. No wake events. Deep, restorative sleep.

HRBS is a look into your soul. Bryan has built his life around it.

Your HRBS captures and confesses levels of stress, relationship with food, wind down routine, screen usage, emotional health, cardiovascular health, sleep hygiene, circadian rhythm strength, and more.

There are 10 habits you can work on right now that will help you lower your HRBS:

1. final food 4 hr before bed
2. screens off 60 min before bed
3. avoid blue light 2hr before bed, use red/amber
4. book in hand 10 min before sleep
5. go to bed same time every night
6. light in eyes when waking (sun or 10k lux device)
7. walk for 10 min immediately following eating
8. daily exercise (even if for 20 min)
9. eat good stuff, ditch the junk
10. foster friends, family, and love

Improving sleep is a journey. Take it one step at a time and start by focusing on reshaping your relationship with sleep.