“Sleep is the most effective tool in your arsenal to achieve optimal health, performance, and recovery,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life.
In the past two weeks, we’ve explored Sahil’s strategies for optimizing Physical Wealth, focusing on Movement, Nutrition, and Recovery.
When it comes to the third pillar, recovery, the most important area to focus on is sleep. Today, we will look at Sahil’s science-backed rules to become what he calls “a professional sleeper.”
Rule #1: Keep a regular schedule: “Sleep regularity is important,” he writes. “Set a fixed bedtime that we stick to and try to wake up around the same time every single morning (even on weekends).”
Rule #2: View morning sunlight: Soon after waking, we should spend at least ten to fifteen minutes viewing sunlight. The best way to do this? Take a quick walk.
“There is significant scientific evidence that it will help you establish and maintain a healthy circadian rhythm,” Sahil writes. “Note that even on an overcast morning, there is sunlight, but you may need to increase the time of exposure to get the same benefit.”
Rule #3: Control our sleep environment: We want our bedroom to be cool and dark. If natural light is a problem, we can use blackout curtains or an eye mask.
Rule #4: Avoid food right before bed: “Eating right before bed may disrupt our natural body functions, hormones, and sleep cycle,” he notes. “If we are hungry before bed, keep the meal light and avoid carb-heavy, insulin-spiking meals.”
Rule #5: Avoid consuming excessive liquids before bed: “Waking up to use the restroom in the middle of the night can be very disruptive,” Sahil writes. “To avoid this, limit liquid intake in the sixty minutes before going to bed.”
Rule #6: Avoid caffeine in the afternoons: We are smart to avoid coffee after lunch. As much as possible, we want to avoid caffeine within 8 hours of our bedtime to ensure it is out of our bloodstream by then.
Rule #7: Cut back on alcohol: Alcohol negatively affects our sleep (and our broader health). Reducing our intake can significantly improve sleep quality.
Rule #8: Create a wind-down routine: “Develop a consistent routine for relaxing and winding down before going to bed,” he suggests.
“Dim lights in the house an hour or two before bedtime, shut off our work devices, spend time with our family or friends, or read our favorite book.”
We can also take natural sleep supplements, such as magnesium and theanine, as part of our wind-down routine, as they have been shown to support healthy sleep cycles.
Rule #9: Avoid screens before bed: Screen time right before bed makes it hard to fall asleep. One best practice is to turn our bedroom into a “screen-free zone” and turn everything off an hour before bedtime.
Sahil’s suggestion: “If we follow these rules with 90 percent consistency for thirty days, we will improve our sleep and feel the benefits in our life.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: If I look at my evenings and nights, am I living like a “professional sleeper,” or am I still treating optimal sleep as optional instead of foundational?
Action: Choose two of Sahil’s nine sleep rules that feel most doable for me right now and commit to following them with 90 percent consistency for the next thirty days, noticing how my energy and mood respond.