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Everyone knows sleep is important, yet everyone I talk to seems to neglect it. Professionals, parents, and the corporate culture seems to look down on sleep. In fact you are considered lazy if you sleep too long. Remind me what are the anxiety and depression rates in the USA again? The point is, while culture praises success and productivity, they look down on the one thing God gave us to maximize it. Sleep.

So if you want to start ‘brainmaxxing’ you need to start with a simple yet profound truth.

Sleep is the single most important factor in determining whether your nootropic plan succeeds or fails.

I know it’s not sexy or high speed, but you need to pay attention, because without proper sleep, no amount of supplements or mental hacks will save your brain from crashing and burning. (I know I tried)

Think of your brain as an elite athlete. You wouldn’t expect a world-class sprinter to perform their best if they’re exhausted, dehydrated, or injured, would you? Your brain is exactly the same. While it is powerful, it too, needs rest to recover, repair, and recharge. It doesn’t run on magic or hope, it runs on biological processes. There are three major benefits you get from sleep when trying to brainmaxx.

1. Energy Restoration: Sleep improves energy by clearing out adenosine, which accumulates in your brain while you’re awake. The more adenoside in your brain, the more tired you become. (Coffee works by blocking this chemical) Bad sleep means leftover adenosine remains, meaning you wake up tired the next day.
2. Neurochemical Balance: Quality sleep balances neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine which are required for productivity. Bad sleep causes an imbalance which reduce your motivation and slow your thinking.
3. Memory and Learning Consolidation: Deep sleep is when you brain ‘saves’ all your memories and learning to your internal hard drive. Without enough deep sleep, it can’t save the information correctly and you’ll find it difficult to remember what you learned. Poor sleep means you have to study twice as hard.

There is no pill, no technique, no strategy that can replicate this process. Nothing. Your brain needs to do this to function properly and there is only one way to do it. I have tried every ‘hack’ and I can report nothing works better than the process God created. The best thing we can do is try to improve and optimize that process. And to start improving your sleep you need to start tracking it.

Tracking Deep Sleep: Finding Your Perfect Sleep Duration

Every person is unique, and so is your optimal sleep duration. Forget that “8-hour rule” nonsense. It’s only an average used in medical textbooks that doesn’t really apply to you. For individuals, their required ‘sleep time’ can vary wildly. Some people can thrive on 7 hours of sleep, while others, like me, need 10 hours to feel fully refreshed. (Yes I know I’m a princess)

The first thing you need to do is determine your ideal sleep time. The easiest way to do that is just sleep as long as you can (Simple huh?) So this coming weekend, turn off your alarms and try to remove all distractions (get your spouse to help you if possible) and then just sleep until you naturally wake up. When you awake track exactly how long you slept. Do this over two or three weekends tops, and you’ll discover your personal sleep time baseline. Once have that number, adjust your weekday bedtime accordingly.

Your next step in sleep tracking is to copy the famous anti-aging bio hacker Bryan Johnson and track your sleep with technology. Check out these apps that can help track your sleep. They will tell you your heart rate, how long you had deep sleep, and give you a score based on the results. You simple wear an apple watch at night and when you wake up, your sleep with be tracked.

• Sleep Cycle
• Oura Ring
• Fitbit or Apple Watch

Three Crucial Tips for Improving Your Sleep Quality

Knowing how long to sleep is just the start. Next, we have to make sure that sleep is deep, restful, and uninterrupted. The key to remember, is that deep sleep is where the money is at. And those apps I told you to install will help you finally be able to figure out if you are getting enough of it. Here are three tips (That are FREE to do) that will improve deep sleep and thus improve daily cognitive performance.

1) Don’t Eat or Drink 3 Hours Before Sleep

This one is simple, yet very effective. Eating late forces your body into digestion mode when it should be entering sleep mode. It makes falling asleep harder and reduces deep sleep quality. And drinking water too close to bedtime? You will be up 3 or 4 times that night having to pee it all out. Remember consume nothing 3 hours before bed.

2) Keep Your Bedroom Cool

Cooler temperatures tell your body it’s time to rest. When you lower the thermostat, your body naturally increases melatonin production, making it much easier to fall and stay asleep. Aim for around 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit. (My wife fought me on this at first, and now she’s a believer, even though she won’t admit it lol) You’ll feel way more comfortable and fall asleep much easier.

3) Limit Screen Time and Dim Lights Before Bed

Your eyes regulate your sleep wake cycle. Bright light from phones and screens tell your brain it’s daytime. This illusion in turn, blocks melatonin production, and you need melatonin to fall asleep. So make it a rule. No screens one hour before bedtime. Dim or turn off your lights and the darkness will tell your brain to start making melatonin, which helps you fall asleep faster.

Putting It All Together

Optimizing sleep isn’t optional if you’re serious about boosting brain performance. It’s foundational. Without solid sleep, all the nootropics and techniques in the world wont work.

Step 1 in boosting brain power is optimizing sleep. So your first 3 steps to improve sleep are to …

• Determine your personal ideal ‘sleep time’.
• Install and use a sleep tracking app to measure deep sleep quality. (If you don’t have a watch, go buy one)
• Actually, incorporate the three critical sleep tips: stop eating/drinking before bed, keep cool, and avoid screens an hour before bedtime.

Yes I understand that this is a very basic guide with no spectacular insight. But I guarantee that 90% of you reading, have terrible sleep scores and are not doing ALL the above either. (So put down the pitchfork dork). Like Vince Lombardi we are getting back to the basics and building up from there. We need to make sure your sleep is dialed in. It’s the foundation for every other nootropic strategy to build upon. If you mess this first step up, there is nothing you can do to overcome the deficit this creates. There is no stack, supplement, or biohack will save you from suboptimal brain performance.

Next, we’ll dive into the first basic nutrient strategy to power up your brain power.

Now, go get some sleep!

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