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My Evidence-Based Sleep Routine

2023-03-17 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 13:24 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Evidence-based framing, Sponsor segment present

Ali walks through the nine evidence-based habits of his sleep routine: seven to eight hours, a fixed sleep rhythm, morning sunlight, morning movement, timed caffeine, evening sunlight, dim lights at night, riding out the pre-bedtime alertness spike, and a cool bedroom.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Nine evidence-based things in his sleep routine

  • ★★ Ali tries to sleep for around seven to eight hours each night. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali says the science on how long to sleep is not straightforward, but most research puts the ideal for a healthy adult at between seven and nine hours a night. — 00:00:00

00:00:14 — Get your hours in

  • ★★ Ali cites a 2015 study by the American Academy of Sleep Science (as heard) and the Sleep Research Society: adults should sleep seven or more hours, as regularly sleeping less can lead to weight gain, heart disease, depression and a higher risk of death. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ If you are not sure whether you need seven, eight or nine hours of sleep, Ali says, experiment with how much you need to feel happy and productive the next day. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Getting too obsessed with eight hours of sleep every night might spike your stress and make it harder to fall asleep, Ali warns; this is called sleep anxiety. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Ali's second habit for healthy sleep is to build a sleep rhythm. — 00:00:29

00:00:56 — Build a sleep rhythm

  • ★★ Ali usually goes to sleep around 11 or 11.30 p.m. and gets up around 7 a.m. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ A consistent sleep rhythm makes falling asleep and waking easier, Ali explains, because of the homeostatic sleep drive, one of the body's main systems setting when we feel tired or awake, powered by adenosine. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ To build a sleep rhythm, Ali's first practical tip is to set an alarm for the same time every day. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali's second sleep-rhythm tip is to ignore the weekend: he avoids lie-ins and a different sleep schedule on Saturdays and Sundays so as not to upset his adenosine rhythm. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali's third sleep-rhythm tip is to phase-shift your social life by scheduling evening meetups with friends a little earlier in the day. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali's fourth sleep-rhythm tip is to listen to your body and not push through the sleepy late-evening feeling. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ For a good night's sleep Ali catches the morning sun when he wakes up. — 00:02:26

00:02:37 — Start with sunlight

  • ★★ Ali says light, particularly morning sunlight, is the number one influence on the circadian rhythm. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ The morning sun need not be just over the horizon, Ali says: within a few hours of sunrise is enough, and the sooner after waking the better. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Ali's morning routine: he wakes, drinks water, takes finasteride, a Heights supplement and a probiotic, showers, then walks to his local Pret A Manger, whose coffee subscription encourages him to get out of the house in the morning. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Ali says that to trigger the circadian clock you should apparently spend around 10 minutes outside after waking on bright cloudless days, about 20 on cloudy days and 30 minutes to an hour when it is very overcast. (hedged) — 00:03:53
  • ★★ Ali advises not overthinking morning light: perfect is the enemy of good, and any amount of morning sunlight is great for the circadian rhythm and sleep quality. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ Ali says that if he wakes at 7 a.m. and walks in the morning sun for about 10 minutes, he should get the sleepy signal between about 7 and 9 p.m. that night. — 00:04:23
  • ★★ Ali calls Andrew Huberman's podcast, Huberman Lab, absolutely brilliant: he listens to it all the time, and its sleep episodes informed much of the research for this video. — 00:04:52

00:05:12 — Morning exercise

  • ★★ Going to the gym in the morning leaves Ali groggy for the rest of the day, so instead he takes a morning walk, a habit he worked out with his health coach. — 00:05:21
  • ★★ Andrew Huberman (quoted): According to Andrew Huberman, there is evidence that regular proper exercise in the morning builds an anticipatory circuit, so the body wakes up ready for it. — 00:05:21

00:05:59 — Sponsor read: Morning Brew

  • ★★ Ali explains that caffeine is an adenosine antagonist: it blocks the brain's adenosine receptors so the sleepy adenosine signal is not processed. — 00:07:18

00:07:24 — Caffeine control

  • ★★ Ali drinks coffee every morning, around two to three times a day. — 00:07:47
  • ★★★ Ali avoids coffee for the first hour of the day, to give the body time to clear naturally the adenosine left in the system. — 00:07:47
  • ★★★ For better sleep, Ali avoids coffee and other caffeinated drinks after around 2 to 3 p.m. — 00:07:47
  • ★★ Ali says caffeine has a half-life of five to six hours, and adenosine takes even longer than that to work normally again after a caffeinated drink. — 00:08:16
  • ★★ Andrew Huberman (quoted): Andrew Huberman's rule as Ali gives it: avoid caffeine eight to 10 hours before your normal bedtime, so stop between 1 and 3 p.m. for an 11 p.m. bedtime. — 00:08:16
  • ★★ Matthew Walker (quoted): Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, is more conservative, Ali says: no caffeine 10 to 12 hours before bed, which basically means caffeine only in the morning. — 00:08:16
  • ★ Caffeine tolerance varies, Ali says: for some people the cut-off is more like 4 p.m., and the few who can drink caffeine late and still fall asleep probably still lose sleep quality. (hedged) — 00:08:46
  • ★★ Ali's sixth daily habit, perhaps a bit overboard he admits, is to go outside about an hour before sunset for 10 to 30 minutes of evening sunlight. — 00:08:46

00:09:06 — Catch the evening sun

  • ★ For the morning and evening sunlight to work, Ali advises being in direct sunlight where possible, since windows and sunglasses make it much less effective. — 00:09:15

00:09:43 — Set dark mode

  • ★★★ Ali tries not to expose himself to artificial light after around 8 p.m. and avoids bright lights, including his laptop, monitor and phone, between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. — 00:09:44
  • ★★ Ali cites a 2018 study in the journal Cell showing that light reaching the eyes between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. suppresses dopamine, which makes us feel good and is a natural antidepressant. — 00:10:13
  • ★★ To avoid bright light at night, Ali tries not to go on the computer after 10 p.m. — 00:10:13
  • ★★ At night Ali uses a night-mode display setting like f.lux on his Mac to avoid the blue light from the screen. — 00:10:42
  • ★★ At night Ali tries to avoid his phone and reads his Kindle instead, usually on a fairly dim, dark-mode, warm-light setting. — 00:10:42 · Kindle
  • ★★ Because we are particularly sensitive to overhead light, Ali says, warm lights placed low, such as lamps and candles, instead of ceiling lights apparently help sleep. (hedged) — 00:10:42
  • ★★ Ali expects to feel alert about an hour before his natural bedtime; citing Huberman's podcast he calls it a natural spike in wakefulness that will pass if he reads a book and keeps his normal habits. — 00:11:12
  • ★★ Ali says our bodies need a temperature drop of one to three degrees to fall asleep and stay asleep. — 00:11:12

00:11:14 — Expect the spike

00:11:30 — Keep your cool

  • ★★ Some say 19 degrees Celsius is the ideal sleeping temperature, but Ali finds that a bit warm and likes to set the room to 16 or 17 degrees if he can. — 00:11:41
  • ★ With no air conditioning at home, Ali opens the windows when the room is warm and uses a fan when it is hot, and he likes the fan's white noise for falling asleep. — 00:11:41
  • ★ Ali says he happens to have an Eight Sleep mattress, which he calls a bit extra. — 00:11:41
  • ★★ Ali calls a cooling mattress like the Eight Sleep pretty overkill and expensive: you don't need it, and leaving a window open or a cheap fan cools the body just as needed. — 00:12:10
  • ★ Ali notes that some people find a hot bath or shower before bed really helps, because it lowers internal body temperature. — 00:12:10

00:12:21 — The nine tips as one day, and the sleep myths video

  • ★★ Ali admits he does not do all nine sleep habits every day: he tries his best but does not beat himself up over a lie-in or a coffee a little too early or too late. — 00:12:39

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked what he does in the first hour after waking, Ali replies that he does not do a huge amount: shower, change and sometimes journaling. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: adenosine · caffeine · circadian rhythm

Also: People: Andrew Huberman · Matthew Walker

Works: Huberman Lab · Why We Sleep

Organizations: Eight Sleep · Heights · Pret A Manger

Concepts: blue light · cardiovascular disease · dopamine · melatonin · sleep anxiety

Products: f.lux · Finasteride · Kindle

Only in the description or credits: Russell Foster

Also centred on caffeine: Is Coffee Good For You? · How to Stay Focused While Studying - Evidence-based Tips

Also centred on circadian rhythm: Why You're Always Tired - 7 Myths Ruining Your Sleep

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