The best supplement I take

Hint: it's free and you can start taking it today, too.

Marie Antoinette, 2006

What if I told you there was a supplement that could help you live longer, think sharper, improve your mood, protect your heart and immune system, and keep your hormones and metabolism in check? Based on my personal experience and the available literature, I believe that the right supplements, tailored to your unique needs, can help you optimize many aspects of your health. A while back I wrote an in-depth guide on how to build a supplement stack. Today, I’m going to keep it simple and talk about a single, game-changing supplement that eclipses all others.

If you haven’t guessed already, Im talking about sleep. I’ll start with why sleep matters so much for longevity, how lifestyle habits are influenced by sleep and finally, some practical tools for improving sleep quality. If you’re someone who thinks they’ll have plenty of time to sleep when they’re dead, you’re right. But you might also get there sooner than you’d like.

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Why sleep matters so much for health & longevity

If you want to live a long and healthy life, there are number of things that you need to pay attention to, including nutrition, exercise and disease prevention. But sleep is a fundamental pillar of health that supports a wide range of functions and without it, the benefits of other healthy behaviors are significantly diminished. Here’s why:

1. Cellular and DNA Repair

• Cellular Repair: Without adequate sleep, your body cannot effectively repair and regenerate cells, tissues, and muscles, leading to a breakdown in the integrity of your body systems.

• DNA Repair: Insufficient sleep hampers the repair of DNA damage accumulated throughout the day, increasing the risk of mutations and the development of cancer and other age-related diseases.

• Oxidative Stress Reduction: Lack of sleep prevents the body from reducing oxidative stress, allowing free radicals to cause inflammation and tissue damage.

2. Inflammation

• Immune Function: Poor sleep weakens the immune system, diminishing its ability to fight off infections and diseases, which is critical for longevity.

• Inflammation Reduction: Inadequate sleep contributes to chronic inflammation, a key factor in many age-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.

3. Cardiovascular Health

• Heart Health: Without consistent, quality sleep, the risk of cardiovascular diseases increases due to elevated blood pressure, higher heart rate, and increased strain on the heart.

• Stroke Prevention: Poor sleep compromises vascular health, raising the likelihood of hypertension and atherosclerosis, and subsequently increasing the risk of stroke.

4. Metabolic Health

• Diabetes Prevention: Lack of sleep disrupts insulin and glucose regulation, heightening the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

• Weight Management: Inadequate sleep throws off the balance of hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin), leading to overeating, obesity, and related metabolic disorders.

5. Hormonal Regulation

• Growth Hormone Production: Insufficient sleep impairs the release of growth hormone, which is vital for tissue growth and repair.

• Cortisol Regulation: Poor sleep results in unregulated cortisol levels, increasing stress and its harmful effects on the body.

6. Cognitive Function and Mental Health

• Memory and Learning: Without adequate sleep, memory consolidation and cognitive functions are compromised, increasing the risk of cognitive decline and diseases like dementia.

• Emotional Well-being: Insufficient sleep disrupts emotional regulation, elevating the risk of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

7. Disease Prevention

• Chronic Conditions: Poor sleep is closely linked to the development of chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, all of which involve chronic low-grade inflammation. Ensuring adequate sleep reduces the risk of these conditions and their associated inflammatory processes.

8. Energy and Recovery

• Muscle and Tissue Repair: Inadequate sleep impedes muscle repair and growth, crucial for physical health and recovery.

• Energy Restoration: Poor sleep prevents the replenishment of energy levels, leading to reduced physical activity and overall vitality.

How lifestyle habits are affected by sleep

You can take 50 supplements a day, but if your sleep, nutrition and exercise are not dialed in, it is unlikely that any compound will fix your health. And when it come to healthy habits, most are downstream of good sleep.

If you’re not rested, you are more likely to skip a workout because you don’t have energy, and if you muster the willpower to exercise, you might not see the desired results. Poor sleep negatively affects both strength and endurance, leading to suboptimal workout performance and hinder the body’s ability to repair muscle tissue - think poor recovery and decreased muscle gains.

When sleep deprived, you’re also more likely to reach for unhealthy foods. As little as one night of poor sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity, which can cause cravings for high-sugar and high-fat foods as the body seeks quick energy sources. Poor sleep also enhances the brain’s response to food rewards, making high-calorie, high-sugar, and high-fat foods more appealing while numbing your fullness signals. If you’re someone who is susceptible to emotional eating, elevated cortisol levels caused by sleep deprivation can increase your cravings and make it harder to regulate your emotional response to stress factors.

As for stress management and productivity, sleep deprivation reduces your ability to cope with stress while heightening irritability, frustration, and other negative emotions that can contribute to depression and anxiety. Poor sleep also impairs attention, memory, decision-making, and creative-thinking which will render all your productivity ‘hacks’ useless. Instead, you’re more likely to rely on stimulants or alcohol which foster a cycle of poor sleep and increased consumption.

Practical tools to improve your sleep

The number one, most important way the improve your sleep is regularity. When you maintain a consistent sleep schedule, it helps aligns the body's internal clock, or circadian rhythm, with the external environment. This alignment optimizes the quality and duration of sleep. Consistency in sleep and wake times also supports the regular release of melatonin, which helps you fall asleep and stay asleep.

To improve regularity, do this:

1. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends. Research consistently shows that catching up on sleep on weekends does not fully reverse the negative effects of sleep debt. Higher sleep debt is also associated with greater production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, suggesting a potential link between sleep debt and inflammation

2. Allocate sufficient time for sleep each night. If you want to get a full 8 hours of sleep, aim to spend between 8:30-9 hours in bed.

3. Get plenty of natural light during the day and limit exposure to artificial light, especially blue light, in the evening.

4. Establish an evening routine. Not only does it help with regularity, but it also signals to your brain that it can enter a more relaxed state, conducive to sleep. An hour or so before bed I like to foam roll/ stretch for ten minutes, take a warm shower to help my body temperature cool down afterward, write down any to do’s, nagging thoughts or ideas that will keep me awake, and watch a good show/ read.

The quality of your sleep will be highly affected by what you do in the hours before you go to bed. If you’re eating late, drinking late, scrolling on social media or sending angry emails before bed, its’s unlikely that you’ll wake up feeling rested.

To improve quality of sleep, do this:

1. Stop eating and drinking alcohol at least 3-4 hours before bed. Eating late at night activates your digestive system, increasing metabolic activity and body temperature. This can make it harder for your body to transition into a restful state. While alcohol might initially make you feel sleepy, it can disrupt sleep patterns later in the night by interfering with REM sleep and increasing the likelihood of waking up.

2. Set a cutoff time for adrenaline-inducing activities. Whether it’s working late, scrolling on TikTok, or watching a scary movie, if your sympathetic nervous system is activated, it will keep you in a heightened state of alertness, preventing you from entering the relaxed state necessary for sleep. We’re all different and you need to assess your own sensitivity to stressors, but personally I find it best to get off my phone no later than 9:30 pm - including work, emails and social media.

3. Wear blue-light blocking glasses if you’re looking at screens. Exposure to bright, artificial light inhibits melatonin production and disrupts your circadian rhythm. I enjoy watching a good movie or show before I go to bed, but I always do it while wearing blue-light blocking glasses.

4. Fix your bedroom. A dark, cool and quiet bedroom will help you achieve and maintain deeper stages of sleep, including REM and slow-wave sleep, which are crucial for physical and mental health. Block any sources of light or sleep with an eye mask, lower the temperature to 65-67 degrees Fahrenheit (18-19 degrees Celsius) and if you can’t control the level of noise, wear earplugs.

Other tools that have helped me improve my sleep:

1. Taking magnesium 1 hour before bed. I like a combination of 200-300 mg of magnesium citrate and magnesium l-threonate and since most people are deficient in magnesium, this one is a pretty safe compound to take.

2. Installing blackout shades. I never realized how much I was waking throughout the night from various light sources until we installed blackout shades. Bonus tip: get a a remote shade control, set it to rise at your preferred wake-up time and you’ll never need a morning alarm again.

3. Tracking with an Oura ring. I’ve been wearing an Oura ring for many years and I love it specifically for the sleep data it provides and how that data helps me adjust other habits and routines.

4. Investing in the Eight sleep pod. I wrote an in-depth review of both Eight Sleep and Oura here, but I’ll reiterate how much of a positive impact the temperature regulation feature of the pod has had on my sleep. Both deep and REM sleep are influenced by temperature and for me, especially in the second half of my menstrual cycle when my body temperature rises, it’s so nice to be able to stay cool and sleep better.

5. Using supplements as needed. If I travel, I will take Melatonin to help reset my circadian rhythm, and if I’m going through a particularly stressful period, I will take Ashwagandha or Cortisol Manager which also includes phosphatidylserine.

As boring as it sounds, sleep, nutrition and exercise truly are the ‘macros’ of your health. You cannot supplement your way to feeling great if the foundation isn’t solid. Think of supplements more like garnishes or condiments that can fill in tiny gaps or add that extra level of optimization. Yes, popping pills takes less time and effort than eating well, exercising and sleeping, but the returns are also smaller. Without a strong base of proper rest, balanced diet, and regular physical activity, any benefits you might gain from supplements will be minimal and short-lived. Investing in the foundation will yield far greater long-term rewards for your health, so get sleeping.