Sleep is the first pillar of power

[JohnnyDoe]

Sleep is the area where modern people behave with the least discipline and pay the highest biological price. A study on light exposure during sleep made this painfully clear: a single night of sleeping in a moderately lit room increases heart rate, reduces parasympathetic tone and impairs insulin sensitivity. The same patterns are seen in the early stages of cardiometabolic disease.

Good sleep is one of the most powerful biological regulators available.
People talk about nutrition and training as if they were independent, yet sleep controls both.
Sleep restriction shifts more than 700 genes related to immune regulation, inflammation and metabolism; glucose tolerance drops within days. Inflammatory markers rise. Reaction time slows. Subjects feel fine while the numbers crash.

Cardiovascular health depends on nighttime recovery.
During deep sleep, heart rate drops and parasympathetic activity increases. This is when the system resets. Light exposure blocks that shift.
Studies from the University of Chicago showed that sympathetic activation during sleep predicts higher risk of hypertension and insulin resistance. The body cannot downshift if the brain keeps receiving light signals through closed eyelids. Humans evolved in environments where nighttime meant total darkness; the retina still detects light at levels as low as 5 to 10 lux and signals the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which disrupts circadian timing and metabolic control.

Melatonin suppression is the headline everyone knows, but the real problem is autonomic disruption. The study quantified it: heart rate was elevated by about 10 beats per minute when exposed to 100 lux. Parasympathetic activity dropped significantly. These changes push the cardiovascular system into low recovery mode. A 2019 paper in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine measured how chronic nighttime light exposure correlates with higher rates of obesity, diabetes and depression. None of this requires bright light: even a streetlamp shining through curtains is enough.

Cognitive performance depends heavily on sleep architecture.
Studies by Walker et al. in Nature Neuroscience documented how slow wave sleep consolidates memory and improves decision making. Restrict that stage and people become worse at learning and problem solving. Again, they rarely notice.

Hormonal stability depends on consistent circadian rhythm.
Growth hormone pulses during deep sleep. Testosterone peaks depend on sleep continuity and duration. Research from Leproult and Van Cauter demonstrated that reducing sleep to five hours per night for one week lowered testosterone in young men by up to 10 to 15 percent. Cortisol rises with fragmented or late sleep, which damages both mood and metabolic regulation.

Immune function collapses when sleep quality drops.
A 2009 JAMA paper by Cohen et al. showed that subjects sleeping less than seven hours were three times more likely to develop symptomatic viral infections after exposure. Chronic inflammation rises as a consequence of altered cytokine expression. Sleep is not optional for immune stability.

Combine all of this and you get the correct picture: sleep is the central regulator of cardiovascular function, metabolic balance, cognitive performance, endocrine stability and immune resilience. One night of light exposure disrupts autonomic and metabolic function. A week of sleep restriction disrupts hormonal and cognitive balance.

People think they are functioning normally because the brain loses the ability to detect its own impairment!​

The rule is simple: dark room, a stable schedule and enough hours to cycle through proper sleep stages. Good sleep maintains autonomic balance, preserves insulin sensitivity, stabilizes hormones and supports cognitive output. It is the most powerful health intervention people ignore.

 

[void]

I don't need to read all this to believe it's true...
despite the fact I'm otherwise extremely disciplined this is my huge weakness, I want to sleep longer and better, I know it has negative impact on my performance and general well-being but I sin pretty often as there is always something more that can be done today

are you guys doing better? how?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

I don't need to read all this to believe it's true...

Never believe, verify.
As I wrote

People think they are functioning normally because the brain loses the ability to detect its own impairment​

That’s like being stupid (despite good sleep): you never realize how stupid you are, and you dont believe it when you are told, until you become less stupid.

despite the fact I'm otherwise extremely disciplined this is my huge weakness, I want to sleep longer and better, I know it has negative impact on my performance and general well-being but I sin pretty often as there is always something more that can be done today

are you guys doing better? how?

A 30 minutes (not longer, not shorter) nap during the day can help.
Unfortunately this is just a band aid: there are no shortcuts, you must sleep a proper amount of hours. Proper means enough deep and REM sleep for you to fully recover (light sleep is not important).

But you can sleep faster if you sleep better!

The first step is to measure your sleep. Today there are pretty accurate wearables that can measure your sleep phases, heart rate, breathing, restless moments and hrv. You don’t need to go through a polysomnography unless you suspect a specific physiological problem (and even then you can detect it in other ways).
Once you have collected enough data you can start the optimization process.
But remember, a good night sleep begins the moment you wake up in the morning.

 

[Justit]

For years, I believed that sleep was just a waste of time. I thought the less I slept, the more I could accomplish. Over time, your body adjusts. Sleeping only 3-4 hours a night starts to feel normal, and you convince yourself that everything is working perfectly. But that’s not true. The human body is incredibly resilient and can endure stress for long periods, but sooner or later, it will crash.

That’s when you realize something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Hopefully, the damage isn’t irreparable.

When I finally learned to sleep 7-8 hours a night in perfect sleeping conditions as described in this thread, my life changed completely. I accomplish far more during the day than when I was averaging just 3-4 hours of sleep. My mind is sharper, my reactions are faster, and I am simply more efficient.

But there’s a drawback in it: traveling becomes a nightmare.

Finding a decent hotel that truly supports good sleep seems nearly impossible! Even the nicest hotels are not able to offer air conditioning that makes the air fresh soundproofing is often poor, light everywhere. Curtains rarely block all the light, and there are always tiny LED indicators or other small sources of light that you can’t switch off that disturb your sleep.

And what’s also frustrating is how others react. People without a proper sleep routine often call you crazy when you try to create the perfect sleeping environment in a hotel room. They claim they sleep perfectly anywhere - any temperature, any noise, any light. And yes, it’s exactly like with stupidity: it’s hard for people to be objective about sleep. They get used to sleeping poorly, and that poor sleep becomes their definition of “good sleep.”

 

[JohnnyDoe]

the nicest hotels are not able to offer air conditioning that makes the air fresh

This is a nightmare in Europe.
While it appears that there are no EU-level rules on room temperature (please good god keep Ursula away from this thread), there are strict national-regional rules. Some say the minimum is 21C, some 18C. But even when the room thermostat can be set to 18 (and it’s rare it can go any lower), you are lucky if the actual room temperature goes down to 19C.

The ideal room temperature for good sleep is 17C +- 1C.

Some hotels can trick the room a/c and set it manually to the temperature you desire, but you need to be a good client and check in early enough to find the right technician and leave enough time for the room to cool down for the night.

The UK is so much better in this! My preferred hotel in London can freeze my bedroom down to 14C

Of course if the room is cold but you are lying on a plastic sheet, you will sweat to death and catch a cold.

soundproofing is often poor,

This is easier to fix with earplugs

light everywhere. Curtains rarely block all the light, and there are always tiny LED indicators or other small sources of light that you can’t switch off that disturb your sleep.

Always travel with black Gorilla tape. It can fix everything, including parasite lights.
Ask the hotel to blacken out the windows. Or do it yourself with black paper and the Gorilla tape.
For emergencies, keep a good eye mask with you. One with space for your eyes to move and blink.

And what’s also frustrating is how others react.

Who cares about others’ reactions.

 

[void]

Always travel with black Gorilla tape. It can fix everything, including parasite lights.

my quick-fix from yesterday... masterpiece 😀