“Sleep is a kindness you give your future self.” — Matthew Walker

Why We Sleep?

Sleep is the ultimate performance multiplier.

Sleep is the best biohacking technique with the highest ROI.

Sleep is the best legal performance enhancing drug / magic pill on the planet.

Sleep is the most effective workout recovery tool.

Sleep is a fundamental biological requirement; bypassing it doesn’t create more time, it simply creates a slower, more error-prone version of oneself.

sleep is the absolute foundation of your mental health, your physical health and your performance in all endeavors. So if there’s one area of your life to really focus on and try and optimize if your goal is to be happier and more productive and just have a better life over all, I can confidently say that Sleep is really the thing to optimize.

Sleep deprivation makes hard things feel impossible. High quality sleep makes seemingly impossible things doable.

“Short sleep equals a short life.”

“Short sleep predicts all cause mortality.”

Actionable Tips

Make sleep your #1 appointment in your calendar. Sleep is your #1 life priority. Plan your day around sleep.

Minimize light, red/amber light ideal

The QQRT Protocol

1. Quality
2. Quantity
3. Regularity
4. Timing

The bed is for sleep and sex

sleep semi-naked, but warm your hands/feet with gloves/socks on, so as to send blood to your core which then radiates the heat outward

睡覺時，環境要冷，手腳要暖

Aim for consistent bedtimes and wake times with a ± 30 minutes margin of error, whether it’s the weekend or a weekday.

In addition to your morning alarm clock, consider adding a “bedtime alarm,” which tells you when to go to sleep.

You do not have 24 hours in the day. You only have ~16 hours per day being awake once you factor in the sleep tax. That’s like confusing revenue with profit.

Separate bed covers — sleeping the Scandinavian way

Individual duvets provide the warmest way to sleep, eliminating air gaps and the risk of your partner pulling or hogging the duvet in the middle of the night, ultimately stop nightly battle over the bedsheets.

Add blackout curtains or wear an eye mask to maximize darkness in the bedroom.

應暗到伸手不見五指。

Sleeping Inclined: Put bed risers at the head of your bed

Stick your hands or feet out from underneath the covers to help cool down.

Eating closer to bedtime can increase the likelihood of gastric reflux (heartburn) and impair sleep

Avoid stimulating activities before bed, such as watching television, reading the news, strenuous exercise, or social media.

Sleep Hygiene (The 10/3/2/1 Rule)

睡眠認知行為治療 (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia，CBT-I)

Wakefulness is low level brain damage. Sleepiness offers a reparatory function. You make the best use of time not by sleeping less, but awaking less.

膠淋巴系統

在深層睡眠的時候，大腦裡有一套系統叫做類淋巴系統（或是膠狀淋巴系統，glymphatic system），這個系統就像一條夜間清潔水道，讓腦脊髓液慢慢流進腦組織，再把神經細胞產生的代謝物帶走。

• 俗稱「龍骨水」，是大腦的排毒系統
• 只在「深睡期」產生

Huberman Sleep Cocktail

• Magnesium Threonate: 200–400mg 2–3 hours before sleep
  • Threonate are forms of magnesium that crosses the blood-brain barrier and will assist with sleep instead of absorption by gut
• L-Theanine: 200–400mg
  • Nootropic but takes the edge off and balances caffeine intake
• Glycine: 2 gram (every 3rd or 4th night)
• GABA: 100 mg (every 3rd or 4th night)
• Inositol (900 mg) is particularly beneficial if you wake up during the night and struggle to fall back asleep, as it can reduce the time needed to return to sleep.
• Phosphatidylserine (100 mg) decreases the cortisol response, which can be helpful for individuals with insomnia.

Psyllium Husk 洋車前子

Chamomile Tea 洋甘菊（晚安舒眠）茶

Lucid dream is a type of dream wherein a person that is dreaming realizes that they are dreaming during their dream.

What are the best practices for managing rumination and negative racing thoughts when trying to fall asleep?

Mental Walk: If you have trouble falling asleep, take a “mental walk” and visualize walking a familiar route.

Why do I wake up in the middle of the night, no matter what time I go to sleep?

• Checking the time when you wake up at night can train your brain to continue waking at that time. This is a form of learning whereby checking the clock strengthens the memory association with that specific time.
  • Remove visible clocks from your bedroom to help disrupt this pattern.
• If you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t check the time. This will allow you to fall back asleep without worrying about how many hours you have left. → Alternatives: (1) 冥想 (搭配: 腹式呼吸、身體掃描等等) (2) 看書 (3) 聽 Podcasts
• You can’t force sleep. The more you force sleep, the more it resists.
  • Insomniac delusion: If you can’t fall asleep, just try harder. This will do the opposite.
  • If you can’t sleep, pretend you’re lying in a canoe.

Can we “bank” sleep or catch up on lost sleep?

Sleep doesn’t work like a bank. You cannot accumulate a sleep “debt” and then hopefully pay it off later, such as on the weekend. There is no such a credit system when it comes to sleep. The body can only recoup ~25% of the lost hours. Frequently sleeping less than the recommended 7 to 8 hours/night (some may need 6, others 9 or even 10 hours!) means you will always be running a sleep debt - predictive of ill health outcomes and early mortality.

Reframing: 把睡覺當作是…

• 搭長途飛機，必須一切準備就緒 (行李、護照等等) 才能出發
• Passive workout (as a professional sleeper/sleep athlete)

Best Vacation: Sleep one more hour for 7 days in a row, then you will get an extra night of sleep at the end of last day.

If you’ve experienced a poor night’s sleep, your impulse may be to sleep in, drink a much-needed cup of coffee as you roll out of bed, and push your morning workout until the evening when you’re feeling up for it. But the best way to recover from a poor night’s sleep is to make sure it doesn’t affect your next night’s sleep. Get up at the same time as usual. Sleeping more than 1 hour past your usual wakeup time can shift your circadian clock later (called phase delay), making it harder to fall asleep that night. ¹

If you’re sleep deprived, one of the best things you can do (counterintuitively) is high-intensity exercise.

A single night of poor sleep can trigger short-term insulin resistance, but HIIT (high-intensity interval training) can counteract/reverse this metabolic damage. Multiple nights of sleep restriction disrupt blood glucose, impair energy production, and throw off body temperature rhythms — yet incorporating HIIT during this period effectively offsets all three.

Eating more fiber and less saturated fat for dinner, to promote serotonin, calm sleep.

sleep arousals (brief awakenings during the night)

慢波睡眠（Slow-Wave Sleep, SWS）＝深層睡眠（Deep Sleep）

報復性熬夜/睡眠拖延症（Revenge Bedtime Procrastination）

Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker

Jet Leg