This blog was supposed to be about easy hacks to improve your sleep. Gizmos and tricks to instantly help suffering slumberers. Then I read The 8-Hour Sleep Paradox, and realized that we were chasing the fundamentally wrong question.

The book makes it clear that improving your sleep isn’t about improving your sleep – hence the “Paradox” in the title. It isn’t about getting your 8 hours, or having a pitch black bedroom. It’s not about blue blockers or sleep trackers.

It’s about something more simple, but infinitely complex:

Better sleep starts with breathing.

If you’re not breathing well in your sleep, you’re not gonna live very long. In the book, Doctor Burhenne points out:

“….[the] restoration that the brain and body go through during sleep is so powerful that brushing off sleep is akin to saying, ‘Yep, I’m okay with a little brain damage every day for the rest of my life.’

“…People with untreated sleep disorders have a 20% shorter life expectancy.”

There could be many causes of sleep breathing issues: from craniofacial developmental deficiencies to excess weight and allergies. Every body is different. The Doctor goes over basic at-home diagnoses, then helps the reader navigate the confusing world of professional diagnosis, treatment and even insurance coverage.

He doesn’t dismiss CPAP machines, but also gives hope that it’s not the only solution. He covers alternative cures, devices and the potential to combine treatments to address every person’s unique situation.

This is the “who am I kidding?” of sleep books. Before trying sleep hacks or the latest gadgets on the market, fix your breathing first. Nothing else matters. Before jumping into Matthew Walker’s seminal “Why We Sleep,” start with Doctor Burhenne’s opus sleepus, The 8-Hour Sleep Paradox.

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If you’ve ever been to Times Square at night, you’ll notice one peculiar thing: it’s one of the few places on earth that has daylight around the clock. Millions of lumens of artificial light all day, every day. It’s a pinnacle of wonder and ingenuity, and a symbol of the blue-light excess that plagues the modern world.

But the rest of us should be fine, right? Even in modernities darkest corners, artificial light reaches our ancient brains: through screens and streetlights and a thousand little LED’s infesting our rooms. Over millennia our brains evolved to experience natural blue light in the daytime, and the warm amber light of flickering fires at night. Brains that grew to rely on those visual cues to signal to the body when it’s time to work, and when it’s time for restful sleep.

An inexpensive way to help mitigate this perpetual daytime is to sleep with a mask over your eyes. If you can’t be in the darkness, fake it.

But what makes sleep masks so effective? My eyes are closed anyway…

Eyes do more than see. They have sensitive photo receptors that detect light changes even through close eyelids. This change in light is then interpreted by the brain, which acts as the governor deciding when it’s time to wake and when it’s time to sleep. A sleep mask helps enclose your eyes in total darkness. A shield from modernities unintended consequences.

So how do I know which sleep mask to buy?

There are only a few simple rules to follow:

1. The mask should never touch your eyes. Most masks on the market sit flat over your eyes. A critical phase of sleep is REM sleep – Rapid Eye Movement. While science is uncertain why the eyes become active in this phase, we need to be mindful to not impede the natural function.
2. It doesn’t need to be expensive. Good enough works. You’ll wear it out, you’ll get it dirty, you’ll be buying a few each year. And you’ll probably want a spare for travel.
3. Look for a snug fit over your nose. That’s where the most light will bleed through to your eyes.
4. Watch out for the strap – some cheap masks will have a strap that cut into your ears.

Here are some good enough masks from Amazon:

(the one I use)

(For the fancy Sleepist)

Remind me why I need a sleep mask?

Darkness = Better Sleep

Eyes Sense Darkness

The Modern World = Too Bright

Sleep Mask = Faking Darkness

Keep it simple, find one that you’ll use consistently and embrace the precious darkness.

Good night!

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Spire is the little peddle-shaped device that touts the ability to track your stress levels.

Worn next to your stomach or on your bra, the Spire tracks breathing patterns to figure out your stress levels. According to the Spire algorithm, as your breathing changes, your state of tension changes. Shorter, quicker breathes signal tension, while the slower, steadier one’s indicate calm. I tested the device for one month before writing this review.

A few days after getting the Spire I had a flight to Dallas. I tell myself that flying doesn’t make me tense. The Spire felt otherwise. On average the spire was clocking me in at 45 minutes of tension per day, but on flight day the number shot up to 152 minutes.

Tension triggers cortisol releases, it directly hurts sleep and longevity. Wearing the Spire has the effect of putting a focus on tension, which is probably the most important step in cutting it down. Quantifying stress is a great twist on the wearable tracker.

But there’s a hidden gem in the Spire that might be more valuable.

This is the only tracker I’ve tested that puts your sedentary numbers front and center. 152 minutes of tension is bad, but stats showing 497 sedentary (much of that being flight and commute time) scared me more. Sitting all day leads to a growing snowball of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal issues. All the kale and kombucha in the world won’t save me from my sedentary self.

This tracker reminded me to have movement snacks (bathroom stretch breaks) throughout the day. It forced me to take longer lunch walks before running back to stuff my face at the desk, to get off one stop earlier and walk the few extra blocks after work.

Health isn’t just about walking more, but sitting less. Life is about nuanced proportion and balance, and the Spire is a unique wearable reminding us of that depth.

Find the Spire on Amazon.

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Without quality sleep, there is no quality of life. The body can’t heal, memory fails, inflammation markers increase, and the risk of Alzheimers, Heart Disease and Cancer skyrocket. (1)

After testing dozens of products, supplements, gadgets, techniques, and spending thousands on improving my sleep, I’m coming to the conclusion that two basic but overlooked factors can hinder sleep quality:

1) Food. Eating foods that your body doesn’t tolerate, or that activate certain liver function, too close to bed time (sugar, carbs, grain, too much protein) throw off the bodies natural sleep rhythm. There’s growing research on the role of the liver in regulating circadian rhythm, (2) and I realized this in myself when my Deep sleep quality dramatically improved during my 7 day fast.

Compare deep sleep unfasted with a big meal before bed (3):

… versus fasted (3 days without food)

2) Breathing. Air quality, moisture and breathing problems might be the biggest source of insomnia in this country. (4)

If it’s too dry or too humid in the room, it might hurt your sleep. Dry winters and summertime air conditioning are likely indicators that it’s time to invest in a humidifier. (5) Here’s the nightstand humidifier I use.

Dust, allergins and toxins in the environment adversely affect sleep quality. A mild allergic reaction can obstruct breathing passages. As I’ve learned, a cleaner, dust-free room can do wonders for sleep. Air filters help, but actively vacuuming dust is probably more effective. I even purchased a specialized bed vacuum to get the allergens out of my bed.

Another source of breathing problems comes from the skyrocketing obesity rates, causing a national sleep apnea epidemic. Simply stated, too much fat in the neck area restricts breathing. Instead of resting, people are suffocating in their beds. They wake up more exhausted than they went to sleep. For overweight people, weight loss can dramatically improve sleep quality. A fun and easy diet that I’ve enjoyed is Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet

Breathing became a focus for me when I realized that I sleep with my mouth open. This is more common in European populations, due narrower nasal passages. Other causes may be a deviated septum, allergens, sleep angle (too many pillows or too few).

Side effects of mouth breathing can include: frequent tooth cavities, receding gums, Oral Dysbiosis (bacterial imbalance in the mouth, which can make its way down to the gut) and bad breath. Most people don’t even know that they’re mouth breather, but signs may include waking up with super dry mouth, bad breath, sensitive or bleeding gums. Too many people write off receding gums and frequent cavities as genetic, when they’re more likely environmental triggers. (6)

The fixes here aren’t pretty, but here are two cheap sleep breathing hacks:

1) Snore strips. Like the ones made by Breathe Right. They stick over the nose, and spread it open to help get more air in with every breath. Pick up a pack at your local Rite Aid or Duane Reade or buy them on Amazon.

2) Tape your mouth shut. Yes, it sounds insane, it looks insane, but it freaking works. It has been the Occam’s Razor to my sleep problems. Now that I’m used to it, I feel like I have found quality, consistent sleep for the first time in my life! Ideally, this is a temporary solution while I condition my sleep self to breathe through my nose, but even if it isn’t, it’s a small price to pay.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress with it, but here’s a screenshot of last night’s sleep:

I’ve spent nearly nine months and more money than I’d like to admit on “hacking” my sleep. As with most hacks, I realized that it’s the basics + consistency that fix a problem. Along the way, this sleep obsession has had me learning more about the body than I could have ever imagined, so the investment has yielded interest in all areas of my life.

Sleep, nutrition and exercise are the three fundamentals that make the body tick. Damn near any problem in life can be improved by fixing or balancing the three.

Human O.S. Project

“… the few that make it to the top of their ambition through a thousand indignities realize at the end it’s only for an inscription on their gravestone.” – Seneca

*Please do not use anything on this page to treat or diagnose a medical condition. Above is my journey, chronicling the surprising findings and the research I encountered along the way.

**Originally Posted on Vladdit.com as “After Spending Thousands on improving sleep, here are my unexpected results.”

1 – Researchers are studying the link between sleep and cancer – http://www.cancercenter.com/community/newsletter/article/researchers-are-studying-the-link-between-sleep-and-cancer/

2 – Much of the research done links broken sleep to damaged liver function, but I’m saying that the flow goes both ways, that unstable liver function adversely effects sleep. Here’s an article linking liver cirrhosis patients to increased incidences of insomnia: https://www.jcircadianrhythms.com/articles/10.5334/jcr.aa/

3 – Tracked using the very inexpensive and reliable Xiaomi MiBand 1. The “set it and forget it” of sleep trackers with 30 days of battery life on a single charge.

4 – Air Pollution May Disrupt Sleep – American Thoracic Society

The effects of bedroom air quality on sleep and next-day performance – Journal of Indoor Air. Note that this study only used a sample size of 14, still better than my sample size of 1.

5 – How humidity impacts sleep.

6 – Mouth Breathing for Dummies.

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