*TLDR — the highest-impact stuff IMO:*
• Cool bedroom (60–67°F)
• Eye mask
• Cut caffeine early (noon at the latest, ideally 10+ hours before bed)
• Magnesium (glycinate or threonate)
• Anything that lowers your heart rate at bedtime — no late workouts, no late food, no alcohol, slow breathing, etc.
• Personal one for me: as someone with a deviated septum, Breathe Right strips or those magnetic nose vents (Intake / Mute) have been a game changer
---
*Full dump below if you want to go down the rabbit hole:*
*1. Bryan Johnson's Blueprint sleep protocol*
• Bedtime ~8:30 PM, wake ~5:30 AM, same time every day including weekends
• Last meal by ~11 AM (early time-restricted eating)
• Zero alcohol, zero late caffeine
• 2-hour wind-down ritual, blue-light blockers
• Bedroom 60–67°F, blackout curtains, total darkness
• Morning sunlight within minutes of waking
• Eight Sleep Pod for active mattress cooling
• Whoop + Oura tracking
• No exercise within 4h of bed
• Bedroom is sleep-only (no work, no scrolling)
His evening stack (he revises this constantly):
• Melatonin *0.3 mg* (microdose — not the 5–10 mg drugstore garbage)
• Magnesium glycinate / threonate
• Glycine ~3 g
• L-theanine
• Ashwagandha (KSM-66)
• Apigenin ~50 mg
• Lithium orotate (1 mg, very low dose)
*2. Environmental controls (highest leverage)*
• *Temperature:* 60–67°F. Cooler = deeper sleep.
• *Light:* pitch black. Blackout curtains + eye mask. Tape over LEDs.
• *Sound:* earplugs (Loop Quiet, Mack's) or brown/white noise. Brown is the deepest.
• *Air:* HEPA filter, crack a window, CO₂ under 800 ppm if possible
• *Humidity:* 40–60%
• *Mattress:* active cooling (Eight Sleep, Chilipad, BedJet) is the single biggest upgrade
• *Bedding:* cotton/linen/bamboo, not poly. Weighted blanket if anxious.
*3. Daily habits*
Morning:
• Sunlight in your eyes within 30 min of waking (5–10 min sunny, 15–30 cloudy)
• Delay caffeine 90–120 min after waking (Huberman protocol — let adenosine clear)
• Cold shower or face dunk
Throughout the day:
• Caffeine cutoff 10+ hours before bed. Half-life is 5–6h.
• Exercise: zone 2 cardio + lifting. Earlier in the day.
• Sunlight at sunset reinforces circadian off-signal
• Last big meal 3+ hours before bed
• Taper water 1–2h before bed
Evening wind-down (60–90 min):
• Dim lights, switch to warm/red bulbs
• Hot shower or bath 90 min before bed — the rebound drop in core temp triggers sleepiness
• No screens, or use serious blue-blockers (Ra Optics, BLUblox, TrueDark)
• Reading on paper, journaling, light stretching
• Brain dump: write tomorrow's to-do list so your brain releases it
In bed:
• 4-7-8 breath, box breathing, or physiological sigh
• NSDR / Yoga Nidra (Huberman has free recordings on YouTube)
• If awake >20 min, get out of bed and do something boring in dim light. Return when sleepy. (CBT-I gold standard)
*4. Supplement menu*
Tier 1 — strongest evidence, lowest risk:
• *Magnesium* — glycinate, threonate (best brain penetration), or taurate. 200–400 mg. The single most useful sleep supplement.
• *L-theanine* — 200–400 mg
• *Glycine* — 3 g. Lowers core temp, deepens slow-wave sleep.
• *Apigenin* — 50 mg. Chamomile-derived, mild GABA agonist.
• *Melatonin microdose* — 0.3 mg only. High doses downregulate receptors and cause grogginess.
Tier 2 — solid, situational:
• Ashwagandha (KSM-66) 300–600 mg — great if stress-driven insomnia
• Reishi mushroom 1–2 g
• Valerian root 300–600 mg
• Passionflower, lemon balm, chamomile
• Tart cherry juice / extract
• Phosphatidylserine 100–300 mg if cortisol is high at night
• Magnolia bark (honokiol)
• CBD 25–75 mg
• *Taurine* 1–3 g — calming + cardiovascular benefit, double duty for heart rate
Tier 3 — caution / specific cases:
• 5-HTP / L-tryptophan (don't combine with SSRIs)
• PharmaGABA (regular GABA doesn't cross BBB well)
• Inositol 2–4 g for racing thoughts
• Lavender oil (Silexan) 80 mg oral — real anxiolytic data
A solid "starter stack" most people land on:
*Magnesium glycinate 300 mg + L-theanine 200 mg + glycine 3 g + apigenin 50 mg.* Add ashwagandha if stressed.
*5. Lowering resting HR / BP / boosting HRV*
(Heart rate at sleep onset is one of the biggest drivers of sleep quality)
Training:
• *Zone 2 cardio* 150–300 min/week — the single biggest RHR mover. Drops it 5–15 bpm in 3 months for most people.
• Resistance training 2–4x/week
• VO₂ max work (4x4 intervals) 1x/week
• Daily walking, 8–10k steps
Acute autonomic:
• *Slow breathing at 5–6 breaths/min* for 10 min/day (resonance frequency breathing) — best HRV intervention
• Box breathing, 4-7-8, physiological sigh
• Cold plunge 2–4 min or cold shower
• Sauna 4x/week, 20 min, 175°F+
• Meditation 20 min/day
• HRV biofeedback (Elite HRV, Inner Balance apps)
Supplements that help BP/HR:
• Magnesium (again)
• Potassium 3,500–4,700 mg/day from food
• Beetroot juice / dietary nitrates → drops BP 5–10 mmHg
• Hibiscus tea, 2–3 cups/day
• Aged garlic extract
• Omega-3 EPA/DHA 2–4 g/day
• CoQ10 / Ubiquinol 100–200 mg
• L-citrulline 6 g (better than L-arginine)
• Taurine 3–6 g
• Hawthorne berry
• Cocoa flavanols (CocoaVia) 500+ mg
Lifestyle subtractions (huge):
• No nicotine
• Alcohol — zero or rare. Tanks HRV for 2–3 nights.
• Late meals push overnight HR up. Move dinner earlier.
*6. Tracking*
• Oura Ring Gen4 — best overall sleep tracking
• Whoop 4.0 — best HRV/recovery
• Eight Sleep Pod — tracking + active cooling
*7. The underrated sleep killers*
• Late caffeine (even 2 PM coffee for 10 PM sleep)
• Alcohol
• Late workouts
• Warm bedroom
• Bedroom CO₂ buildup
• Phone on the nightstand
• Eating within 3h of bed
• Weekend social jet lag (sleeping in)
• Late nicotine
*8. Highest-ROI starter protocol*
Week 1: Fixed sleep/wake time. Magnesium glycinate. Caffeine cutoff at noon. No alcohol.
Week 2: Morning sunlight + dim evening lights. Cool the bedroom. Earplugs/mask.
Week 3: Add L-theanine + glycine. Last meal 3h before bed.
Week 4: Wind-down ritual + 4-7-8 breathing. 10 min of slow breathing daily.
Month 2: Active cooling mattress, zone 2 cardio 4x/week, sauna 3x/week, cold plunge.