This plan lays out simple rules for increasing your healthspan — the number of healthy, active years ahead of you. There are a few things to know about the plan before you get started:

  1. It is brief and easy to action, relying on references to do the explaining.
  2. It is holistic, using exercise, sleep, preventative screening, drugs and diet.
  3. It is evidence-based, relying on randomized controlled trials, mendelian randomization and meta-studies where possible.
  4. It is proactive, making suggestions based on first-principles reasoning instead of doing nothing when evidence is conflicting or hard to acquire.

🌙 Sleep

We understand little about sleep — we don’t know what it does or why some need more of it than others. But what we do know is that lack of high quality sleep affects alertness, metabolic health and is correlated with a shorter lifespan. The good news is that improving sleep is usually easy to do and has a very high return on investment.

Basics

  1. Sleep and wake at the same time every day for ~ 6-9 hours (until you feel rested).
  2. Avoid food, alcohol and exercise for 3 hours before bed time.
  3. Avoid stimulants and naps for 7 hours before bed time.
  4. Avoid all usage of hypnotic sleep aids (xanax, ambien). If you must, use a low dosage lab verified melatonin supplement to aid sleep (~0.3 mg to 1 mg ).

Advanced

  1. Use blackout shades and eye masks to eliminate light
  2. Avoid screen-time for 1 hour before bed time.
  3. Sleep in a cool environment (~ 60-68 F, 15-20 C)