Imagine having these 2 options:

1. You feel great every waking hour—energized, vigorous, motivated, clear headed and focused. You look like a stud—lean, muscular, considerably younger than your age. You perform better and recover faster than virtually all your peers. You see insane progress, never get injured and feel fulfilled by the process. Your objective health (labs) look pristine, and you never get sick.

2. Feeling great is a shot in the dark. Sometimes it’s there, but just by happenstance—it’s unreliable. You look 7 years older than you are, and feel self-conscious taking your shirt off at the beach. Your performance and recovery are all over the map. Most people leave you in the dust when it comes to physical performance. You struggle mightily with your nutrition, and you suspect your wife isn’t speaking the truth when she claims she ‘loves your dad-bod’. Your labs resemble a soup sandwich and you’re constantly ‘sick again’.

Which would you opt for?

I suspect option A. But meanwhile, most people’s daily habits result in something closer B.

There’s good news and bad news.

The good news: you can experience option A if you want.

The bad news: it’ll take some effort and habit change. 

Where am I going with this? Option A is the likely outcome of those who sleep great. Option B is the poor sleeper’s experience.

If you look around at the average American, which category do you think most people fall into? 

Of course, it’s not all sleep. Training and nutrition matter too. But coincidentally, sleep is the centerpiece of maximizing your training and making the right food choices.

In this article, I’ll highlight the Big Three habits that make champion sleepers. What you do with it is on you. But I can assure you, if you have big goals, it’ll behoove you to implement them. Because if you don't, others on your path who do emphasize sleep have a massive advantage.

A commonality among my most successful clients is treating great sleep as a non-negotiable. While most of my 1:1 clients are SOF candidates, I also coach CEOs, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs working for high level companies that demand daily effectiveness. For this avatar, sleep isn’t just about physical performance and recovery. It’s about daily effectiveness—productivity, motivation, clarity, focus, a positive outlook and fulfillment. 

Regardless, the ones who perform best—physically and professionally—recover fastest, stay the leanest, look and feel the best, and have the best objective health are sleep jedis. 

Regardless of your goals and aspirations, great sleep raises your potential. Poor sleep squanders it.

This isn’t my opinion. Countless studies confirm it. Zero studies dispute it.

It doesn’t matter if your goal is to crush Special Forces Selection, launch a business, get promoted, win a race or competition, or be the best tactical athlete you can be. Sleep should be the lynchpin around which the rest of your life is organized. If you’re reading this, you likely won't struggle maintaining a training habit. But that’s merely the entry fee. Very few can muster the discipline needed to cultivate habits necessary for pristine sleep.

Today, there are a million and one sleep tips, tricks, hacks, tools, gizmos and gadgets. There’s more info on how to sleep well than ever before. More people than ever are keenly aware of the benefits of good sleep and the severe consequences of bad sleep. But still…(almost) no one sleeps well. And it continues to get worse. 

Those who separate themselves from the rest are willing to treat sleep as sacred. But despite our well-wishes, great sleep doesn’t happen by accident. The reason for the nationwide poor sleep epidemic isn't lack of education on the what, why or how. It’s that implementation requires serious habit change—which is a package-deal with sacrifice, FOMO, effort, and going against the grain. You can’t just hope your way to it. You have to make it happen.

Another conundrum is information overload. Because the internet is riddled with sleep tactics and strategies, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. 

“What’s the most important?”

“How can I practically apply all this?”

“I’ve got a lot on my plate. How can I find time?”

I get it. Just like the fitness space, the sleep space can be hard to find signal among all the noise.

Don’t worry, I’ll simplify it for you. Instead of offering a laundry list of sleep tips, I’ve trimmed it down to just three. If you nail them, just about everything else will fall into place. 

Why Most People Never Fix Their Sleep

The problem? It’s not a pill or potion you can ingest. Sleep supplements can help, but they’re the sprinkles on the icing on the cake. You can make a great cake with no sprinkles. A sprinkles-only cake wouldn’t fly.

Developing these habits is hard. You’ll have to acknowledge that up front. 

But guess what?  SFAS, the Q course and life in Group: all hard. Building a business? Managing a team? Doing the work to get promoted ahead of peers? Also hard. 

If you can’t make the sacrifices required to do the least negotiable activity in existence—sleep—you’re unlikely to fare well in the big leagues (whatever that means to you). Every aspect of your physical and mental health, performance and wellbeing is directly influenced by sleep.

Bad sleep degrades it all. 

Great sleep enhances it all. 

Before diving into the three habits, it’s worth understanding just how much poor sleep can hold you back.

What Happens When You Sleep Poorly

This nightly activity affects every system, function, hormone, organ, and neurotransmitter in the human body. While knowing this should be incentive enough to stop treating it as an afterthought, much to my bewilderment, it’s not. To keep it contextual, we’ll look at some of the critical systems and processes poor sleep affects as it pertains to fitness, health and daily effectiveness.

Physical Effects of Poor Sleep 

• Reductions in total and free testosterone — suppressed T production; blunts normal overnight hormonal surge that supports recovery and adaptation

• Increases in ghrelin — the hormone that increases appetite, particularly for calorie-dense foods

• Decreases in leptin — the hormone that signals fullness after eating
  Reduced insulin sensitivity — the hormone that regulates blood glucose becomes less effective, increasing metabolic strain

• Reductions in muscle protein synthesis — the process by which muscle tissue repairs and grows is suppressed, slowing recovery and adaptation

• Decrements in central nervous system function — neural drive and motor unit recruitment decline, reducing power output and overall daily vigor

• Increases in cortisol (‘the stress hormone’) and disruptions in diurnal cortisol rhythm — cortisol is elevated when it should be low and vice versa, impairing recovery and increasing physiological stress

• Reductions in growth hormone and IGF-1 — slow tissue repair and injury healing; suppressed neurological recovery

• Lower pain tolerance — amplified pain perception; reduces the brain’s ability to modulate discomfort

• Reductions in coordination and motor control — impaired communication between the brain and muscles reduces precision, timing, and movement quality

• Increased injury risk — fatigue, slower reaction time, impaired coordination, and reduced tissue recovery significantly elevate injury probability

• Increased sympathetic nervous system activity — the body spends more time in a fight-or-flight state rather than recovery mode; self-propagating cycle of poor sleep -> elevated stress -> poorer sleep

Mental Effects of Poor Sleep 

• Unstable mood — the brain’s centers for mood stabilization and proper neurotransmitter function crave quality sleep

• Impaired decision making — weakened activity in prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for judgment, impulse control, and weighing consequences

• Irritability, easily bothered — heightened reactivity in emotional centers of the brain, lowering patience and frustration tolerance

• Emotional dysregulation — disrupted communication between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, making emotional responses harder to regulate

• More anxiety, difficulty controlling thoughts — elevated stress hormones and reduced prefrontal control make worry and rumination harder to manage

• Reductions in motivation and drive — declines in dopamine signaling and reward system activity 

• Low tolerance for discomfort — reduced resilience to stress, effort, and unpleasant stimuli

• Depression or low mood — disrupted serotonin, dopamine, and emotional processing pathways

• Impaired focus, clarity and articulation — reduced activity in attention and language centers slows thinking and word retrieval

• Poor memory recall — impaired memory consolidation, particularly transferring short-term memories into long-term storage

While there are plenty more undesirable effects of bad sleep, I’d hope these suffice to open your eyes to the life-handicap under-indexing it creates. To add insult to injury, the effects listed are acute decrements from one bad night of sleep. Chronic bad sleep? Chronic impairment.

Assuming you’re now open to removing the #1 rate-limiter on your potential, it’s time to discuss the big three. By doing just these things, you’re covering the majority of your sleep bases. After the big three, I’ll list two more high ROI habits for those interested in truly optimizing. 

The 3 Big Habits

Habit 1: Go to bed and wake up at consistent times.

Not consistent-ish. Actually consistent. You should be going to bed and waking within a 30 minute window respectively. And here’s the hard part: not just on weekdays. Every day that ends in y. 

It’s commonplace to stay up way later on weekends, forcing a subsequent sleep-in. Doesn’t seem like a big deal—5/7 nights per week is solid, right? Not in this case. Even a single night of inconsistency disrupts your biological clock. Deciding to stay up late and sleep in 2-3 nights per week is self-inducing jetlag-like symptoms (it’s actually called social jetlag). 

How so?

Let’s say you go to bed at 9PM and wake up at 5AM on weekdays, but on weekends you sleep from midnight to 8AM. That’s a three hour shift on both ends. This is the equivalent of flying from NYC to LA every Friday evening, and flying back on Sunday. Do you think you’ll be firing on all cylinders early in the week if you do this every weekend? Absolutely not. 

Most data suggest a 1:1 days:hours ratio for jet lag recovery. In other words, for every hour you change time zones, it’s a day on the backend returning to homeostasis. 3 hours? 3 days. So in this case, you won’t be on your game till Thursday. The day before you repeat the cycle again.

Unfortunately, our biological clock responds not to your wishes and hopes. It requires deliberate action. And this demands sacrifice, which is why it’s so rare for anyone to do it. But I can promise you, you’re more likely to continue doing it once you’ve done it long enough to feel its profound benefits. Because I’m a realist—I’m by no means batting a thousand on this habit—so I like to add some caveats. 

There are scenarios in which staying up late is well worth it. Celebrations. Social gatherings. Travel. Work obligations. Fussy kids. Periodically breaking the rule is not a world-ender. If you have a newborn, I get it—get all the sleep you can by any means necessary.

But most people don’t have these things several nights per week. Yet they still stay up, and they still sleep in…just because. The take home: do it as consistently as possible. 

If that’s 6/7 days per week, you’re ahead of 99% of people. If it’s 26 days per month, you’re crushing. But if you’re all over the map because you can’t break your evening pleasure-seeking habits, I’d strongly consider a values audit. Do you value yet another Netflix episode, scroll-a-thon, or a night at the bar more than being a top tier performer in all walks of life? 

That’s on you to determine. But you can’t possibly be upset when you leave piles of potential on the table because you chose the easy road. 

If there’s one single thing in this whole piece to adhere to, this is it. If you join the tiny minority who actually do it, it’ll remedy 90% of your sleep issues.

Habit 2: Set a night alarm. 

If you abide by #1, the night alarm will soon be the only alarm you need. But it’s still critical, even if you’re consistent. It’s an objective reminder that the day has ended, and it’s now time to prepare for the most critical aspect of any day: sleep. Simply set this alarm for approximately 9 hours before your desired wake up time (or 1 hour before bedtime). This is your reminder to:

Habit 3: Begin your pre-bed routine. 

Step by step:

• Step 1: Forget about your phone. Plug it in somewhere besides your bedroom (mine goes in the kitchen), either powered off or on Do Not Disturb. This is the single non-negotiable step of all night routines. 

Common rebuttal: “How am I supposed to get up in the morning with no alarm?!?!” 

My answer: even though most people don't use them these days, alarm clocks still exist! You can get one for under $10. Even if they were $1,000, it would be a worthwhile investment for most people. Also note that after a week or 2, you’ll be getting up without needing an alarm.

• Step 2: Begin a pre bed routine—screen-free! Your pre-ped routine should be unique to you. Just ensure it’s void of screens (computer, phone, TV, etc.), stressful conversations, physical exertion (a walk is fine) and exposure to bright lights. You can read, stretch, walk, shower, prepare clothes or meals for tomorrow, do breathwork or meditation, pet your dogs, or any activity you find relaxing. 

Many people simply can’t fathom a pre-bed hour without their precious device. If that’s you, I’ll be the bearer of bad news: that’s a problem. Being a prisoner to your vices is no way to live. But the good news is, you can fix it. And the sooner you address it the better. Keep things simple. 

My pre-bed routine (which doesn’t have to look like yours, but is a solid framework):

• Plug the phone in the kitchen. It’s already on Do Not Disturb because I curate my day to be low-distraction. But if it wasn’t, I’d turn it on here.

• Ensure the thermostat is in the mid 60s and the lights are dim (cool and dark environments are critical for sleep prep and sleep).

• Go for a 15-20 minute walk with my wife and dogs (this is a sacred, rarely missed walk).

• Take a warm shower. Post-shower exposure to the pre-cooled ambient air lowers core temperature—a key component of stellar deep sleep (where most physical recovery occurs).

• Lie in bed, chat with my wife about low-stress topics (we have a strict “no work or finances before bed” pact), and mess around with my dogs for 10–15 minutes.

• Read a non-self-help book (novel, biography, or similar—self-help books activate my mind so I save them for AM reading). Some nights, I can barely finish a page. Others it may be a 10-20 minute ordeal.

• *During higher-stress periods*, I write down any racing thoughts or open loops in a bedside notebook. This seems minor, but it works wonders. A simple $5 notebook and pen saves me hours of restlessness. 

• Lights out in our pitchdark room, quickly drifting off into a deep sleep.

That’s it. And by it, I mean only three things. Not that it is easy to implement. But nailing them will completely reinvent your sleep. The hard part? You won’t know it until you try. And not just for a few days. Every day. 

There are, of course, certain days on which you won’t be able to abide by it all. Not the end of the world. But on nights you have the option—which is more nights than most people’s narrative suggests—nothing would behoove you more.

If you want to take it a step further, here are two more simple considerations.

Bonus Habit: Morning sun exposure

Seeing the sun soon after it rises is key for our circadian rhythms. Think of it as setting your body’s internal clock—you’ll be more alert and effective by day and relaxed come nightfall. It doesn’t take much. Simply going outside for 10 minutes with no sunglasses (at least at this time) is all it takes. Even better? Expose as much skin as possible. If it’s summer, go shirtless (if you’re a gal, the female equivalent of shirtless). 

What if it’s not sunny? That’s fine. The sun is still out, it’s just covered by clouds. You can still receive most of the benefits. As a general rule of thumb, try to add 5-10 minutes to your outdoor time. But regardless, something is better than nothing. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good enough.

What if I don’t have time? I find it hard to believe when folks say they ‘can’t’ do this. It’s one thing to be unwilling to do this. But unable? I doubt it. At least most days. If your life is so stringent and busy you can’t go outside for a few minutes sometime before 10AM, a deep look at your priorities and planning skills is in order. You may need to move some things around in your schedule, but with some effort, it’s likely doable.

Reminder: you won’t see the profound payoff if you do this once. It’s a practice. The more you do it, the better the results. Especially when paired with the big 3. Even more so when you add the 10, 3, 2, 1 rule to the mix (see below).

Second Bonus Habit: The 10,3,2,1 rule

This simple heuristic is a fantastic sleep enhancer.

10= hours before bed to cease caffeine intake—caffeine’s half life is ~5 hours in the average person. This means if you have a Ghost energy drink at noon (200mg of caffeine), there’s still 100mg in your system at 5 PM. And 50mg at 10PM. Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s enough to reduce objective sleep quality (even if not perceived).

3= hours before bed to stop eating—at least larger meals that’ll take awhile to digest. I’ll be honest, I break this rule most nights by an hour or so because I go to bed early. But I’ve found going for an evening walk can expedite the digestive process (backed by lots of data) and have noticed minimal decrements in my sleep. Everyone’s different here. Experiment, and do your best.

2= hours before bed to cease water/fluid intake—It’s always bewildered me that my dogs (and your dogs, too) are more in tune with their urine cycles than most humans. You may notice your dogs drink a bunch of water either right before you let them out or right after. That’s because they instinctually know it makes them pee. And since well trained dogs only pee when they’re outdoors, they time their water accordingly. 

Humans? Many tend to not piece this together. I’ve heard many folks say “I can’t go through the night without waking up to pee 2-3+ times”. Have you considered drinking water like you’re about to toe the line for the Boston Marathon in the evening may be a factor? 

If there’s one time of day to accept mild dehydration, it’s pre-bed. Getting up once is no big deal if you fall back asleep easily. But you’re FAR better off being mildly dehydrated right before bed than getting atrocious sleep because you’re constantly up to pee. Be more like your dog. Frontload your water intake and time it around training. Taper it in the evening.

1= hours before bed to avoid screens or work (overlap with #3)—there are a multitude of mechanisms by which screen use disrupts sleep. Blue light is one of them. It’ll blunt melatonin production (melatonin is not just a supplement—our bodies produce it!). 

Some people try to beat the system by wearing blue light blocking glasses. But once again physiology outsmarts us. Blue light isn’t the biggest culprit in screen-induced sleep disruption. It’s the mental stimulation from the content you’re consuming. Dopamine drips from scrolling, intense dramas, emails, and world news raise cortisol, promoting a sympathetic (fight or flight) state. To sleep well, parasympathetic (rest and digest) tone is necessary. Even if you don’t ‘feel’ stressed, the damage is being done. To this day, we still haven’t outsmarted physiology. And unless we do someday (we won’t), lay off the screens. They’re not going anywhere. 

0= the number of times you’re allowed to press snooze—it shouldn’t shock you that getting interrupted every 7-9 minutes for your last 30-60 minutes of sleep is less than ideal for sleep quality. But this isn’t even the biggest problem pressing snooze causes. It’s one of the most insidious confidence killers in existence. 

Think about it. Setting your alarm the night prior is the equivalent of making a commitment: “I’m going to wake up at X time tomorrow”. Pressing snooze (or using multiple alarms in succession) is breaking that commitment. Those who break commitments made in private simply will always struggle with confidence.

Not only are you lying to yourself, you’re literally starting your day with it. Press snooze 5 times? 5 lies to start the day. How can you possibly test yourself when you can’t even wake up when you said you would. Most people suggest putting your alarm out of arm’s reach so you need to get up to turn it off. Fair. 

But I prefer a more root-cause approach. Take a look at the way you’ve set up your life. A fulfilling life is one you’re excited to wake up for and attack every day. Curate it as such and the urge to press snooze will be a thing of the past. (But don’t worry, if you follow step 1 you’ll be waking up energized and ready to crush—likely before your alarm.)

I like to add a second piece to the 0: the # of drinks you’re allowed to have. Booze is a disaster for sleep quality. It sedates you. But sedation and sleep are far from equal. If you’re dead set on drinking, keep it moderate (1-2) and don’t drink within 3 hours of bed. Just know it’s another handicap to add to the list, and not just because of sleep—booze wreaks havoc on everything else, too.

These three things—five if you’re really dialed—are simple. They’re not easy. But isn’t doing hard things what makes life worth living? If you want to reach new heights, it’s non-negotiable. And I can promise you, doing hard things is much more tolerable (and enticing) when well-rested.

My challenge to you: give it 2 weeks. No exceptions, no excuses. If after 2 weeks your sleep is still all over the map, this indicates a deeper problem and warrants a visit to a sleep specialist. But in all likelihood, you’ll shock yourself with what you’ve been missing out on all this time. 

If you don't want to look, feel and perform well below potential like most people do, you can’t do what most people do. It doesn’t work that way. You have the reins. Take control of your sleep and kiss your former self goodbye.