Sleep hacking: How to control your mitochondrial clocks

Light controls your body clock. Hack it to get better sleep.

  • You can go a month without food, or three or four days without water, but try to go three or four days without sleep. "It's at least as important as water. But you don't see people going on water diets very often, but you do see people who just don't get enough sleep all the time," says Dave Asprey
  • Quality sleep is foundational to good health, helping to ward off diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's. It's also a key strategy for anti-aging.
  • Dave Asprey shares what he's learned about sleep hacking: Don't eat after the sun goes down, turn the lights down as much as you can after the sun goes down, and black out your room – you'll need more than regular black-out curtains. Watch the video to find out why.
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One way to increase voter turnout? More sleep.

A new study posits that sleep deprivation decreases civic participation.

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  • Forty percent of Americans sleep less than seven hours, resulting in lost productivity, more accidents, and an increased likelihood of dementia.
  • A new study shows that a lack of sleep also results in decreased voter turnout.
  • Other prosocial behaviors are also implicated in this discussion, including signing petitions and donating money to charity.
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Does hitting the snooze button really help you feel better?

"Bottom line: It's probably best to set your alarm for a specific time and get up then."

To sleep or to snooze? You probably know the answer, but you don't prefer it.

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Managing your mental health is an under-appreciated life skill

Without a healthy mind, tackling life's challenges becomes exponentially more difficult.

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  • Most people know about the importance of managing your finances or eating a healthy diet, but few pay as much attention to their mental health.
  • If we engage in bad habits, we might suddenly find ourselves confined to our beds by fatigue or up all night with anxiety.
  • Research has shown that these four activities are crucial to maintaining a healthy state of mind.
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New research shows that sleep helps determine your personality

The quality and duration of your nightly ritual helps define who you are.

Photo by Christian Erfurt on Unsplash
  • People who suffer from emotional instability tend to exhibit poor sleep duration, continuity, and subjective sleep quality.
  • Conscientious people report less variability in sleep duration and continuity.
  • The study suggests that how you sleep this week predicts your personality five years from now.
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