Our Next Frontier Isn’t in the Gym, It’s in Bed

I’ll be honest with you, sleep is something I’ve struggled with for years. I can hit the gym, train hard, fuel my body, and check every other box of health, but when it comes to rest, I’ve often treated it as optional. The truth is, it’s not. After diving into Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep and listening to his interviews on podcasts, I’ve realized sleep may be the single most powerful tool we have for health and performance, and it’s the one most of us neglect.

Walker calls sleep “the most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body every single day.” Think about that for a second. Every night we’re given the chance to heal, restore, and prepare for the next day, yet most of us squander it. Two-thirds of adults don’t get the recommended eight hours, and the consequences are far more severe than just feeling groggy. A single night of poor sleep impairs brain function so much that staying awake for 24 hours leaves you as cognitively impaired as someone over the legal limit for alcohol. After just four nights of sleeping four hours, your immune system’s natural killer cells, the ones that fight cancer, drop by 70 percent. Consistently sleep less than six hours, and testosterone levels can plummet to those of someone ten years older. This isn’t about comfort, it’s about survival.

One of the clearest ways to understand this is through something called adenosine, a chemical that builds up in the brain while we’re awake. Imagine it like pressure in a tank, the longer you’re up, the more it fills, and the heavier that fatigue feels. Sleep is the only way to release the valve and flush that adenosine out. Caffeine can mask the feeling temporarily by blocking adenosine’s receptors, but it never clears the buildup. Only deep, restorative sleep resets the system. When we cut sleep short, we carry leftover adenosine into the next day, which is why we feel foggy, sluggish, and drained before the day even starts. Stack this sleep debt night after night, and you’re not just tired, you’re slowly eroding your physical health, mental clarity, and long-term performance.

This is why we need to treat sleep with urgency. I know this struggle firsthand, my days often start with training sessions before the sun comes up, and between coaching, building my community, and traveling across the world, I’ve spent more nights than I’d like to admit running on empty. Crossing time zones, living out of hotels, and forcing myself into early alarms left me thinking I was being productive, but in reality I was cutting into the very foundation that allows me to perform. For me, this has been a real wake-up call. If I truly care about my health, my training, and the energy I bring to others, I can’t keep burning the candle at both ends. Recovery is where growth actually happens, and sleep is the most important form of recovery I have.

So where do we start? For most of us, the answer lies in reclaiming our nighttime routine. Cooling the bedroom, dimming the lights an hour before bed, putting away electronics, and going to sleep at the same time every night, even on weekends, are simple but powerful steps. Caffeine and alcohol need to be kept in check if we want our bodies to truly rest. And if you find yourself lying awake at night, don’t toss and turn, get up, do something calming, then return to bed once you’re ready. These habits are small acts of discipline, but over time they transform your sleep into the performance-enhancing, life-extending force it was meant to be.

I know how challenging this can be because I’m working on it myself, but I care deeply about your journey through life. I want each of us to have the energy to wake up every day ready to live fully, not dragging through in survival mode. That’s why prioritizing sleep has to become non-negotiable. Building a nighttime routine that truly supports rest, whether it’s dimming the lights, stepping away from screens, or keeping a consistent bedtime, isn’t just about recovery, it’s about giving ourselves the chance to be present, strong, and joyful in everything we do.

Sleep is the fuel that lets us show up fully for our goals, our loved ones, and ourselves.

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