Improving Sleep For Productivity

467 people turned their iPhones into dumb phones for 2 weeks. Calls and texts only. The results were closer to "new medication" than "digital detox." Here's what the researchers actually did. They blocked all mobile internet on participants' phones for 14 days. The only remaining things were calls, texts, and desktop internet. Then they measured well-being, mental health, and sustained attention three times across the month. Average screen time dropped from ~314 minutes per day to ~161. Roughly two and a half hours of life returned to people, every day. After the block lifted, screen time rebounded. But it stayed below baseline. Two weeks of enforced reduction recalibrated what "normal" felt like. The outcomes were striking: → Well-being up (Cohen’s d ≈ 0.45) → Mental health up (d ≈ 0.56) → Sustained attention up (d ≈ 0.23) In psychology, these are big effect sizes. The mental health improvement was larger than the average effect of antidepressants in meta-analyses, and similar to the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy. Attention gains were roughly equivalent to reversing 10 years of age-related cognitive decline. From two weeks without Instagram. Let that one sit for a second. 91% of participants improved on at least one outcome. → 73% improved well-being → 70% improved mental health → 59% improved sustained attention This wasn't a lucky subset. It was almost everyone. Why did it work? More time in the offline world: walking, exercising, being outside, talking to humans in person. Less media. More sleep. Better self-control. By the way, more sleep increases feelings of aliveness across the board. One important nuance. Only about 25% of participants kept the block for 10+ of the 14 days. The average effects held anyway. Meaning: even partial reduction moves the needle. You don't have to be perfect to benefit. Who gained the most? → People with high FOMO → biggest well-being and mental health gains. → People with more ADHD symptoms → biggest gains in self-reported attention. If the phone feels like it's running your nervous system, you're likely to benefit most from unplugging from it. A 14-day protocol for anyone who wants to try it: → Block mobile internet (keep calls and texts) → Batch desktop use into 1-3 windows a day → Pre-plan what fills the space: walk, gym, friend, book → Keep a one-line mood and energy log If a full block feels unrealistic, time windows, app blockers, and batched notifications still help. Two weeks. The world doesn't end. What comes back is focus, sleep, calm, and time. That's a better ROI than most things you'll try this year. SOURCES: Castelo, N., Kushlev, K., Ward, A. F., Esterman, M., & Reiner, P. B. (2025). Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being. PNAS Nexus, 4(2), pgaf017.

Sleep is the brain’s most powerful performance tool, and most people treat it like a negotiable expense. Neuroscience is blunt: when you cut sleep, the brain shifts into survival mode. Astrocytes prune more synapses. Microglia stay activated. The glymphatic “night shift” that clears waste runs poorly. You don’t just feel tired. You lose clarity, memory consolidation, and emotional control. Decisions get riskier. Empathy gets thinner. Creativity shrinks. It’s not hours you’re sacrificing. It’s executive function. High performance isn’t willpower, it’s architecture. The brain thrives in rhythm, not chaos. Try this for 7 days: • Wake at the same time daily (weekends too). Let bedtime adjust earlier. • Light before phone: 5–10 minutes of outdoor light upon waking. • Caffeine curfew: none after 2 PM. • Protect one 90-minute deep-work block after your best sleep. • Swap micro-scrolls for a 10–20 minute early-afternoon nap. • Dim lights and screens 60–90 minutes before bed. • Run a 10–15 minute wind-down ritual (shower/stretch/paper journal, same order every night). Small rituals, massive neurological returns. Leaders don’t optimize sleep because it’s soft; they optimize it because it’s leverage. Start tonight. ♻️ Kindly repost to share with others Follow Benjamin B. Bargetzi for more on Neuroscience, Psychology & Future Tech

FATIGUE, A SILENT WORKPLACE HAZARD In this video, we see a forklift operator doze off for a split second, leading to a warehouse crash that damaged equipment and could have caused severe injuries or fatalities. While it might seem like a momentary lapse, fatigue is a major contributor to workplace incidents across industries. The Reality of Fatigue in the Workplace: 🔹 13% of workplace injuries are linked to fatigue-related impairment (NSC). 🔹 Workers who sleep less than 6 hours are 70% more likely to be involved in an incident. 🔹 Fatigue affects reaction time, judgment, and situational awareness, critical for safety-sensitive roles. Practical Fatigue Management Techniques: 1. Encourage Adequate Rest: – Promote 7–9 hours of sleep for optimal performance. – Adjust shift patterns to minimize excessive overtime and consecutive night shifts. 2. Implement Strategic Breaks: – Schedule regular breaks during long shifts to prevent mental and physical exhaustion. – Create designated rest zones for employees to recharge. 3. Promote Hydration & Nutrition: – Dehydration and poor nutrition can exacerbate fatigue, encourage balanced meals and water intake. 4. Educate and Empower: – Conduct regular fatigue awareness training. – Empower workers to speak up when feeling fatigued without fear of repercussions. 5. Leverage Technology: – Explore tools like fatigue detection systems for operators of high-risk equipment. Fatigue is more than feeling tired, it’s a hazard that can cost lives. Proactive fatigue management isn’t just good for productivity; it’s essential for saving lives and protecting assets. #FatigueManagement #WorkplaceSafety #ForkliftSafety #HSELeadership #IncidentPrevention #ZeroHarm #SafetyFirst #WellbeingAtWork

Your sleep starts when you wake up. Yet most executives think sleep only matters at 10pm. But by then, you've already influenced how you'll sleep. Your circadian rhythm has been responding to your decisions since the moment you opened your eyes. Morning light. When you have your first coffee. How much daylight you get. Whether your evenings stay bright or gradually become dark. These are all signals your brain uses to decide when to be alert and when to prepare for sleep. Research consistently shows that light is the strongest environmental cue for regulating your circadian clock. Morning daylight helps anchor that clock,  while bright artificial light late in the evening delays melatonin release and pushes your sleep later. Now while most high-performers might not want to hear this one... The same applies to caffeine. A coffee at 5pm may feel harmless, but caffeine blocks adenosine, the chemical that builds your drive to sleep, and can reduce both deep sleep and REM sleep in many people. That's why I encourage founders and executives to think about sleep as a 24-hour system. And these are a few of the habits I've found to make the biggest difference: 1. Get outside for natural light soon after waking 2. Keep a consistent wake-up time, even on weekends 3. Save caffeine for earlier in the day 4. Dim the lights during the last couple of hours before bed 5. Treat your evening like a runway, not an on/off switch While your calendar might shape your day, your circadian rhythm shapes every day after that. Most executives manage the first. Very few protect the second. Start here! And stay healthy. P.S. I share more practical frameworks like this every Sunday in The Upward ARC. Written for leaders operating under real pressure. Join here: https://bit.ly/UpwardARC ♻️ Repost to help leaders take action 🔔 Follow Andre Heeg, MD for more

Your body clock predicts dementia 3 years before symptoms appear. New study: Weak circadian rhythm = 2.5x higher dementia risk. I've watched patients decline for 15 years. And I've never seen this connection made so clearly. The research (2,200 adults tracked for 3 years): Weak circadian rhythm: 2.5x higher dementia risk Activity peaking after 2:15 PM: 45% higher risk Strong, consistent rhythm: Protective What surprised me: They measured this with a simple chest monitor worn for 12 days. No brain scans. No blood tests. Just tracking when you're active versus at rest. Why your body clock matters for brain health: Disrupted rhythms increase brain inflammation ↳ Chronic inflammation damages neurons ↳ Accelerates amyloid buildup Poor circadian alignment interferes with sleep ↳ Brain clears toxic proteins during deep sleep ↳ Fragmented sleep = inadequate clearance Late activity peaks signal misalignment ↳ Body clock out of sync with natural light ↳ Hormonal systems get confused ↳ Metabolic dysfunction follows The patients I diagnose with dementia: Commonly have terrible sleep patterns. Going to bed at different times. Waking at random hours. Napping irregularly. Most active at night. I used to think this was a symptom of dementia. Turns out, it might be a cause. What counts as a strong circadian rhythm: Same bedtime every night (within 30 minutes) Same wake time every morning (yes, weekends too) Most active between 10 AM and 2 PM Minimal activity after 9 PM No long daytime naps The "night owl" problem: Being naturally active later isn't the issue. The issue is inconsistency and misalignment with light exposure. If you're consistently active 8 PM-midnight and sleep 2 AM-10 AM with good light exposure, that's fine. If you're sporadically active at all hours with no pattern, that's the problem. How to strengthen your circadian rhythm: 1. Light exposure timing ↳ Bright light (ideally sunlight) within 1 hour of waking ↳ 15-30 minutes minimum ↳ Signals to brain: "This is daytime" 2. Consistent sleep schedule ↳ Same time every night (even weekends) ↳ Non-negotiable ↳ More important than sleep duration 3. Time-restricted activity ↳ Exercise and social activity before 7 PM ↳ Dim lights after 8 PM ↳ Screen time minimized at night 4. Regular meal times ↳ Breakfast within 1 hour of waking ↳ Dinner 3 hours before bed ↳ No late-night snacking My clinical observation: The patients who maintain strong routines into their 80s and 90s stay sharper. The ones who let schedules drift show faster decline. This isn't about being rigid. It's about consistency. Your brain needs to know what time it is. ⁉️ Do you go to bed at the same time every night? ♻️ Repost if you believe simple routines beat complex interventions 👉 Follow me (Reza Hosseini Ghomi, MD, MSE) for evidence-based brain health strategies Citation: Wang W. Association Between Circadian Rest-Activity Rhythms and Incident Dementia in Older Adults. Neurology. 2026.

Ever wake up just before your alarm? It might not be a coincidence… It turns out, our brains have a natural way of keeping track of time, an inborn “clock” mechanism, which is synchronised to light in our environment. It’s got the coolest name for such a tiny brain region: the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) - literally, the group of cells (nucleus) above (supra) the optic chiasm (crossing). The SCN is essentially your brain’s “master clock” because it is responsible for coordinating our circadian rhythms. Light-sensitive cells in your eyes send signals to the SCN, which regulates melatonin - a hormone that makes us sleepy - via the pineal gland. Our species evolved to be diurnal, being active in the day and sleeping at night. As a result, daylight inhibits melatonin release, making us more alert. At night, the lack of light promotes melatonin release, making us sleepy. This is why for better sleep hygiene, experts often recommend limiting exposure to electronic devices for at least an hour before bedtime. The light from electronic devices can shift your body clock and this gets aggravated by heightened anxiety associated with doom scrolling -- neither of which helps your sleep. Want to support your brain’s internal clock? A few simple habits can make a big difference: 👉 Get natural sunlight in the morning. This helps reset your body clock. 👉 Stick to a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends. 👉 Limit screens at least an hour before bed. 👉 Keep your bedroom dark and cool to promote better sleep. BTW, in teenagers melatonin starts to be produced later at night, which is why many teenagers don’t feel sleepy until much later in the evening. It’s also the reason they struggle to get up in the morning. For teens, going to school early is a bit like forcing them into a different time zone during the week and only letting them reset on weekends. When your teenager sleeps in on the weekends, bear in mind they are dealing with a genuine biological change in their circadian rhythm during the teenage years. So when you wake right before your alarm, blame (or credit!) your suprachiasmatic nucleus for being such a good time keeper! Understanding our biology helps us work with our natural rhythms rather than against them. How do you optimize your daily schedule around your circadian patterns?

I have been teaching for years that REM sleep is when the brain finds emotional balance, recalibrating the physiological reaction to yesterday’s emotionally difficult moments. People usually just nod politely. This week, a new study adds more evidence. Researchers experimentally fragmented REM sleep in healthy adults without diminishing total sleep time (a really cool procedure, by the way!). Participants still slept about seven hours at normal efficiency. The researchers then tested whether they could physiologically habituate to emotional stimuli the next day. Fragmenting REM sleep impaired overnight habituation of a heart rate measure of stress called the cardiac deceleration response (at 24 hours and again at 48 hours). The degree of impairment tracked alpha-power intrusions over parieto-occipital regions during the stimulated REM sleep, tying a behavioral effect to a specific cortical signature. The leaders among you will recognize the feeling, I'm sure. You wake up and the meeting from yesterday is still lit up in your chest, and you can't seem to find the off switch. The thing to understand here is that REM fragmentation is invisible. You managed to sleep for seven hours. Maybe your sleep tracker even reported 87 percent. You feel tired but nothing alarming, and yet your nervous system is carrying Friday’s unprocessed emotional load into Monday. Common culprits for REM fragmentation include alcohol in the second half of the night when REM is heaviest, late caffeine, untreated mild sleep apnea, a baby monitor, a partner who moves a lot, a phone that buzzes, and, of course, stress itself. Small perturbations like these have real consequences. If your emotional resilience has felt disproportionately off lately, the explanation may have less to do with character and more to do with sleep continuity. We're actively working in my lab to ameliorate this with targeted reactivation of the relaxation response during sleep. Paper: Viselli et al., Sleep, April 2026. DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsaf409

Sleep is not just rest. It is active maintenance for your brain. Research shows that during sleep, the brain activates the glymphatic system, a network responsible for clearing metabolic waste and toxins that accumulate throughout the day. This process is significantly more active during deep sleep, when brain cells shrink slightly to allow fluid to flow more efficiently and wash away byproducts like beta amyloid, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease. When sleep is cut short or disrupted, this clearance process is reduced, allowing waste to build up over time. Studies consistently link poor sleep with cognitive decline, impaired memory, and increased neurological risk. The brain cannot perform this level of cleanup while you are awake. Sleep is not downtime. It is essential biological housekeeping that protects long term brain health. (Science Magazine; Xie et al. 2013; National Institutes of Health)

Over the past couple of years, I've interviewed several sleep professors and physicians. They've shared a LOT of sleep tips with me. Being the lab rat psychologist I am, I tested them all. On myself. At this point, I have tried everything short of sleeping upside down like a bat. Many sleep tips failed to shift the dial. But three strategies genuinely transformed my sleep. Tip #1: Sleep LESS to sleep better This one surprised me. When I was struggling with insomnia, I was told: the worst thing you can do is spend more time in bed. Instead, less time in bed is the trick. Sleep restriction therapy (which I wrote about in The Health Habit) works like this: If you're only sleeping 6 hours but spending 9 hours in bed, restrict your bed time to 6 hours. Your sleep efficiency skyrockets. Then gradually increase it over the course of a few weeks. Tip #2: The 3-2-1 Rule 3 hours before bed: No more food 2 hours before bed: No more work 1 hour before bed: No screens (Kindle doesn't count) "But Amantha, I need to scroll the socials at 11pm!" (Said no well-rested person ever). Tip #3: Wake within the same 30-minute window every day Yes, even on weekends. I can hear you groaning. Let me explain. This is the cure to "social jetlag". Your circadian rhythm doesn't care that it's Saturday. When you sleep in for "just 2 more hours," you're essentially giving yourself jet lag. I wake between 6-6:30am every single day. No exceptions. The payoff? I fall asleep easily, wake naturally, and haven't needed an alarm in months (except when I have a ridiculously early How I Work podcast interview to get up for). What's your most effective sleep hack? Or are you still searching for the holy grail of good sleep? #SleepScience #ProductivityHacks #EvidenceBasedWellbeing

I once blanked during a $200K pitch meeting. → Not stage fright. → Sleep deprivation. After 14 days of 4-hour nights, I couldn't recall our core offering that I'd personally designed. The prospect's expression said it all: "If he can't remember his own product..." Sleep isn't a performance hack for founders. It's your primary strategic asset. The research most founders ignore: 1. Decision quality erodes before energy   • Your frontal cortex (judgment center) deteriorates first   • You make increasingly poor calls while feeling "fine" 2. Recovery follows a 3:1 ratio   • After my sleep collapse, it took 21 days to rebuild my strategic capacity   • Each week of deficit demands three weeks of repair 3. Leadership patterns create company culture   • When I implemented mandatory offline hours, error rate dropped 26%   • Your sleep discipline shapes organizational performance 4. The blind spot effect   • Sleep-deprived brains can't self-diagnose their impairment   • The biggest decisions deserve your clearest thinking The ultimate competitive edge isn't working harder. It's having clarity when your competitors are operating in a cognitive fog. Which is more important: your 11PM emails or your 9AM strategic decisions? ps: you might like this: https://lnkd.in/g7i6WdCq