Prioritize reconnecting with your natural circadian rhythms, as this alignment is the fundamental basis for your overall health and ensures that other efforts like nutrition and exercise are not layered on inefficiency.
Strive for a stable sleep-wake timing, keeping variability to around 30 minutes, as this is identified as the most important behavior for optimizing health and longevity, leading to higher psychological functioning and stronger physiological markers.
Wake up at the same time every day and immediately get out into natural light for at least 5-10 minutes, as this is critical for setting your circadian rhythm and ensuring melatonin drops at the appropriate time for sleep.
Minimize viewing light after the sun sets, as this puts enormous stress on your body, confuses your internal clocks, and creates misalignment that can suppress your immune system and impact mental health.
Protect the time frame between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. by avoiding light exposure, because chronic viewing of light during these hours negatively impacts your dopamine system, affecting motivation, reward, and focus the following day.
Pay close attention to the timing of when you view light, restrict light, eat, sleep, wake up, and are active, as these timings are central to entraining your circadian rhythm and overall health and longevity.
Align your external behaviors with your natural internal preferences and the light-dark cycle, as this is the most prominent cue to entrain your circadian rhythms and create alignment, reducing stress on your system.
Ensure you get enough natural light in the morning as the sun comes up, as not doing so confuses your system and contributes to circadian misalignment.
Understand that your daytime behaviors directly dictate your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and achieve restorative sleep at night; therefore, focus on circadian alignment for better sleep quality.
Focus on the four foundational pillars of health: food, movement, sleep, and relaxation, because dialing these in can often resolve many symptoms that might otherwise be attributed to specific conditions.
Aim to spend a minimum of 67 minutes outdoors daily, as this is considered the minimum effective dose for humans and significantly impacts mental health, skin health, vitamin D levels, mood, and alertness.
If you identify as a night owl and experience negative consequences, try to shift your chronotype by cutting out evening light, eating dinner earlier, and getting up early to go outside, as many find they can adapt to a morning lark pattern.
For night shift workers, sleep as close to the end of your shift as possible, as this protocol seems to be the best for getting the most hours of consolidated and restorative sleep.
If working night shifts, try to minimize light exposure in the lead-up to bed using sunglasses and hats (safely), because light to the eye will wake up your system.
Night shift workers should aim for a minimum of seven hours of consolidated sleep, and upon waking, work out, have a meal, be active, and catch up with family before your next shift.
Consider incorporating AG1, a daily health drink, into your routine to support digestion and enrich your gut microbiome with beneficial bacteria and plant-based compounds.