Ben Greenfield

You don't keep business books by the bedside.

You want a silent room, meaning wax earplugs or slip-in earplugs or some type of ambient sound like white noise.

And then you want a cold room because the body heals better at night when you sleep.

You sleep more deeply when you're not hot.

will paradoxically promote wakefulness.

This is why you should avoid a hard workout or a heavy or spicy meal about three hours prior to bedtime.

And so it's like really cold in the morning is better and then kind of sort of cold in the evening is better.

This is why a lot of people use like the eight sleep or the chili pad to keep their bodies cool while they're asleep.

And there's no reason you couldn't do both.

Like a lot of times since I'm playing tennis or pickleball or doing something fun with my kids in the evening before dinner, a lot of times like right before dinner, I'm just getting into a lukewarm shower or even jumping into the hot tub and letting the ambient air cool me off, which kind of cools you a little bit.

Whenever I check into a hotel room or in my house, I'm selecting anywhere from 64 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit for the ambient sleeping temperature.

There's even hacks like you can wear wool socks.

when you go to bed and that paradoxically cools the rest of the body.

I talk about a lot of these cooling strategies in the book, but interestingly, it turns out that in the evening, like a slightly cold or lukewarm shower is best because if you do a really cold soak or cryotherapy chamber, even though it'll make you cold, the endorphin release that you get from that, the excitatory neurotransmitter release,

But in the evening, I'll do like kind of cold and in the morning, really cold.

And the general rule for sleeping temperature is that like when you get into bed or you take off your clothes to get in the bed, you want to feel like a mild cognitive resistance because it's just a little bit cold, but it's not freezing, shivering cold.

It's just like, okay, this is going to take me a few minutes to warm up or snuggle up with my husband or wife or whatever.

will paradoxically promote wakefulness.

lay in bed and get warmed up a little bit.

And so it's like really cold in the morning is better and then kind of sort of cold in the evening is better.