For some people, six hours of sleep is a huge win despite the 7-9 hour guideline. In this post we dig into why sleep duration guidelines exist, what chronic low sleep is linked to (from mood and performance to long-term cognitive health), and why "I've always slept bad" isn't the same as "this isn't affecting me." Then we get practical: how to work with six hours instead of obsessing over eight, why quality often matters more than quantity, and how nutrition, training, and stress quietly impact sleep. We also cover when it's time to go beyond habit tweaks and involve a sleep study or medical support. No shame, no sleep virtue signaling. Just a nuanced conversation about protecting your health when perfect sleep isn't on the table.

Sleep. People aren’t getting enough. And that’s not an exaggeration. People are not sleeping nearly as long or as well as their bodies need. Our bodies NEED it to function, to recover, to fulfill our potential each day.

Deep sleep is a period of sleep when your brain waves are at their lowest frequency. This is when it is hardest to wake you up. Usually, people get spurts of it within the first couple of hours of the night. Some with genetic mutations are able to get more deep sleep, but studies are showing that around 20% of deep sleep for adults is optimal. This equates to around 1.5 hours a night or more. You can track deep sleep through tracking devices such as an Oura ring, Fitbit, Whoop, and other brands. You may be able to tell if you’re not getting enough deep sleep if you’re waking up a lot early on in the night, not feeling rested in the mornings, even with 8+ hours of consistent sleep every night.

There is a myriad of chemicals, amino acids, enzymes, nutrients, and hormones that work together to help regulate our sleep cycle and improve the quality of our sleep. These include, but aren’t limited to…