If you care at all about performance, you must prioritize sleep.
“Sleep is the most potent performance enhancing drug there is.
The ‘All Gas No Brakes’ Army will try to convince you otherwise, however, they’re wrong.
‘Up at 4am!’
Nah, sleep as much as you can so that you can be as wildly productive as possible during the hours you’re awake.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I work every day. It’s been this way since 2010.
I’ve tried all the go to bed at midnight, get up at 4am, sleep when I’m dead productivity hacks out there.
I can report to you that they are in fact, excuse my French, Bullshit.
Sure, by going to bed late and waking up early you can purchase more working hours, but they come at the expense of productivity.
I found for myself personally, going to bed around 11pm and getting up at 6am or 7am if I can, is far more effective than the 12am-4am schedule.
I know this comes at the expense of “being tough” and “working while others are sleeping” but I’ve learned that none of that toughness ego façade matters at all.
Success has nothing to do with what time you wake up.
It has everything to do with how productive you are when you’re awake.
Getting up at 5am and going to the gym if you go to bed at 11:30pm is stupid.
Sure you can will yourself to do it, but are you going to have the most effective work out? Did you nourish yourself properly beforehand? How is your productivity the rest of the day?
The “up early and post it to Instagram in an effort to make others inferior” squad doesn’t like to talk about that stuff.
There is no hacking sleep. And there is no shortage of research proving this fact.
This is especially true for our growing youth.
This is why I think (ultra) early morning workouts are idiotic for our kids.
5am workouts? For teenagers?
The ONLY way this would work:
“Guys make sure you go to bed at 8pm, wake up at 4am, have a nutritious breakfast, and get up here by 4:50am!”
Do you think this is honestly what they’re doing?
Of course they’re not.
They’re up playing on tiktok and studying until 11:47pm (aiming early, lol) and then waking up at 4:47, so they can roll into a work out “late” at 5:04.
These “workouts” are useless because they are pouring from an empty cup. And no, they don’t build “mental toughness” they curate resentment.
If you truly care at all about performance, PRIORITIZE, do not minimize sleep.
It’s the most potent performance enhancer out there.
