I Didn't Think Much About My Sleep
Like most of you reading this, I didn't think much about my sleep. I closed my eyes when lying in bed at night, and opened them up 6 or 7 hours later. I really didn't think about what my body and my heart were doing in those 6 hours. Then I started wearing a WHOOP.
I learned a whole new vocabulary — HRV, RHR, SWS, REM — these were all new and foreign terms to me, so I learned what they meant. I also learned that while the quantity of my sleep was easy to measure, the quality was a lot harder and more complicated.
Learning the Language of Sleep
I started learning what these metrics actually meant. Higher HRV is better — I learned what a reasonable HRV was for someone my age. Same with RHR, my overnight resting heart rate. I learned that sleep comes in multiple phases, and that REM and Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) are when your body repairs and restores itself.
Suddenly I wasn't just tracking "hours slept" — I had specific targets to optimize for. It wasn't about getting eight hours anymore. It was about improving the quality of those hours.
Small Changes, Big Impact
I also learned some tricks along the way. For example, that water intake during the day can help boost HRV — so now I drink 2-3 liters of water every day. It boosted my HRV by about 10 percent. I learned that sleeping in a different bed and air travel (even without jetlag) can both impact your normal sleep patterns.
I also learned that sleeping with a weighted or heavier blanket can help lower stress during sleep as well as boost restorative sleep. I literally got a 10% bump in restorative sleep alone from this.
The Sleep and Weight Loss Connection
More importantly, when I went through my second big weight loss during the COVID pandemic, it is not lost on me that I slept an average of 30-45 minutes more per night. Since we were all remote, no one had commute time, and no one had to rush out of the house to an office or school. While I didn't have a WHOOP back then, it did dawn on me that better sleep can also lead to more weight loss.
The data backs this up — sleep affects everything from hunger hormones to recovery to decision-making around food. When I'm well-rested, I make better choices. When I'm sleep-deprived, I reach for quick energy from sugar and carbs.
Eating and Sleep Don't Mix
Eating has an impact on sleep as well. I noticed the nights where I ate significant calories less than 3 hours before bedtime I saw a lot of metrics drop off. I now do my best to target finishing dinner at least 3 hours before bedtime.
This was one of the harder habits to change, but the data made it undeniable. Late meals meant worse sleep quality, lower HRV, and feeling less recovered the next morning.
Do You Need WHOOP for This?
While you certainly don't need a WHOOP to see these results — it certainly helps you quantify your improvements over time, and I highly recommend it.
The difference is that without data, I would have made these changes based on how I "felt" — which is subjective and easy to dismiss. With WHOOP, I could see the exact impact of each change. Water intake boosting HRV by 10%? That's not a feeling, that's a fact. And facts are a lot harder to ignore.
The Books That Helped
A lot of the science behind why these changes work came from books I found through the WHOOP podcast. These are the ones that actually moved the needle for me:
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