The #1 Health Habit You're Ignoring – Explained
Rich Roll
May 22, 2025
Mindsip insights from this episode:
Prioritize sleep to maintain youthful testosterone levels
Limiting a healthy young male to four or five hours of sleep drops their testosterone to the level of someone 10 years their senior.
Verify melatonin supplement dosages for safety
Studies on over-the-counter melatonin found the dosage can range from 80% less to over 460% more than what is stated on the bottle.
Reconsider afternoon coffee to avoid sleep disruption
Caffeine has a quarter-life of 10-12 hours, meaning a 2 PM coffee is equivalent to drinking a quarter of a cup right before you turn out the lights at midnight.
Reform medical residency to end sleep deprivation tradition
The tradition of sleep-depriving medical residents was established by William Halstead, who was able to endure long hours because he was a cocaine addict.
Prioritize sleep to protect muscle while dieting
When you are sleep-deprived but dieting, 70% of all the weight you lose will come from lean muscle mass and not fat.
Prioritize deep sleep to activate brain's glymphatic cleaning system
During deep sleep, the brain's glymphatic system activates to wash away toxic proteins like beta-amyloid, the buildup of which is linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Prioritize sleep to maintain immune function
After a single night of only four hours of sleep, there is a 70% drop in critical anti-cancer fighting immune cells called natural killer cells.
Prioritize sleep to protect gene activity and immune function
Just one week of sleeping only six hours a night can distort the activity of over 700 genes, suppressing your immune system and promoting tumors.
Avoid waking up early to preserve REM sleep
Waking up two hours early from an eight-hour sleep schedule can result in losing 50-70% of your total REM sleep for that night.
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