Happy Thursday, Zapien 👋

As our community continues to grow, we're amazed every day by the sheer amount of expertise and experience in all things health & longevity that all of you bring to the discussion.

That's why we're excited to launch Community Expert Quests: 1-2 week programs focused on a specific longevity topic. Get tips from community experts and learn & grow as a group.

A good night's sleep can add years to your life - so join us in making March the month we finally get the hang of sleeping well.

Learn more about our first Sleep Quest and how to join below.

Forever,
Lisa, Karol & Simon

TODAY’S ISSUE

LONGEVITY BEAT

If you want to optimize your health, it comes as no surprise that sleep will be one of your top concerns to tackle. Sleeping well ensures optimum recovery while low sleep quality can have tremendous negative effects on your health.

How does sleep affect your health?

Our bodies thrive by following a specific circadian rhythm, and sleep is an important part of that. As important as eating well and exercising, sleep enables many important biological processes that your body needs.

Here are just a few of the things a good night's sleep does for your body:

Sleep disruption causes cellular stress (such as mitochondrial and oxidative stress) and damages DNA. Poor sleep hygiene creates inflammatory processes that you want to control.

Low quality sleep or sleep deprivation has many direct & indirect effects, a strong negative impact on your willingness to work-out and lowered resistance to eating bad foods during the day are just two of them.

What is good sleep?

Good sleep hygiene is when you have a consistent wake-up and go-to-bed time, with minimal sleep disturbances and nighttime awakenings.

Make sure you get enough sleep: Science is still debating what the best average amount of sleep is, but most findings round it up to 7-9 hours of sleep and as much as 10 hours for athletes. This allows your body to go through all the sleep stages properly.

Three non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stages and one rapid eye movement (REM) stage make up a sleep cycle. When you sleep, you typically go through 4-6 cycles per night, with different durations for each stage:

1. NREM 1: Lasting only a few minutes, the first stage is the transition from wakefulness to sleep where you can be easily awakened.

2. NREM 2: In this second stage, your body starts to relax more deeply. Your heart rate slows, and body temperature drops, preparing you for deep sleep.

3. NREM 3 (Deep sleep): Deep sleep is crucial for physical recovery and immune function. As the name suggests, it's harder to be awakened from.

4. REM sleep: REM sleep is when most dreaming happens. It’s essential for cognitive functions such as memory, learning and creativity. Your brain is active, but your muscles are temporarily paralyzed.

Aside from sleep duration, there are different key metrics that can help determine whether you're getting restful sleep. Here are some important indicators:

You can track those and other metrics using a sleep tracking device such as Whoop, Oura, Apple watch etc. We’re diving into the limits and possibilities in this week’s product section.

(Guest Author: Alexandra)

COMMUNITY EXPERT QUEST: SLEEP

Do you want to improve your sleep? Get tips from community experts and learn & grow as a group in our first Expert Quest!

WORTH A READ

RECOMMENDED

“A sleep tracker is an anti-aging device with one of the highest ROIs” (Dave Asprey).

What is the best sleep tracker for you?

As always, it’s very hard to define best. Daily user experience (aka comfort, ease of use…), tracking accuracy and price all play a role. Your options are:

a) Wearables like rings, wristbands, smartwatches & headbands
b) Mattresses

In general, we think less is more and would advise getting a high quality wearable that can also track your workouts and vitals like heart rate throughout the day. Usually that's not a headband, sorry Muse (S Gen 2 €/$ 400).

The popular pro biohacker sentiment is that Oura (€/$ 330+), Whoop (€/$ 264+) and maybe Ultrahuman (Air €/$ 350) are most accurate for sleep tracking (reliably based on lots of anecdotal evidence 🤓).

Yet Garmin’s (Forerunner 165 €/$ 280+), Apple’s (SE €/$ 280+) & Google’s (Pixel Watch 2 €/$ 400+) smartwatches also do the job well enough for what’s possible (see below). Your decision will depend on how much you value other features that these smartwatches bring to the table with their digital ecosystems.

We can’t find any evidence that tracking mattresses (eg. Withings Sleep Analyzer €/$ 150) outperform the mentioned wearables.

How do they work?

Sleep tracking devices do not track sleep directly, but rather your physical activity during the night and some additional vital signs such as body temperature and heart rate. From this data, their algorithms calculate your sleep statistics. Good devices usually have these sensors:

• Infrared (photoplethysmography/PPG) sensor for heart rate & respiratory rate

• Temperature sensor

• Accelerometer sensor for movement

How accurate is the tracking?

Of course, they can't be as good as lab-based sleep studies, which use EEGs to measure brain activity. By comparison, the more pragmatic daily devices give a fairly accurate picture of your average sleep duration (distinguishing only two states: "awake" and "asleep").

Despite their marketing claims, however, they're far less accurate at tracking sleep stages (especially "REM" and "non-REM" sleep). Still, the individual trend for you is valid.

ZAPIEN PROTOCOL

Felix (Austria)

➤ Sleep:
I try to exercise every day so that I can sleep well. I eat my last meal by 8 pm at the latest and avoid blue light from then on. I use Philips Scene Switch bulbs so I don't have to think about light intensity. To wind down, I usually play a game of darts. I also like to read by candlelight (and if I ever watch Netflix, I use blue light blocking glasses). I go to bed at the same time every day - 10 pm.

➤ Workout:
I do everything sports related so that I stay healthy and can be there for my future family whenever they need me.
My routine consists of 3x per week trail running for 10-15km, 2x per week resistance training at home, focusing on full body workouts and HIIT, 1x per week kettlebell training to improve core stability and maximum strength and 2x per month bouldering.

➤ Supplements:
I do not supplement as much as other Zapiens in the community. I’ve found through trial and error that some supplements work for me, while others do not. One that I consume daily is a mixture of hot water, lemon and Himalayan salt. I also take one B12 capsule. That's it. I get everything else I need through my diet, which contains all the necessary nutrients. I eat slowly and am mindful of how much I chew my food.

HEALTH & LONGEVITY NEWS

ABOUT US

Lisa has a PhD in Medical Biology. She was a researcher at Harvard Medical before developing D2C laboratory diagnostics.

Karol is a serial founder who helped thousands of people build healthy eating habits with Upfit.

Simon is a healthcare entrepreneur who brought the doctor online-booking service Doctolib to Germany.

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Health Disclaimer

New Zapien’s products and services are not intended to substitute for professional medical guidance. Our content and media offerings do not aim to diagnose, cure, or address any medical issues.