Habits

All the things I do to live longer:

Focus on sleep

Sleep is essential for your body to recover and recovery is essential to avoid early breakdown of any part of the system.

Things I do to maximize sleep efficiency (how much sleep I actually get out from the bedtime) and effectiveness (how much of sleep time is restorative: REM and DEEP. Healthy is in the range of 30-50%):

  • Regular bedtimes. Go to sleep at 10pm, wake up at 5:30am every day, weekday and weekend.

  • Go for a morning walk with my dog, rain or shine. Fresh air and early sunlight in the eyes helps regulate my circadian rhythm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751071/

  • Night-mode on every device after sunset

  • Avoid looking at screen before bedtime and in bed. I usually spend the last 30 minutes of the day tech-less. Preparing and programming coffee for the morning, clean up kitchen, take supplements, brush teeth, turn off lights, etc.

  • Avoid processed food before bed time (and in general as well, but who can say no to a pizza?). Having a movie night with my wife and eating a pizza usually lowers my sleep effectiveness from 30% to about 5%

  • Sleep in "cold". I don't wear pajamas, sleep in boxer shorts and a light blanket, every season. Temp was usually 65F but we increased that to 69F since Tobi was born.

  • Avoid alcohol.

  • Limit caffeine intake, especially after 2pm. Interestingly a coffee between 1-2pm will increase my HRV and have a better recovery according to Whoop.

Move

I used to avoid physical activity like it's poison. And then one day I looked at a photo of myself and realized my mortality. I try to have at leasts 3 hours of movement in my life every week since. There is some seasonality to this, sometimes I work out 5 days a week, sometimes juts 1 or 2.

Huge fan of CrossFit, both competitive and every-day mom-pop workout style.

Love to hike, especially with my puppy around.

Measure things

  • Yearly full bloodwork

  • Quarterly bloodwork for vitamins

  • Whoop 24/7 for sleep and exercise

  • CGM for blood sugar

I find it really useful that Whoop and CGM will scream the consequences of my actions into my face. It holds my accountable for them.

Make things happen

Or whatever is your measurement for you for success. Over the years I realized that what makes me feel successful is to make things happen. Let that be a large or a small project, work related or just a new personal record on my deadlift, overcoming hurdles and achieving a goal makes me feel successful.

This study showed that feeling successful is an important part of being a centenarian: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26205318/

Socialize

Now I do agree that having this listed as a habit feels forced, but I am so anti social that I have to force myself to organize gathering with friends and family (which I truly enjoy) because these gatherings are not happening by themselves due to how far do we live. I also work remotely and since Tobi was born, my gym time decreased significantly as well.

So yeah, I have to put this on the TODO list and on the calendar. Meeting with someone else than my wife and son at least once a week is mandatory.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26729882/

Read

In terms of longevity, I do think that reading is one of the best motivators to keep doing all the above things. Mostly because reading makes me feel wonder and awe and fills me with hope and anticipation for the future.

Also, you know, it's the #1 information source to keep myself up-to-date with the latest longevity research.