You and I both know

that the one singular difference

between you and people like

JK Rowling Elon Musk and Saitama

isn't your smarts, it isn't your motivation

and it isn't even your work ethic.

The one difference between you

and them is that you are constantly tired.

Right if not for that one teensy little difference

then you'd easily be able

to crank out a couple of chapters

in the next great American novel each morning

before heading out to fight crime

and lesser tasks like studying for exams

and not subsisting

entirely after Totino's pizza rolls

would be trivially easy

but as it stands you can't do those things

because you are basically a zombie.

Well maybe not like a literal zombie

like in that one episode of Space Dandy

but the similarities are mounting.

You got bags under your eyes.

You feel sluggish and there's

that inexplicable craving for raw meat

but more importantly

you just don't have the energy

to do the things you want to do

on a daily basis.

So what I want to do today

is explore some methods

for breaking that cycle of constant tiredness

and getting back your daily energy reserves.

Now before we get started

I do want to mention

that I am not talking about conditions

like chronic fatigue syndrome

and SEID which affect millions

of people here in the US alone

and are very difficult to cure

and pin down.

What I am talking about

is that much more common feeling

of general tiredness

that affects many many more people

and is entirely preventable

through adopting healthier habits,

chief among them being to get better sleep.

Now you've probably seen the recommendations

put out by the National Sleep Foundation

about how many hours

you should be sleeping each night

based on your age

but even if you're using those figures

to set your alarm clock

you still might be waking up in the morning

feeling like you just got hit by a truck

and if that's the case

it's probably because you're not

respecting your body's sleep cycle.

See, during the night sleep happens

in several different stages

that each correspond to different levels

of brain activity

and together these are known as the sleep cycle.

Now I'll link to some sources down below

if you want to go more in depth on this

but what you need to know right now

is that if you wake up in the wrong stage

of the sleep cycle

you're gonna feel absolutely awful

and that's a risk you run

when you use an alarm clock.

For most of human history

we didn't have access to alarm clocks

or electric lights for that matter.

Our sleep patterns were much more

in tune with the cycle of day and night

and they're also governed

by the body's sleep cycle itself.

Someone living before the invention

of the alarm clock

would almost always wake up

at the completion of a sleep cycle

unless they were disturbed by something

like a rooster's crow

or an invasion of Mongol's.

And because of that

they'd almost always wake up

feeling well-rested.

By contrast if you let alarm clocks

startle you awake in the middle of a sleep cycle

then you're gonna be waking up in Zombie mode.

As Pierce J Howard put it in his book

The Owners Manual for the Brain,

a person who sleeps only four cycles

or six hours will feel more rested

than someone who has slept

for eight to ten hours

but who has not been allowed

to complete any one cycle

because of being wakened

before it was completed.

Now each of these sleep cycles

takes an average of 90 minutes to complete

and in the past I recommended a site

called sleepytime.me

which uses that number to help you figure out

when you should wake up

based on your bedtime.

But one thing I've learned recently

is that this 90 minute figure

really is just an average

and it can vary by up to 30 minutes

in either direction.

So instead of just setting your alarm

based on that 90 minute ballpark figure

you should instead work to figure out

when you naturally wake up.

This might take a while for you learn

but once you know what it is

you can then use your alarm

as a backup method

and ideally you'd wake up

at the completion of your final sleep cycle

before it goes off

in a natural well-rested state.

The alarm is just there to make sure

you do get up on time if something goes wrong.

Of course that also means

you need to get to the habit

of actually going to bed on time

to wake up before that alarm goes off

and if you have trouble doing this

like I do I did make an entire video

that I'll link to in the description down below

but the main key habit you to establish now

is building a winddown ritual.

Basically you want to disengage

from anything you typically get sucked into

well before your bedtime.

For me this means turning off my computer

around 9 p.m.

Each night,

otherwise I'll convince myself

I can answer a couple of emails

and then I'll inevitably get sucked

into a click hole quiz

to see if I have what it takes

to train Freddy Krueger to be a barista.

Spoilers I really really don't.

Now even if you have got

a rock-solid sleep schedule

you might still be suffering

from a couple of problems

that are really common to students

and that are related,

a lack of sunlight exposure

and a lack of exercise.

We're gonna get into some science

here in a second

but first I do want to note

that when I feel tired during the day

when I get those feelings of brain fog

going outside for a 20 minute walk

always works.

It is the number one method

that can get me out of that state.

So I definitely recommend trying it out.

And honestly this makes intuitive sense

because our bodies were designed to move.

Humans used to trek miles

and miles to catch their prey

and even when we turn to agriculture

for food production

that still involved being outside for most a day

doing hard work

and plus you get to wear stylish overalls.

But now a lot of us are sedentary.

We spend a lot of time in chairs

and all the time we sink into screens

and books keeps us indoors

and away from the sun.

And that could be huge contributor

to why you feel so tired.

It might not be as obvious a connection

as it is for plants which need nothing

but sunlight and Brawndo

but make no mistake.

The sun plays a huge role

in maintaining your energy levels.

For one sunlight exposure

helps your body correctly time

its production of melatonin

which is a hormone that helps you go to sleep

and plays a part in maintaining

your circadian rhythm

which helps you stay in sync

with the cycle of day and night.

But sunlight exposure is also

your body's main source of vitamin D

which not only plays a role

in keeping your bones healthy,

keeps your immune system working,

and your lungs working,

but also plays a big role

in helping you avoid fatigue.

A study that was done in 2014

found a high correlation

between vitamin D deficiency and fatigue

as well as a big improvement

in those fatigue symptoms

once patients in the study

got their vitamin D levels back to normal.

Now you might think

that you can just eat better food

to get your vitamin D

but that isn't the case.

While improving your diet

will definitely help your energy levels

in other ways

as Mark Sisson points out in his book

the Primal Blueprint

dietary efforts to obtain vitamin D

are almost inconsequential

compared to sun exposure.

To put some hard numbers behind that

a standard American diet

will get you about 300 IUs or international units

of vitamin D per day

but experts recommend getting around 4,000.

That's a big gap,

but fortunately just going outside for 20 minutes

during the peak months of sun exposure

can easily make up the difference.

Now one thing to note here

is that sun exposure alone

often isn't enough during the winter months

if you don't live near the equator.

It's just not powerful enough

which is why a lot of people

suffer from seasonal affective disorder.

So if that's the case for you

you might also want to look

into a vitamin D supplement

during those months.

But even with those

it is a good idea to try to get outside

in the sun at least a little bit

every single day even if it's for just a quick walk.

And that brings us the topic of exercise.

Now you might be thinking

I'm gonna tell you that the only way

to not feel tired all the time

is to do an intense workout every single day

but luckily that isn't the case.

In fact just doing some low intensity exercise

like going for 20-minute walk outside

like we just said

might even be more effective

at getting rid of those symptoms of fatigue

and brain fog than a more intense workout.

In 2008 researchers

at the University of Georgia did a study

and found that students

who did just 20 minutes of exercise

three times a week had huge improvements

in both their daily energy levels

and their levels of fatigue.

And what's more their improvement

in these areas were actually better

than the group in the study

that did more intense exercise.

So the bottom line is

if you're tired all the time

get some exercise every single day.