Sleep: The Most Underrated Part of Your Fitness

I Started Taking Sleep Seriously. My WHOOP Noticed.

I turned 36 in June.

According to my driver's license, anyway.

According to my WHOOP, I'm now 29.

I'll take it. 😂

If you're not familiar with WHOOP, it's a wearable fitness and health tracker that monitors things like sleep, recovery, strain, and heart rate data. It uses that information to give you a picture of how your body is responding to your lifestyle and training.

One of the metrics it gives me is WHOOP Age, which is an estimate based on several health and fitness metrics. It is not the same thing as your actual biological age. It's simply a WHOOP metric that gives me another way to look at trends in my health and fitness.

And here's what caught my attention:

As I've become more consistent with my sleep and my wind-down routine, I've watched my WHOOP Age continue to go down.

I turned 36 in June.

My WHOOP Age is now 29.

I can't tell you that better sleep caused that number to change. There are a lot of factors that go into it.

But I can tell you that the improvement in my sleep has happened alongside a trend I really like seeing.

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And it has made me pay a lot more attention to something we tend to overlook when we're trying to get healthier:

Sleep.

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We talk constantly about workouts.

Protein.

Steps.

Calories.

Strength training.

Supplements.

But sleep?

We often treat it like something we'll get around to when everything else is done.

I've been guilty of this myself.

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It's Not Just About How Many Hours You Sleep

Obviously, getting enough sleep matters. Most adults need around 7–9 hours of sleep per night.

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But there's another piece that doesn't get nearly as much attention:

Consistency.

When do you go to bed?

When do you wake up?

How much do those times change from one day to the next?

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Research on sleep regularity is pretty compelling. Studies have found that more consistent bedtimes and wake times are generally associated with better health outcomes. Sleep regularity research

Another large study looking at more than 60,000 people found that sleep regularity was a strong predictor of mortality risk and, in their models, was more predictive than sleep duration. Large study on sleep regularity

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That's important.

Because you can technically get your eight hours while having a completely chaotic sleep schedule.

Midnight one night.

9:30 the next.

Sleep until 10 on Saturday.

Up at 5:30 Monday.

Your body doesn't necessarily love that kind of inconsistency.

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So I Started Treating Sleep Like a Habit

One of the biggest changes I've made is having an actual wind-down routine.

I don't just work until I'm exhausted and then expect my brain to immediately shut off.

I try to stop working.

I give myself time to wind down.

I read.

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I go to bed at roughly the same time.

And I wake up at roughly the same time.

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It's not perfect.

Life happens.

Kids happen.

Schedules change.

Sometimes the cat decides everyone needs to be awake at 2 a.m.

That's life.

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The goal isn't perfection.

The goal is consistency.

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And my WHOOP data has given me some pretty interesting feedback.

Since turning 36 in June, my WHOOP Age has continued moving downward, and I'm currently sitting at 29.

Again, I'm not saying sleep is the reason that number changed.

But improving my sleep has happened alongside a trend I really like seeing.

And that is enough to make me keep paying attention.

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Think About How We Treat Babies

Here's the funny part.

We understand this instinctively with babies.

We create bedtime routines.

Bath.

Pajamas.

Book.

Dark room.

Same general bedtime.

We do all of this because we understand that a predictable routine helps their bodies and brains prepare for sleep.

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Then we become adults and somehow decide:

"I'll just stay up until I'm tired."

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Your Sleep Routine Doesn't Have to Be Complicated

You don't need a perfect nighttime routine.

Start small.

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Pick a consistent bedtime.

Pick a consistent wake-up time.

Give yourself 20–30 minutes to wind down.

Put the phone down.

Read a few pages.

Take a shower.

Stretch.

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Whatever helps your brain recognize:

We're done for the day.

And then do it again tomorrow.

And the next day.

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Because health isn't built from one perfect day.

It's built from what you do consistently.

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The same thing we tell our members about training applies to sleep:

You don't need perfection. You need a plan you can actually stick to.

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Your workout is important.

Your nutrition is important.

Your recovery is important.

But don't overlook the thing you're supposed to spend roughly a third of your life doing.

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Sleep isn't wasted time.

It's part of the plan.

Sleep more.

Recover better.

Show up tomorrow.

And maybe, just maybe, we can start aging a little better along the way.

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