Fix Your Sleep: Why Your Evening Routine Matters More Than Your Sleep Tracker
If you're waking up exhausted, relying on caffeine to feel human, or dragging yourself through the day wondering why your energy is so low, you're not alone.
One of the biggest trends we've seen from people taking our Nervous System Assessment is that sleep and energy are major struggles. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people report feeling tired during the day, even when they're technically getting enough hours of sleep.
The good news? Improving your sleep doesn't have to involve expensive supplements, sleep trackers, or complicated biohacks.
Often, the biggest improvements come from something much simpler: creating a consistent evening routine.
Your Evening Routine Starts Your Morning
For years, I resisted the idea of having a bedtime.
I told myself things like:
"I'm an adult."
"I'm an entrepreneur."
"I can stay up as late as I want."
But when I got serious about improving my energy, my workouts, my mood, and my ability to show up as the best version of myself, I had to take an honest look at my sleep habits.
What I realized is that your evening routine is actually the beginning of tomorrow.
The choices you make before bed either prepare your nervous system for recovery or keep it activated long into the night.
When you consistently go to bed at a reasonable hour and create space to unwind, you're setting yourself up for success before the next day even begins.
Why Eight Hours of Sleep Isn't Always Enough
One of the most common things I hear is:
"John, I sleep eight hours every night. Why am I still exhausted?"
The better question is:
What are you doing during the final hour before bed?
Are you:
Scrolling social media?
Watching the news?
Responding to work emails?
Watching intense TV shows?
Bouncing between multiple screens?
If so, your nervous system may still be operating as if it's the middle of the day.
Yes, you may be asleep.
But sleep isn't the same thing as recovery.
When your nervous system is activated right up until bedtime, your body can spend the first few hours of the night simply trying to come down from the stimulation of the day.
That's one reason so many people wake up feeling like they never fully recharged.
Don't Let Technology Replace Your Intuition
At this point, most people start looking for solutions.
They buy an Oura Ring.
They sign up for Whoop.
They start checking their Apple Watch every morning.
And while these devices can provide useful information, there's something important to understand:
They are estimates.
The gold standard for sleep measurement is a laboratory sleep study that tracks brain waves, eye movements, breathing, muscle activity, and more.
Consumer wearables don't measure most of those things directly. Instead, they use algorithms based on movement, heart rate, temperature, and other signals to estimate what's happening while you sleep.
That means your sleep score, recovery score, and deep sleep numbers should be viewed as rough guides—not objective truth.
In fact, many people have had the experience of waking up feeling amazing, only to look at their wearable and see a low recovery score. Suddenly they start questioning how they feel.
Think about that for a moment.
You felt great until a device told you otherwise.
That's where things start to get backwards.
The Missing Piece: Nervous System Regulation
One of the biggest problems in modern health is that we've become disconnected from our own internal signals.
We've been taught to trust devices more than ourselves.
A watch tells us how stressed we are.
A ring tells us how recovered we are.
An app tells us whether we slept well.
But what if you learned how to actually listen to your body again?
This is where nervous system regulation becomes so powerful.
As your nervous system becomes more regulated through practices like meditation, breathwork, quality sleep, movement, and reduced screen time, something interesting happens:
You become more aware.
You begin noticing:
Your energy levels
Your mood
Your focus
Your stress levels
When you need rest
When you need movement
What genuinely supports your well-being
In other words, you develop self-trust.
And self-trust is something no wearable can give you.
The Most Important Sleep Metric
The next time you wake up, before checking your phone or your sleep score, ask yourself:
Do I feel rested?
Am I in a good mood?
Do I have steady energy?
Do I feel clear-headed?
Do I feel ready for the day?
Those answers matter more than any algorithm.
Because the purpose of sleep isn't to generate a score.
The purpose of sleep is to help you feel alive.
Start Here Tonight
If you want better sleep, don't start by buying another gadget.
Start by creating a better final hour of your day.
Put your phone away.
Dim the lights.
Read a book.
Meditate.
Practice breathwork.
Go to bed at a consistent time.
Create signals of safety for your nervous system.
Do that consistently, and you'll likely see more improvement than any sleep tracker could ever provide.
Because ultimately, better sleep isn't about collecting more data.
It's about creating the conditions that allow your body to do what it already knows how to do.
I’m excited to begin sharing work surrounding nervous system health in a new community and creating several ways to get support. Take our nervous system assessment and join the movement of people devoted to “unfcking” their nervous systems!