Sleep

TOOLS
FOR
FAST E R AN D
B ET T E R S L E E P
T I M FER R IS S
As a former lifelong insomniac, I’ve tried everything to fall asleep
faster and remain asleep longer.
Here are five tricks that work. I deliberately omitted melatonin and
prescription medications, which I don’t use unless adjusting to
large time zone differences. I use the following in the order listed,
starting 60 to 90 minutes before bed.
Omit what you don’t like and try what you do.
( O P T I O NAL )
ACRO BASING
(IF I HAVE A PARTNER WITH ME)
I’ll put them in Folded Leaf and base them for a few minutes. After a day of
sitting, this will push the head of my femur back to where it should be in the
hip. This isn’t undone by the next step.
#1
DE CO M PR E SS
T H E S PIN E
I learned daily decompression from Jerzy Gregorek, a 60-something-year-old emigré from Poland
and world record holder in Olympic weight lifting. He also wrote The Happy Body, which contains the
morning mobility work that both Naval Ravikant and I do on a near-daily basis. Jerzy considers
hanging upside down mandatory after load-bearing training sessions. Keep in mind that Jerzy, at
around 135 pounds body weight, can still throw hundreds of pounds overhead and land in a perfect
ass-to-heels snatch position. Take off a little weight, and he can do the same on a wobble board (Indo
Board). He’s unapologetically and refreshingly no-bullshit. Before my first training session with him,
we sat down to have tea (he only drinks Mariage Frères Marco Polo black tea) and discuss goals.
Midway through, he narrowed his eyes and looked me over. He reached across the table, pinched my
tit, and announced, “You’re too fat.” My kinda guy.
Below are three options, listed in increasing order of safety. My

protocol for any of them is 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 7 seconds and no more:
Teeter EZ-Up Gravity Boots: This is my default and I often hold onto weights (20 to 50
pounds) to increase traction, but gravity boots can be fatal if misused, as you’ll fall on your
1. neck. Do us all a favor and don’t die. Definitely skip this if you can’t easily do a strict pull-up or
touch your toes with straight legs.
Inversion table: I don’t use one myself, but several Special Operations friends swear by daily
2. use. These are advertised on infomercials and are infinitely less likely to kill you than gravity
boots.
The Lynx Portable Back Stretcher or Teeter P3 Back Stretcher: This is a portable gadget
roughly the size of a large camera tripod. I use this several times a week, when it’s too much
hassle (after a late dinner) or risk (after booze) to hang upside down in gravity boots. It allows
3. you to lock in your ankles, lie down, and use a dip-like movement to unlock lower back
tightness. This is the fastest of the three options, but it doesn’t allow you to relax your upper
(thoracic/cervical) back.
#2
C H I L I PAD
This was first introduced to me by Kelly Starrett and Rick Rubin. Rick and I both set it to
the coldest temperature possible about 1 hour prior to bed.scribed next.
Let’s paint a familiar scene. A man and a woman are sleeping in

bed under the same set of sheets and blankets. The woman’s
temperature is running at roughly 700°F, giving off the heat of a
pizza oven. The guy gets sweaty and kicks one leg out and on top
of the sheets. Then he gets cold 10 minutes later and puts the leg
underneath, repeating this cycle ad nauseam. He might even
yank the covers like a child, upsetting the woman. It’s a huge
headache for everybody. Sleep temperature is highly
individualized.
The ChiliPad allows you to put an extremely thin—almost imperceptibly thin—sheet underneath your
normal sheets that circulates water through a bedside contraption at a very precise temperature of
your choosing. There are versions with two zones, so two people side by side can choose different
numbers. Maybe your magic sleeping temperature is 55°F. Or 61°F, or 75°F? If you’re cold, you can
increase the temperature of the ChiliPad underneath you instead of throwing a thick blanket on top
that’s going to make your partner sweat to death. It can modulate between 55 and 110°F. Experiment
and find your silver bullet.
Several of my close friends in Silicon Valley sheepishly admitted that, of all the advice I’ve ever given in
my books and podcasts, the ChiliPad had the biggest impact on their quality of life. Several others
have said the same about honey + ACV, described next
#3
H ON E Y + APPLE
C I D E R V I NE GAR
or Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime Tea or California Poppy Extract
Your mileage may vary, but usually at least
one of these will work.
Honey + ACV:
My go-to tranquilizer beverage is simple: 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg brand) and 1
tablespoon honey, stirred into 1 cup of hot water. This was taught to me by the late and great Seth
Roberts, PhD. Some of his readers also noticed large and immediate strength improvements in
exercise after a few days of using this pre-bed cocktail.
Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime Tea:

If you’re trying to avoid sugar (honey), this is an alternative. The packaging of this tea is targeted
toward women to a comical degree. I recall dismissing it when an ex-girlfriend first offered me some,
thinking it was for menstrual cramps. A few nights later, little Timmy found himself alone craving a
hot beverage with flavor. I grabbed the caramel, let it brew for 5 minutes, and polished it off. 10
minutes later, I started getting wobbly, and then I felt like Leonardo DiCaprio in the pay phone scene
from The Wolf of Wall Street. In the most awkward fashion possible, I dragged my ass to the bedroom
and fell asleep. It was around 9 p.m. Note: This tea appears to affect only 30% of my readers this way.
California Poppy Extract:

If both honey + ACV and Yogi Bedtime Tea fail, try plan C: a few drops of California poppy extract in
warm water. Yogi Bedtime Tea does contain California poppy extract, but taking it directly allows you
to increase the dose.
#4
V I S UAL
OV E RW RI TI NG
“Visual overwriting” is what I do right before bed
to crowd out anything replaying or looping in my
mind that will inhibit sleep (e.g., email, to-do lists,
an argument, “I should have said . . .”).
Here are two specific tools that I’ve found effective:
10 minutes of Tetris Short and uplifting

before bed: episodic television:
This recommendation is from Jane I’ll offer just one recommendation here:
McGonigal, PhD. The free version works Escape to River Cottage, Season One. I’ve
fine. watched this series multiple times. If you’ve
ever fantasized about saying “Fuck it,” quitting
your job, and going back to the land, buy this
as a present for yourself. If you’ve ever
dreamed of getting out of the city and moving
to Montana or God-knows-where rural Utopia,
procuring your own food and so on, then this
is your Scooby snack. It’s endearingly retro,
like a warm quilt from Mom, and host/chef
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will make you
want to grow tomatoes, even if you hate
tomatoes. And catch eels, too. Don’t forget the
eels
#5
I N TO THE
DAR K NE SS
Sleep Master sleep mask
The Sleep Master sleep mask—great product, terrible name. I’ve tried dozens of sleep masks, and this is
my favorite. It was introduced to me by Jeffrey Zurofsky, who was an integral piece of The 4-Hour Chef,
where he appeared as “JZ.” Some of you may recall our “food marathon,” which involved 26.2 dishes in
26 different locations in Manhattan in less than 24 hours. But I digress... The most important feature of
this mask is that it goes over your ears, not on top of them. This may seem minor, but it’s a huge
design improvement: It quiets things down, it doesn’t irritate your ears, and it doesn’t move around.
Furthermore, it uses Velcro instead of elastic to secure the contraption to your head.
Mack’s Pillow Soft Silicone

Putty (ear plugs):
Mack’s Silicone Putty can be used for blocking out snores, water (for swimming), or just about
anything irritating. Comfortable even for side sleepers, they’re soft on your ears, hard on noise.
Marpac Dohm DS “sound conditioner” white noise machine: If earplugs bother you—and they
occasionally bother me—use a Marpac Dohm DS dual-speed sound conditioner white noise machine.
This was introduced to me by readers, and it tunes out everything from traffic (why I bought it) to loud
neighbors, leaky faucets, and fidgety dogs. It currently has nearly 10,000 reviews on Amazon and
~75% are 5 stars. If you want to MacGyver it, a cheap fan (needs to be loud-ish) pointing away from you
can get close.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
TIM FERRISS
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech
investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He
is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journalbestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek,
The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media
have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show,
which has exceeded 300 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years
running.

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TOOLS

faster and remain asleep longer.

prescription medications, which I don’t use unless adjusting to

starting 60 to 90 minutes before bed.

Below are three options, listed in increasing order of safety. My

Let’s paint a familiar scene. A man and a woman are sleeping in

Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime Tea:

California Poppy Extract:

Here are two speciﬁc tools that I’ve found effective:

10 minutes of Tetris Short and uplifting

Mack’s Pillow Soft Silicone

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