Habit 1. Optimize your sleep

80/20 Health Habits: 7 High-Leverage Actions for Better Health (Series) | Exclusively for members of Club 12 with Dean Bokhari

Dean Bokhari

Jun 20, 2026

∙ Paid

Welcome to Day 1 of 80/20 Health Habits! In this seven-part series, we’re going to cover the seven highest leverage actions you can take to optimize your health — so you can perform at your peak at home, at work, and everywhere in between.

Each day, I’ll give you one powerful move that delivers a disproportionate payoff for your health, energy, and well-being.

Ready to dive in?

Let’s go…

^{Health Habit #1}Optimize your sleep

80/20 health-habit numero uno is like that first domino that, once you knock it over, can set of a cascade of powerful health benefits… If you don’t knock this one down, none of the other things I share with you in this series will even matter.

You need to optimize your sleep.

If you aren’t getting deep sleep consistently, everything else suffers. Your body won’t absorb nutrients as well as it could. Your mental sharpness takes a hit. Your emotional regulation drops, your nervous system suffers, and your overall health declines.

In fact, research shows that just two nights of restricted sleep can make you feel an average of 4.4 years older than your actual chronological age.1

Bottom line: optimizing your sleep is crucially important.

Here’s the highest-leverage way to build your very own deep sleep habit…

Develop a nightly wind-down ritual

Quality sleep thrives on a predictable rhythm. To prepare your mind and body for a solid night’s rest, begin implementing a nightly wind-down ritual — about 30 to 60 minutes before you ideally want to go to sleep.

I rise at 5:00 AM every morning, so I like to start getting ready for bed around 8:30 or 9:00 PM to ensure I get a good night’s rest.

My wife is on a similar schedule, so each night, about an hour before bed, we start setting the vibe—both for ourselves, as well as for our children…

We reduce stimulation by dimming the lights throughout the house, putting away the screens, and turning on the white-noise machine. Doing this creates a calming environment that’s conducive to sleep.

Here’s what a solid wind-down ritual looks like:

Dim the lights. Any bright light tells your brain, “Hey, it’s time to wake up.” Dim the lights in your house to signal to your body that the day is ending.
Eliminate blue light before bed. Exposure to blue light before bed has been shown to negatively impact sleep quality by significantly reducing the proportion of deep sleep your body gets.2 … Translation: put away the screens. Your brain has a hard time distinguishing the difference between the blue light from your phone or TV and the actual sun. If you must use a screen, use an e-ink tablet that doesn’t emit blue light. Some smartphones and tablets also have “night mode” that supposedly eliminates sleep-inhibiting blue light — try it.
Set the vibes, baby. Put on some calming music and turn on a white noise machine. Spray some lavender oil. Brew some of that sleepy-bear chamomile tea. Do whatever you need to do to put yourself in a relaxed state, both mentally and physically.

Actionable insights

Here are some practical, tactical ways to get the rest you need, so you can achieve the success you want:

Aim for 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Make deep, consistent sleep your ultimate daily priority to protect your physical health and mental sharpness.
Lock in a set wake-up time. Wake up at the exact same time every single morning—weekends included—to build a naturally predictable sleep rhythm. Your body will adjust surprisingly quickly; and once it knows when it’s supposed to wake up, it’ll eventually learn exactly when it needs to fall asleep. If you don’t already have a consistent wake-up time in place, set one up.
Build a 30—to—60-minute wind-down ritual. Start prepping for bed up to an hour before you want to sleep to signal your body and brain that the day is done.
Dim the lights and eliminate blue light. Turn down the house lights and put away the screens. If you must read on a screen, stick to e-ink devices… If you can’t discipline yourself to do that, get a pair blue-light blocking glasses.
Set the vibe. Turn on a white noise machine and/or play calming music to set the tone for your household.

Hard time falling asleep?

If you have a hard time falling asleep, you’re not alone. It’s something I’ve struggled with in the past as well. Try some (or all) of the following actionable insights:

Use the physiological sigh.
While lying in bed, do a breathing exercise called the physiological sigh to calm your heart rate, relax your body and brain, and dissipate any anxiety that keeps you up. Here’s how it goes:
1. Take one deep inhale through your nose.
2. Right at the top of that breath, add one more quick inhale.
3. Then, exhale slowly through the mouth.
- Repeat three times. By the third release, you’ll be noticeably relaxed and primed for sleep.

Offload your thoughts.
If you find that your mind runs a lot before bed and keeps you from falling asleep, you need to get those thoughts out of your head. One way to do that is to keep a notebook by your bed so you can clear your mind and get a quality night of sleep. The idea behind this technique is simple: you want to get the racing thoughts that keep you awake and put your nervous system on alert, out of your head and onto paper so you can fully disconnect. What you’re basically doing here, is tricking your brain into believing that those thoughts are safely stored somewhere outside your mind—which means you can let it go and nod off.
Read to wind down.
Read a few pages of a book once you get into bed to relax your mind.
Use habit ramps (this one’s underrated).
Set yourself up for a frictionless morning by setting up what I call “habit ramps” every night. Before I go to bed, I like to ensure I’ve got a few things in place for the moment I rise, including: a liter of water on my nightstand, and a glass bottle pre-filled with my pre-workout powder mix (BCAAs + creatine). That way, I can wake up, drink my water, shake up my pre-workout, take my vitamins, and get right to my morning workout. Never underestimate the power of preparation. It can be the difference between a restful or restless night of sleep… Think of it this way: if you lay down in bed and begin ruminating over everything you need to do in the morning, will it help or hurt your deep sleep efforts?
Cool the room down.
Drop your thermostat to between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Your body needs a cool environment for optimal rest, because your core body temp. must naturally drop by 1 to 2 degrees to trigger the release of melatonin and sustain deep, restorative slow-wave sleep.3