How I Consistently Get 3-4 Hours of Deep Sleep Every Night (Without Supplements)

In this post, I will discuss how I am able to get 3-4 hours of deep sleep every night, without having to do be a crazy biohacker or anything like that.

This post is not about the benefits or downsides of sleep, nor is it about what is deep sleep, as I have written extensively on those topics in other posts.

Even before I became noticeably sick in 2010, I never felt fully rested, albeit I did of course sleep very well in my adolescent years.

Around 2009, after having a traumatic experience with a toxic relationship, I had fragmented sleep, and then in college a year later, I had to take ambien and other medications to sleep.

Later during my time of when I was experimenting a lot from 2014-2017, I had tried tons of natural remedies that improved my sleep, but never got me anywhere close to where I am today with my sleep, and you can read about all the things I’ve biohacked with and supplemented.

When the 2020 pandemic started and there were lockdowns in Florida, I took the opportunity to buy a 4x4 truck and self-sustaining truck camper, which meant if there was land and nothing obstructing my vehicle, I could drive to it.

Thus, I lived in a truck camper for over a year and a half and had many chances to get away from the plugged-in world and absolutely loved it!

Nothing beats being by yourself, in nature, completely disconnected from the rest of the world.

This was an unbeatable experience and I truly felt what it was like to have a “digital detox”.

Anyway, during that time I had a also owned multiple sleep trackers, including an Oura Ring to test out my sleep habits.

Here are some examples of my deep sleep with screenshots of over 1.5 years, with the different seasons as well.

VOCs, Bedding, and Temperature

Now, keep in mind that these screenshots are from different times of year, with variable temperatures, and no climate control, as I do not use AC.

That means it could be 90ºF (32ºC) or even 40ºF (4ºC) and I could get consistent deep sleep results like this.

That’s why I believe it’s probably inflammation that makes so many people (or maybe just myself) need to have cold AC’s or the heater on to keep them asleep.

Most importantly, this connection of feeling hot while sleeping changed for me after:

• opening the windows

• changing my type of bedding

• switching to non-toxic soaps to clean my sheets.

It’s also important to note that the VOCs from the bed/bedding, carpet/flooring and paints/glues, as well as lack of air flow, can restrict the oxygen intake while sleeping, thus contributing to feeling hot, sleep apnea-like symptoms, and spikes in cortisol.

For me, this reduced air quality has a greater effect on my cortisol than fasting, or blood sugar crash/spikes, or even stressful events.

That is why I bought the truck camper used, but never lived in, so it had plenty of time to off-gas.

Total Sleep Time/Time In Bed vs Time of Year

Also, as you can see in the Oura app images above the varying “Total Sleep Time/Time In Bed” values.

The reason why these values are different is because I followed a strict circadian rhythm: waking up around sunrise and going to bed briefly after sunset.

That means “time in bed” was longer during the winter months (longer darkness of days) and shorter in the summer months (longer sunlight of days).

I even remember many nights watching the sunset from the window of my bed and and falling asleep shortly after, and man it was so beautiful!

I would eat my meals during the day and stop eating a few hours before the sun would go down.

Electromagnetic Fields

I noticed for me a huge reason for these high values in deep sleep is the lack of Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs).

EMFs for me greatly reduce my melatonin production and produce restless sleep.

For example, when I was staying at campgrounds, I could not park near a transformer (fancy term for a large power box), or I would be up all night or have restless sleep and my deep sleep would crash.

Along the way, I have stayed at AirBNB’s and the ones that have EMF pollution have wrecked my sleep.

When boon docking (camping in the wild), I had no problems with the above issues, unless it was around the time of the full moon.

We are made up predominantly of water, and like the tides, the moon greatly has an effect on my energy and creative levels.

Even after doing parasite cleanses, etc, the moon will produce this effect, depending on the planets etc as it can vary some months, but I do not claim to be well versed in astrology.

What I do understand is that the moon produces/reflects a significant amount EMFs (that it naturally produces and reflects from the sun), which can be stimulating or fatiguing.

For this reason, I track the moon cycles and coordinate it with my reading/writing academia, music writing and other creative outlets.

So during the days leading up to the full moon I will have more creative swings than after.

But Jacob, Where is the Biohacking?

So you are probably asking: “Jacob, you’re a biohacker, what supplements were you taking to produce this effect???”

My response would be, honestly very little.

Some nights I would even forget to take any supplements.

I will summarize what I did in a brief bullet pointed list:

• Wake up when the sun comes up, go to bed when the sun sets (within 30 min of each sun movement)

• Eat during the day, stop eating a few hours before bed (this even means eating dinner at 3pm during the winter)

• Disconnect from EMFs at night (put my phone in another room/opposite side of the camper and turn it off, not be near anywhere with wall outlets or WiFi, and you can read more of my EMFs post post on how to reduce your exposure to EMFs)

• Do your stressful things (if you have them) during the day and quit participating in/thinking about them NO MATTER WHAT 2 hours before the sun goes down

• Sleep in a room that is not off-gassing (non-VOC paint, non-VOC bed, no carpet/vinyl flooring) and get high air quality (opening a window or hepa air filter)

• Move your body during the day (something as simple as jump rope or go on a walk)

• Shower before bed (hot or cold) to activate the parasympathetic system

• Keep inflammation and toxicology levels down

It’s important to note that I’ve engrained so may biological circadian cues/zeitgebers into my normal lifestyle, that this stuff is natural habit to me now.

I am no longer living in a truck camper, but in a house and am currently working a new project that encompasses these philosophies that will help the world in a physical way (more to come in the next few months/year or so).

I currently do not use blue blockers anymore as I have outfitted my living environment to be naturally lit during the day and have only infrared panels/red lights on at night.

I currently no longer use any sleep trackers, since I know how well I sleep and know what methods help/hurt my sleep.

PS: I have stopped using the Oura Ring specifically, since they have changed to a subscription model and I no longer support their methods of conducting business.

Continuing on, if I am too stimulated or know the full moon is bringing me too much creative energy, I will take 1.5mg of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) on top of my stack, which will give me restful sleep the night of.

Unfortunately, if I take LDN too many days in a row, I can get groggy and can get a slightly depressed feeling during the day.

I continue to shower before bed (hot or cold) to put my body in a parasympathetic state.

Before bed, I take magnesium glycinate/lysinate to bowel tolerance, which ends up being 100-300mg per night.

If I am up late exposing myself to blue light, sometimes I will take 50-100mcg (0.05-0.1mg) of melatonin sublingually once in bed to jumpstart my circadian process.

Where I live now, I have completely removed all EMFs at night and this has been the greatest contributing factor to sleep.

My bed is in the middle of the room to distance my head away from power outlets, and that room is only used for sleeping.

I am working on reducing the radioactive elements in my body hoping it helps with any of the EMF sensitivity that I perceive at night (I may write a post soon about calcium/potassium pumps effect from EMFs due to radioactive).

This is an ongoing experiment…

I take sleep very seriously and have tried 100’s of biohacks, supplements, modalities, lifestyles, to get myself to an optimal state of sleep, without having to be a ~crazy biohacker~ .

So, if you are struggling with your sleep, please reach out to me below.