How to Fix All Your Sleep Issues in 1 Day

This is going to sound stupid because it feels too easy.

Use a 200°F sauna for 30 minutes before bed.

Most people go about fixing their sleep by trying 100 small things.

No eating four hours before bed. No scrolling. No blue light. Keep your bedroom below 64°. Get sunlight immediately after waking up. Stop drinking caffeine after noon. Take magnesium. Meditate. Buy blackout curtains.

And about 93 other things.

The problem isn't that these things are necessarily wrong.

The problem is that when your sleep is already fucked, trying to perfectly execute a 20-step sleep routine every night can make sleep feel like another job you're failing at.

If you're one of these people, I'm not here to talk down to you. I struggled to fix my sleep for years.

I think most people go through a period of their life where sleep becomes an issue. And once it does, it can become strangely difficult to get back to the thing you did effortlessly as a kid.

As much as I think obsessing over 100 little sleep hacks is stupid, it's worth trying the obvious stuff first. Give the basic habits a week. Maybe that's all you need.

But if you've already done that and still aren't sleeping well, I think you should try something fundamentally different.

So whether you want to feel better throughout the day, be more productive at work, be more present with your kids, get in shape, or just feel 2x better as you go through life, I want to explain three reasons I think a 200°F sauna before bed can radically improve your sleep.

And why we're willing to back that claim with our own money.

This will be comprehensive.

This isn't one of those sleep fixes you read through, think huh, interesting, and forget about.

The protocol at the end takes 30 minutes and you can tell from the first night whether it's doing anything for you.

Let's begin.

I – You can't discipline yourself to sleep

Sleep is weird because the harder you try to do it, the harder it can become.

You can force yourself to work.

You can force yourself to exercise.

You can force yourself to clean your apartment.

But try forcing yourself to fall asleep.

You can't.

Sleep happens when you stop trying.

This is why I think a lot of conventional sleep advice becomes counterproductive for people who already struggle with sleep.

You start with a simple goal:

I want to sleep better.

Then somebody gives you a checklist.

• No screens after 8.
• No food after 7.
• Exactly eight hours in bed.
• Bedroom at exactly 64°.
• Morning sunlight.
• Evening stretching.
• Magnesium.
• Breathing exercises.

Now 10 PM rolls around and instead of being sleepy, you're running diagnostics.

Did I eat too late?

Was I on my phone too long?

Why am I not tired yet?

I have to wake up in seven hours.

Fuck, now it's six hours and 48 minutes.

You've taken something unconscious and turned it into a performance.

Think about what being genuinely well-rested feels like.

You don't think about sleep all day.

You don't dread bedtime.

You don't need to perform the perfect sequence of behaviors.

At some point you become tired, you lie down, and you sleep.

That's the state you're actually trying to get back to.

So I don't think the ultimate solution to bad sleep is becoming more disciplined about sleep.

I think it's finding something powerful enough that your body does most of the work for you.

That's where the sauna comes in.

You don't need to believe me. We'll install one at your home. If you don't feel like you slept better after your first night using it, we'll refund 100% of what you paid and come remove the sauna.

II – Your body already knows how to make you sleep

Think about the last time you spent all day swimming in the sun.

Or went skiing.

Or did a long hike.

Or spent an hour in a hot tub and got out feeling like your body had turned into warm Jell-O.

You probably didn't need a podcast explaining the optimal sleep protocol that night.

You were just fucking tired.

There is a profound difference between trying to make yourself sleep and putting your body into a state where sleep feels inevitable.

Sauna does the latter.

You sit in a 200°F room for 30 minutes.

Your heart rate rises. You sweat. Blood flow to your skin increases. Your body is dealing with a serious thermal load.

Then you get out.

And now something interesting happens.

Your body begins dumping heat.

That matters because falling asleep is naturally associated with a decline in core body temperature. Warming the body before bed can paradoxically help facilitate that subsequent cooling process.

But I think the subjective experience explains the appeal better than any mechanism does.

You know the feeling when you get out of a sauna.

Your muscles feel loose.

Your body feels heavy.

Your mind feels quieter.

You take a shower, put on clean clothes, lie down in a cool bed, and suddenly staying awake seems like the activity requiring effort.

That's exactly what we want.

Instead of asking your conscious brain to execute 20 behaviors that might eventually convince your body that it's bedtime, you create one enormous physiological event that your body can't ignore.

Heat. Then cooling. Then bed.

That's the whole idea.

And unlike most sleep advice, you don't need three weeks to figure out whether you notice anything.

You'll know how you slept the next morning.

III – The best sleep routine is one you actually look forward to

There is another reason I think sauna works unusually well as a sleep habit.

It feels good.

This sounds almost too trivial to mention, but it's probably one of the most important parts.

Most sleep advice is subtraction.

Don't eat.

Don't drink.

Don't look at your phone.

Don't stay out late.

Don't watch another episode.

Don't have caffeine.

Don't do the things you want to do because Sleep Hygiene says you're being naughty.

Sauna is addition.

At the end of your day, you get 30 minutes where nobody needs anything from you.

You sit somewhere hot.

You can listen to music, talk with your partner, think, or do absolutely nothing.

And when you're done, you feel noticeably different.

That makes the habit almost stupidly easy to repeat.

You don't need to remind yourself that sauna is "good for you" in the same way you don't need to remind yourself to take a hot shower.

You start wanting it.

And this is the part I think people miss when they talk about habits.

The best habit isn't necessarily the theoretically optimal one.

It's the one that produces the desired result and has enough gravitational pull that you keep doing it without constantly negotiating with yourself.

If you sauna before bed tonight and sleep incredibly well, something happens tomorrow.

At 9 PM, you're going to remember how that felt.

So you do it again.

Then again.

Eventually you don't have a complicated sleep routine.

You have a sauna.

So why doesn't everyone do this?

Because owning a sauna has historically been kind of insane.

A good traditional sauna costs thousands of dollars.

Then you need somewhere to put it.

Then electrical work.

Delivery.

Installation.

Potentially a foundation.

Then you're coordinating contractors for something you don't even know if you'll use six months from now.

That's a lot of money and commitment just to find out whether sauna improves your sleep.

And this is where I should disclose my bias.

I own a sauna company.

It's also why I wrote this article.

We've removed the complicated part.

We'll bring a sauna to your home, install it, handle the setup and maintenance, and let you experience what it's actually like to have one before making some giant commitment to owning one.

More importantly, I don't want you to have to take my word for any of this.

So here's the deal:

Try it for one night

We'll deliver and install a sauna at your home.

On your first night, get it to 200°F and use it for 30 minutes before bed.

Then take a shower and go to sleep.

The next morning, ask yourself one question:

Did I sleep better?

If the answer is yes, great.

Keep the sauna and see what happens when this becomes something you can do every night.

If the answer is no, tell us. We'll give you a 100% refund and come remove the sauna.

No sleep tracker required.

No arguing about whether you followed the protocol perfectly.

No trying to convince you to keep it another month.

If you don't feel like you slept better, I don't want your money.

That's the guarantee.

The protocol

Heat the sauna to around 200°F.

Spend up to 30 minutes inside, getting out earlier or taking breaks if needed.

Hydrate.

Shower.

Go to bed.

See how you feel the next morning.

Don't simultaneously start taking six supplements and rebuild your entire bedtime routine.

The whole point is to test one big intervention.

Sauna. Shower. Bed.

One night.

Then judge it yourself.