Fixing "computer shoulders", the greatest burden a child must bear, rethinking sleep

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Good morning, 66.1ers.This was a fun one to write, and I can’t wait to send Saturday’s issue.

Food for thought:

Everyone says that if you want to be healthy, you’ve got to sleep. But I’m starting to think it’s the other way around. I think that, to sleep well, you’ve got to be healthy. 

Rather than a lever you can pull to improve your health (like diet, exercise, and healthy relationships), sleep is a symptom of how healthy you actually are. When you’re pulling all the levers I mentioned, it’s likely your sleep quality is high.

A couple examples might help make my point:

1. Regular physical activity can lead to improved sleep quality, reduced sleep latency, and better overall sleep quality (i.e. the activity level makes the sleep quality, not vice versa).

2. Eating a healthy, balanced diet has been shown to improve sleep quality. See the image below (forget the chemical names; focus on the fact that “Poor diet quality” and “Poor sleep quality” are on the same side of the diagram).

Spoiler alert: I’m going to expand on this topic in Saturday’s Deep Dive issue. I’ll share:

• The top 3 strategies I’ve developed to optimize your sleep and live healthier (after working with 100s of patients as a health coach at Mayo Clinic)

• The “Goldilocks” theory around sleep—why both too little AND too much sleep are associated with increased mortality

• The relationship between sleep and immune function (and how to protect your immune system when you’re low on sleep)

Like all Saturday Deep Dives, full access is reserved for paid subscribers. Click the box below to get access for just $6.61/month.

A question for you:

Another one from Oliver Burkeman’s 4,000 Weeks. Actually, it’s originally from the psychologist Carl Jung, but I found it in the Appendix of Burkeman’s work. Before reading this quite, I never had the words to describe why I feel so strongly that I need to travel and build profitable businesses before having kids.

Jung’s quote goes something like this: “The greatest burden the child must bear is the unlived life of the parent.”

Parents (and future parents) out there: Where do you need to step up so as to avoid burdening your children with your unlived life?

Is there a change you need to make to improve your health? A job you need to quit? A difficult conversation you need to have?

Burkeman delivers this quote just after the 1:09:30 mark in the podcast below.

Workout of the week 💪🏼

Shoulder dips

If you sit at a desk, you’ve probably got what I call “computer shoulders”. Your head is craned forward, your shoulders are rolled forward. As a result, your neck is sore, your pecs are tight, and your shoulder mobility is severely compromised.

Here’s a quick exercise to undo your computer shoulder problem in 2 minutes.

PS: keep an eye on the “30 Exercises you can do Anywhere” page. We’re building this resource so you’re never left wondering how to squeeze a workout in to your busy life.

As we build it, we’d love to hear from you: What should we build next? 

Do you want exercise programming, diet frameworks, habit building resources?

Send a reply to this email or drop a comment on the Substack post.

That’s all for this Wednesday.See you on Saturday.Have fun out there.Marcus