The 9 to 5 That Does Matter

In America, the term “9 to 5” is known as the mandatory work hours in a day for corporate employees.

A lot of people say the 9-5 is overrated.

But I think the 9-5 is vital.

I mean 9 pm to 5 am. In other words, sleep.

Inconsistency Breeds Inconsistency…. Until it Doesn’t

Within the past 5 years of my life, between the ages of 20 to 25, sleep has been a code that I haven’t been able to crack.

Just look at the analysis I ran for myself with my sleep in 2019-2020.

I dialed into learning about my sleep habits like a chemist does with his/her new experiments around DNA.

Look at the way I talked to myself too. I was like a military drill sergeant that could smell the inconsistency from miles away: “57% (terrible)(take this more seriously man c’mon!)”

I take full responsibility for my actions, or is it better to say, inactions.

In the past 2 years especially, I’ve been working hard on an early stage startup to execute on a mountainous vision. Nothing has been a sacrifice either.

Rather, the execution has all been rooted in our mission and a love for the work itself. 

Yet, as the startup is maturing from an infant to a full-grown person, the p.m to a.m (a.k.a. sleep) is something that can no longer be my 7th priority.

Nor, can it be for any person looking to maintain a high speed of output for a long period of time.

There is a principle for me to learn from the corporate, daily work hours structure. 

I need to be as focused on hitting the hay as office workers are to clocking in.

Consistently letting daily tasks overtake the pedestal of me going to bed on time each night can add up. The tasks will be there the next day, but if my sleep performance is hindered, in turn, that can hinder my performance on the next day's tasks.

Just as one can accumulate financial debt - delaying a present payment for a future one - the same can occur with one’s sleep.

Only this debt will be called sleep debt.

Poor sleep performance can create a cascade of negative effects. 

Surprisingly, losing your hair is one of them.

Due to lack of sleep and inconsistency in sleep habits, your body doesn’t function to its utmost potential. When that occurs, negative effects can be the following:

• Not mentally sharp, thus inclined to cut corners and make mistakes when executing mundane tasks

• More prone to physical injury due to the body not being properly recovered

• More prone to increased stress

• Increased hair loss1

I also just completed the 75 HARD Challenge. As I reflected on the challenge in last weeks essay, I talked about the importance of sleep in #18 of 23.

With 75 HARD, I needed to consistently show up each day, in order to win the challenge. It was a positive forcing function to make sure I dialed into my recovery each day. If I didn’t, I would be anguished the next day.

Let’s compare a poor sleep day and average sleep day during 75 HARD.

Sept 23rd - Day 19 of 75 HARD –

This is a day in which I slept terribly. Even my WHOOP watch, which is a wearable tracker with a connected mobile app, was telling me I’m “RUN DOWN”.

Oct 29th - Day 55 of 75 HARD – 

This is a day in which I slept average.

That most certainly happened because it was a day in which I had the highest strain day ever (WHOOP, defines and measures strain by “exertion you put on your body” from a scale of “0 (light) to 21 (all out)”).

I was tired… and simply needed sleep!

Enough is Enough

The reason I love using WHOOP is that data definitely doesn’t lie. Its accuracy is my most truthful accountability partner.

WHOOP defines and measures sleep performance by:

“how much sleep you got (hours of sleep) <> to how much sleep you needed (sleep need)”.

In February 2022, my sleep performance was good.

In October 2023, my sleep performance was not good.

The main point is that I’ve been accumulating evenings upon evenings of inconsistent sleep - causing me to gain loads of sleep debt.

I’ve always known I needed to do better - all the way since 2019.

Getting it Right

I’ve learned that top notch sleep requires 3 things to be in proper order:

(1) Time

(2) Intensity

(3) Duration

(1) Time

Keep it simple.

When do you need to go to bed so that your body gets enough rest. When do you need to wake up, so you can perform in the mind/body state you desire.

Learn from a dog. They do a good job at abiding by this.

(2) Intensity

I once heard a great line that what you do before bed will largely determine how well you sleep.

That goes for what you do during the day (i.e. exercise) and what you do a few hours before bed (i.e. cool down method), in order to smoothly ease into a state of rest for your body.

This breakdown from Ben Greenfield in his ebook, Fit Soul: Tools, Tactics, & Habits for Optimizing Spiritual Fitness, is a perfect guide to abide by:

• "10-3-2-1-0 sleep routine":

  • 10 - The number of hours before sleep in which you do not consume caffeine

  • 3 - The number of hours before sleep in which you do not eat (or drink, but that is up for debate)

  • 2 - The number of hours before sleep in which you do not work

  • 1 - The number of hours before sleep in which you do not engage in screen time

  • 0 - The number of times you hit the snooze button

(3) Duration 

The harmonizing habits of the Chinese body clock embody this.

The Body-Energy Clock, as it formally goes, is built upon the concept of the cyclical ebb and flow of energy and when to make the most of your energy and specific organs by using them when they're at their peak.

Let’s focus on sleep.

Search with me and look for when it says one should start cooling down in the evening, going to bed, then waking up in the morning.

How you prioritize your sleep is how you live your life; how you live your life is how you prioritize your sleep.

This was my previous evening.

Let’s keep the momentum of positive results going.

Huge thank you to and for all of their help on this essay.

Following their respective Substack’s here: and

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