After doing all the stuff related to health span, I have come to the conclusion that sleep is the most important factor and have been trying different experiments with sleep for quite some time. About a decade or so back, I tried different sleep patterns, basically different polyphasic sleep, and the results went up to Uberman, which is like 25 minutes of wakefulness and 5-7 minutes of sleep. That was quite a weird challenge, but it was quite revealing in terms of how my mental state works. I didn’t use to feel exhausted or sleepy while I was awake. There is so much about sleep that we can’t uncover.

In terms of performance, as I have always been concerned about optimizing performance, one of the things that I heard about a few years back was from Arnold when he said “sleep faster.” By that, he meant that just like you can work harder, you can sleep harder. So instead of sleeping for 8 hours, try to compress your sleep into 6 hours, try to shut your eyes and go to sleep as soon as possible instead of tossing and turning in your bed. It did make a lot of sense, and I did try to go back and get 6 hours of sleep, but that never worked. As in, I never felt relaxed or less stressed ever.

So basically, I was sleep deprived, and when I start getting sleep deprived, it seems that it just exacerbates the problem as I keep sleeping for fewer and fewer hours, going down to even 3 hours, which makes me completely groggy and, I guess, irritated all the time during the day. But anyway, as I was doing this, I recently came upon a study where they said that creatine might actually help your energy levels if you are sleep deprived, and that made me kind of take notice. I started to take creatine; I do creative work before work hours, but I have never done it first thing in the morning if I haven’t had a full 8 hours of sleep.

So I have been experimenting with this, having creatine first thing in the morning, and it seems to work wonders for me in terms of energy levels. The irritability, the low energy, all these completely go away as soon as I take creatine. Creatine is quite maniacal in that sense in terms of energy; also, the amount of energy that it gives me is quite amazing. So that can be it. Maybe when Arnold says to sleep faster, and still, Arnold is one of the best men we have seen, and if he was able to perform at the optimum level that he has or does, I guess it was because most probably he creates at 3:18 in the morning. So the effects of sleep deprivation are not so much for him.

It’s quite interesting how right now a few things in your routine affect how your mind and body work. So for now, I am going taking creatine first thing in the morning if I have not had my 8 hours or 7 hours of sleep. I will keep doing that.