Experts Sleep Diary of a CEO

Diary of a CEO · 21 episodes · 361 sourced insights

What Diary of a CEO says about sleep

Everything Diary of a CEO and guests said about sleep across 21 episodes — each point linked to the exact second on YouTube. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

In their own words

70% of all hip fractures happen in women, and 30% of the time a hip fracture leads to death within one year.
00:01:02Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Each expert reveals their own training; Wright, firmly postmenopausal, still does all of it and punches the treadmill to 11 to hit a heart rate of ~186.
01:14:49Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Choosing to be a caregiver for a parent with dementia carries a 60% increased risk of death even after genetics are removed.
01:21:34Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Bartlett discloses he is a co-owner and investor in Ketone IQ, the exogenous ketone product he then promotes.
02:00:25Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Wright reveals she personally supplements with NMN and measures her own intracellular NAD+ levels for longevity.
02:08:15Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
The panel warns GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic don't burn fat — they stop you eating, so without lifting and protein you lose muscle and bone ('Goodbye biceps').
01:33:25Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
A study found women who were sexually abused, and whose children were abused, went through menopause about nine years sooner — implicating chronic emotional stress.
02:16:32Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
More than 50% of women with sleep apnea go undiagnosed because they present differently than men, leading to shorter lives and more Alzheimer's.
02:28:25Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Hormones and the gut are a two-way street: your hormones influence your gut and your gut influences your hormones.
00:04:09Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Pilates and yoga build control, balance and core strength but won't build the muscle and bone density that true heavy strength training does.
00:17:12Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Women can lose 15-20% of their bone density during perimenopause from loss of estrogen alone.
00:38:00Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Dr. Beck's 'Lift More' study had osteoporotic women safely lift heavy (5 reps near failure) under supervision — none broke and they built bone.
00:45:17Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
A weekly plan: knee-dominant squats one day, push/pull upper body another, posterior chain (deadlifts, hip thrusts) a third, plus jumps and sprints.
00:53:00Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Sprint intervals can be just 30 seconds all-out with 2-3 minutes full recovery, repeated four times — and a 4x4 VO2 max session needs doing only once a week.
00:55:05Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Experts recommend roughly 1 gram of protein per ideal pound of bodyweight, far above the RDA 'survival dose' of 0.8 g/kg.
01:42:18Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
You'd need to eat about 22 chicken breasts to get the creatine that a 3-5 g daily supplement provides.
02:02:30Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Multi-day and water fasts mostly benefit men; for women they can promote visceral fat, inflammation and shut down hormones — and the autophagy benefits can be gained from exercise instead.
02:09:48Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
Soy products can be protective: people with higher soy intake had the lowest BPA levels and better reproductive performance.
02:17:35Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Stacy Sims, Dr. Vonda Wright & Dr. Natalie Crawford · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2025
The 'nappa latte' trick: drink black coffee fast, then take a 25-minute nap, and caffeine blocks adenosine just as you wake, good for four hours.
00:09:52Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Everyone on Earth wakes between 1-3AM as core body temperature rebounds; most just roll over, insomniacs get stuck.
00:44:29Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Breus discloses he personally has sleep apnea and stops breathing about 26 times an hour, and wears a CPAP machine every night.
01:08:22Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
His single biggest sleep tip: wake up at the same time seven days a week, the bedtime barely matters.
01:15:34Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Melatonin is a sleep regulator, not a sleep initiator, and should never be given to children except those on the autism spectrum.
01:25:25Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
He reveals he is the paid 'chief sleep officer' for the Orion sleep system, a job title he made up himself.
02:15:54Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
He recounts using dream therapy to cure a rape survivor's recurring nightmare by uncovering the 'lion' represented her uncle who saved her.
01:55:50Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Your chronotype is genetic, set by a single nucleotide polymorphism in the PER3 region of your genome.
00:13:29Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
The best time for sex is the morning, not 10:30PM, because that's when testosterone, cortisol and adrenaline are high and melatonin is low.
00:15:33Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Don't drink caffeine for the first 90 minutes awake, adrenaline and cortisol are already maxed, so coffee is like 'weak tea added to cocaine.'
00:16:34Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
A University of Minnesota study found delaying school start by one hour raised students a full letter grade.
00:28:28Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Alcohol destroys stage 3-4 deep sleep, when the glymphatic system clears the proteins linked to Alzheimer's.
00:35:09Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Roughly 936 million to 1 billion adults worldwide have obstructive sleep apnea, with 80-90% undiagnosed.
01:03:42Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
A 2024 analysis found melatonin gummies ranged from 0% to 667% of the labeled dose, some contained CBD or none at all.
01:24:23Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
Magnesium for sleep comes from the banana peel, not the fruit; Breus steeps a whole banana to make 'banana tea.'
01:40:22Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
The Timeshifter jet-lag app's lighting algorithm originated on the International Space Station and was later used by F1's Lewis Hamilton.
01:28:31Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
You need a resting heart rate of 60 or below to fall asleep, which is why a late cookie spiked Bartlett's heart rate to 75-80 in bed.
00:38:16Dr. Michael Breus · The Diary of a CEO · Feb 2026
A 15-year-old boy two days from death with a flesh-eating lung infection recovered after being taken outside into sunlight, with 60-70% of the disease gone after a CT scan.
00:08:48Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Seheult reveals that giving COVID patients vitamin D tablets in the hospital 'didn't really do much,' leading him to conclude vitamin D was a marker for sun exposure, not the cause of better outcomes.
00:30:35Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
A Brazil study using infrared-light jackets on COVID patients cut average hospital stay from 12 days to 8 days, with every endpoint statistically significant.
00:41:31Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
A Swedish study found women who avoided the sun had the same mortality risk as women who smoked.
00:48:43Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
His own COVID patient on 35L of oxygen, taken outside for 7 days, was weaned off oxygen and discharged in 5 days.
00:43:34Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Seheult says he has watched patients consciously choose death over artificial intervention, and respects that choice.
01:48:46Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
He describes witnessing a 'miracle': a 22-year-old with severe anoxic brain injury, declared unrecoverable, who walked out of the hospital months later.
01:49:18Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
His contrarian closing theory: the structure of the biblical temple (altar, laver, veiled inner room with DNA-like tablets) mirrors the human cell's structure, unknown to ancient writers.
01:58:06Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
In two-bed hospital rooms, the patient nearer the window gets discharged faster on average.
00:15:32Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Mitochondrial energy output drops by about 70% as we age.
00:21:48Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Infrared light from the sun can penetrate roughly 8 cm into the body and interacts directly with mitochondria.
00:24:57Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Red light therapy switches on a mitochondrial effect after about 15 minutes; more exposure adds nothing.
00:37:51Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Americans spend about 93% of their time indoors and Brits about 92%.
00:55:57Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
In Louisville's GreenHeart study, planting 8,000 mature trees dropped residents' inflammation marker (hs-CRP) 13-20%, correlating with a 10-15% drop in strokes, without lifestyle changes.
00:58:34Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Roughly 1 billion people globally are vitamin D deficient and about 50% have insufficient levels.
01:22:23Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Body temperature rising from 37C to 38C triggers a surge in interferon, the immune system's key antiviral defense.
01:30:09Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Trees emit aromatic compounds called phytoncides that boost natural killer cell activity, with benefits lasting about 7 days after one visit.
01:36:23Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
People who believe God has forgiven them are 2.5x more likely to forgive others unconditionally, which is linked to less depression and anxiety.
01:44:06Dr. Roger Seheult · The Diary of a CEO · Jul 2025
Walker claims sleep beats diet and exercise; only oxygen deprivation impairs you faster than one night of lost sleep.
00:03:08Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Insufficient sleep costs most nations about 2% of GDP, totaling $411 billion in the US, $50 billion in the UK, and $120 billion in Japan.
00:36:32Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Caffeine has a 5-6 hour half-life, so a noon coffee leaves a quarter of the caffeine in your brain at midnight.
00:57:28Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
A standard dose of caffeine strips deep sleep by 15-30%, equivalent to aging your brain about 40 years.
01:02:41Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Walker reveals he himself has had at least two severe bouts of insomnia and meditates 10 minutes before bed every night.
01:11:32Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
About half of Walker's sleep-center research is on Alzheimer's; he calls insufficient sleep one of the most significant lifestyle factors driving the disease.
01:33:19Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
When dieting while sleep-deprived, 60% of the weight you lose comes from lean muscle mass instead of fat.
01:54:32Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Brain scans show sleep deprivation amps up reward centers for junk food while shutting down impulse-control regions in the prefrontal cortex.
01:51:24Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Dolphins and many birds sleep with one half of the brain awake (unihemispheric sleep) to stay safe or keep surfacing for air.
00:13:09Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
At least 22 genes determine your chronotype, split roughly a third morning, a third evening, a third in between, so a tribe is only vulnerable 2-3 hours.
00:16:21Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
About a third of couples cite sleep difficulties as a contributing factor in breakups, and one in four sleep in separate locations.
00:19:27Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
One extra hour of sleep raises a woman's libido by 14%, over half the effect of the FDA libido drug Vyleesi.
00:21:30Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
NASA found 20-60 minute naps boosted productivity by 34% and alertness by over 50%, creating a 'NASA nap' culture.
00:43:22Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Coffee's health benefits come from antioxidants like chlorogenic acid, not caffeine; decaf shows similar benefits, peaking at 2-3 cups.
01:06:18Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Imagining a familiar walk in high-fidelity detail helps people fall asleep about 50% faster; counting sheep actually slows it down.
01:23:28Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Reading on an iPad before bed delays melatonin release by 90 minutes to two hours and the disruption lingers for days afterward.
01:42:40Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Sleep restriction cuts the satiety hormone leptin 18% and raises hunger hormone ghrelin 28%, driving 300-400 extra calories per sitting.
01:48:20Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, famed short sleepers, went on to die of Alzheimer's disease.
01:37:27Matthew Walker · The Diary of a CEO · Mar 2023
Once habits are formed they are encoded in the brain forever and can never be fully removed, only replaced.
00:04:38Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
In the rat study the original habit had never really been forgotten; the brain can instantly toggle back to an old habit.
00:12:51Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Rule one: stress is your puppet master, and keeping stress low is critical for forming new habits.
00:16:26Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Rule two: know your cues, and major life changes like moving cities are ideal moments to break old habits.
00:28:53Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Rule three: don't focus on stopping bad habits, focus on replacing them with a new action.
00:31:31Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Rule four: you need a better, intrinsic reason to quit, not a shallow extrinsic one.
00:36:10Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Rule five: willpower is a finite muscle that depletes, so fewer and smaller goals succeed more often.
00:40:49Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Bonus rule six: the question-behavior effect, asking yes/no questions, drives lasting behavior change.
00:47:33Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Of the 41% of Americans who make a New Year's resolution, only 9% successfully keep it by year's end.
00:01:32Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Six months after setting a resolution, 46% of people are still successful, versus just 4% for non-resolution goals.
00:02:35Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Habits are stored in the basal ganglia, a golf-ball-sized lump of tissue Bartlett calls the habit control center.
00:05:39Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Researchers poisoned the reward chocolate to cause nausea, yet rats still ran the same route through the maze.
00:11:51Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
A clinical-nutrition study found high-glycemic milkshakes spiked then crashed blood sugar, triggering addiction-related brain activity.
00:18:30Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
The Stanford marshmallow experiment tracked children 40+ years, linking delayed gratification to better life outcomes.
00:21:37Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Lack of sleep lowers leptin (fullness) and boosts ghrelin (hunger), promoting fat storage and poor food choices.
00:25:44Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
A 2010 study found behavior change took an average of 66 days, ranging from 20 to 250 days.
00:35:38Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
In the cookie-vs-radish study, radish eaters with depleted willpower quit an impossible puzzle 60% sooner than cookie eaters.
00:41:50Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
The question-behavior effect works best when administered via computer or paper survey requiring a yes/no answer.
00:49:06Stephen Bartlett · The Diary of a CEO · Dec 2022
Attia traces his 'marginal decade' idea to a 2018 funeral where he realized the deceased had stopped enjoying life years before dying.
00:00:31Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Claims VO2 max is the single best predictor of lifespan: top 2% vs bottom 25% is a ~400% difference in one-year all-cause mortality.
01:01:04Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
States that after age 65, a fall breaking a hip or femur carries a 15–30% chance of death within a year.
00:42:46Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Live test result: 20-something crew member Jack has osteoporosis-level bone density (bottom 10th percentile) despite elite cardio fitness.
01:13:38Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Attia admits he no longer does any 1–5 rep strength training because the injury risk isn't worth the marginal strength gain.
00:30:18Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Says if he could talk to his 14-year-old self he'd beg him to lift lighter, blaming heavy sloppy lifting for a back injury at 27.
00:15:39Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
On 'what would you do if you weren't afraid,' Attia reveals he's facing a frightening, life-changing decision he can't yet talk about.
01:46:23Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Pushes back on the 'moderate alcohol is healthy' idea, saying there is no compelling evidence ethanol benefits health at any dose.
01:32:50Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
About 27 distinct physical movement requirements cover most things people want to be able to do in daily life.
00:09:25Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
In a University of Chicago study, 10–14 days of 4-hour sleep worsened subjects' insulin resistance by 50%.
00:24:32Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Grip strength (best tested via a dead hang, aiming for 2+ minutes) is among the strength metrics most correlated with longevity.
00:40:41Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Type 2B muscle fibers — responsible for catching yourself when you trip — are the first to atrophy with age.
00:44:20Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
For a man aged 30–39, a VO2 max under 35 ml/kg/min is bottom 25%, while 53+ is top ~2.5%.
01:00:33Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Roughly 80% of cardio training should be in zone 2, the aerobic base where fat oxidation is maximized.
01:06:25Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Population testosterone decline is driven mainly by rising body fat (more aromatization to estrogen) and worse sleep.
00:19:50Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
There is no evidence intermittent fasting beats equivalent calorie restriction for results.
01:31:15Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Maximizing hydration needs either ~5–6% glucose in water (50–60 g/L) or osmotic sodium; otherwise electrolytes are a commodity — buy the best-tasting one.
01:38:36Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Aim for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, using shakes if whole food can't get you there.
01:26:35Peter Attia · The Diary of a CEO · Apr 2025
Perplex City raised about $10 million and burned through roughly $9 million, becoming one of the most commercially disastrous projects he ever worked on.
00:28:56Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
He gathered his 25-person team and, shaking, told them the company was running out of cash and the game had to be killed mid-second-season.
00:31:30Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Moshi Monsters' collapse forced five rounds of layoffs and made him feel that because the business was failing, he himself was a failure and worthless.
00:42:25Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
A solo holiday in the Austrian Alps where he first tried meditation cleared his mental fog and planted the seed for Calm.
00:46:34Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Calm nearly ran out of money around 2015; a book advance from Penguin editor Vinisha unexpectedly kept the startup alive.
00:58:09Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Raising the Calm subscription price from $10 to $40 a year caused no drop-off in sign-ups, a key tipping point proving the product's value.
00:58:39Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Calm reached about 8 million downloads before spending any money on marketing.
01:00:13Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
He describes 2021 as the hardest year of his life, suffering a herniated disc, chronic pain, burnout, painkiller use and isolation.
01:08:32Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Firebox's first online orders required customers to print an order form and fax credit-card details, which Michael manually keyed into a bank PDQ machine.
00:12:55Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
A friend, Matt Shown, secretly placed orders under fake names to keep the founders' spirits up while waiting for real customers.
00:14:31Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Firebox's breakout product was a shot-glass chess set where capturing a piece means drinking it, earning press in FHM, Loaded, Maxim and The Sun.
00:14:31Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
For Perplex City they buried real treasure worth a 100,000 pound reward, found by a player a couple of years later.
00:27:52Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Before Moshi Monsters, similar nurturing toys included Tamagotchi, the Pet Rock and Neopets.
00:37:14Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Michael argues mental health is not 'one in four' but 'one in one' since anyone with a mind has mental health.
00:51:25Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Meditation shifts reliance from the amygdala toward the prefrontal cortex, helping you respond rather than react.
00:54:02Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Calm discovered an 11pm global usage spike of people using Tamara's voice to fall asleep, which led to the invention of Sleep Stories.
01:00:44Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Calm's Sleep Stories use a 'story slope' instead of a three-act structure, gradually becoming more soporific so few listeners hear the end.
01:01:47Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Calm gave its entire 300-plus person team a full mental health week off, which Michael calls one of the smartest decisions in company history.
01:12:10Michael Acton Smith · The Diary of a CEO · Jan 2022
Ahmed had a panic attack while driving, drove himself to the hospital, and two days later began daily Transcendental Meditation.
00:18:53Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Whoop went roughly 18 months never holding more than three months of cash, once coming within two days of filing bankruptcy before a term sheet was signed.
00:31:53Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
After seven years the company flipped its entire business model from one-time hardware sales to a subscription, a bet-the-company moment.
00:26:08Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Two of Whoop's first hundred users were LeBron James and Michael Phelps, and LeBron later wore a Whoop strap in a Kia commercial.
01:24:22Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Amazon explored investing in and acquiring Whoop, then two years later released what Ahmed calls a direct knockoff product.
01:35:53Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Ahmed deliberately refused to make Whoop a watch or add a screen to avoid scope creep and competing with watchmakers.
01:06:46Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Whoop expanded into garments (shorts, boxers, bras, shirts) so the sensor can be worn off-wrist to keep monitoring 24/7.
01:11:26Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
The paper Ahmed wrote in 2011, titled measuring intensity, recovery and sleep, maps almost exactly onto Whoop's three core metrics today.
00:24:35Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Heart rate variability measures the time between successive heartbeats; higher variability signals a body better able to regulate itself.
00:46:29Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
HRV has been measured since the 1980s and was used by Olympic lifters, cyclists, the CIA for lie detection, and cardiologists.
00:48:04Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Slow wave sleep is when the body produces about 95% of its human growth hormone; you get stronger sleeping, not at the gym.
00:54:16Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Whoop detected elevated respiratory rate in users two to three days before they tested positive for COVID-19.
00:51:40Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
Whoop employees can opt into a Sleep Bonus, earning $100 for averaging 85% sleep performance over a month.
01:04:37Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
During COVID, Whoop ran a red recovery policy requiring employees with a red recovery score to stay home.
01:05:09Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022
On the Whoop 4.0 circuit board the engineers wrote a message daring competitors not to copy them, plus every engineer's initials.
01:38:39Will Ahmed · The Diary of a CEO · Oct 2022

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