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- Stop tracking your sleep
The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.
— Matthew Walker
In 2021, I started tracking my sleep. I didn’t have the budget for a fancy Oura ring or smartwatch, so I opted for a free app called SleepCycle. The setup was simple: I had to sleep with my phone next to me, letting its built-in accelerometer monitor my sleep patterns and movements.
I wasn’t entirely convinced it worked. I never fully trusted the app, which made the whole exercise feel a bit futile.
Each month, I exported the raw data into a massive spreadsheet, calculated weekly and monthly averages, and answered questions like, “Did I drink alcohol that day?” or “Did I wake up during the night?” My goal was to uncover the factors affecting my sleep quality, snoring time, and next-day energy.
My DIY system to spend 0$ tracking sleep
After two years of sleep tracking, here’s what I discovered:
I didn’t learn anything groundbreaking. The results were predictable. Drinking alcohol worsened my sleep—I snored more and woke up frequently. On the other hand, going to bed early after a day of exercise and meditation left me feeling energized the next morning. None of this was news to me.
The app shaped how I felt. If the app said I slept poorly, I felt terrible. If it said I slept well, I felt good. It wasn’t that the app was necessarily accurate—I just adapted my mindset to match its reports.
Another common insight among people who track their sleep is that the habit can backfire. Obsessing over sleep quality can create a vicious cycle: stressing about not sleeping well → struggling to fall asleep → sleeping worse.
Despite this, I don’t regret trying. If someone had presented these conclusions to me, I probably would’ve dismissed them. Sometimes, you have to experience things firsthand to truly understand. Plus, I finally learned how to use vlookup() and sumifs() in Google Sheets, so that’s a win.
More and more, I want to simplify my life. Until I'm perfect on all fronts—which won't happen anytime soon—I want to apply the 80/20 rule as much as possible. I want to stop obsessing over details that won't matter if the rest is chaotic.
Sure, taking 400 mg of elemental magnesium 30 minutes before bed might boost your deep and REM sleep by increasing GABA and activating the parasympathetic nervous system. But it’s pointless if you just drank six pints.
Thankfully, sleep science is more accessible than ever. People are waking up (pun intended) to its importance, and I firmly believe that improving your sleep improves every other aspect of life.
If you’re new to this and want to improve your sleep, start with these fundamentals:
Stick to a schedule – Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
Create a cool, dark, and quiet bedroom – Ideal temperature: ~18°C (65°F).
Avoid caffeine and alcohol – Stop caffeine as soon as possible and avoid alcohol close to bedtime.
Expose yourself to natural light – Get sunlight in the morning; avoid bright screens before bed (especially blue lights).
Don’t lie awake in bed – If you can’t sleep after 30 minutes, get up and do a relaxing activity.
No big meals or exercise close to bedtime – Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before bed.
Make sleep a priority – Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night.
While you should always do your own research instead of relying on a random newsletter, these tips have a strong scientific consensus. Master these basics before spending money on fancy supplements or gadgets.
In the end, the best sleep tracker is probably your own body—and you don’t need an app for that.
— James
Tools & Websites
Cursorful is a free browser extension for creating video screenshots. It automatically follows your cursor and zooms in on your clicks, making videos both interactive and easy to follow.
Global Influence Index is a website that analyzes whether countries align more with the US or China across the economic, political, and security spectrums to track the U.S.-China competitive landscape.
Stripe BFCM (Business Flow Control Monitor) is a recap of Stripe's performance during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) shopping period. It's also a stunning website that looks like it stepped right out of a video game ↓
James’ Library
Book  | Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, renowned neuroscientist and sleep expert, is THE book that brought the science of sleep into mainstream conversations. It demystified why sleep is essential for our physical health, mental well-being, and overall quality of life. Caffeine has an average half-life of five to seven hours. Let’s say that you have a cup of coffee after your evening dinner, around 7:30 p.m. This means that by 1:30 a.m., 50 percent of that caffeine may still be active and circulating throughout your brain tissue. In other words, by 1:30 a.m., you’re only halfway to completing the job of cleansing your brain of the caffeine you drank after dinner. |
Article | Hamilton Nolan argues that public systems only get better when rich and powerful people are required to use them instead of escaping to private options. He highlights how this idea applies to the justice system and urges everyone to focus on fixing public problems rather than avoiding them. Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals. Business executives should have to stand in the same airport security lines as everyone else. The very fact that people want to buy their way out of all of these experiences points to the reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Private schools and private limos and private doctors and private security are all pressure release valves that eliminate the friction that would cause powerful people to call for all of these bad things to get better. The degree to which we allow the rich to insulate themselves from the unpleasant reality that others are forced to experience is directly related to how long that reality is allowed to stay unpleasant. When they are left with no other option, rich people will force improvement in public systems. |
…Aesthetic Corner…
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Push is Ableton’s standalone instrument that gives you independence from your computer so you can be fully immersed in your music. It has expressive, MPE-enabled pads that allow you to shape your sound with subtle finger movements.
Beautiful piece of hardware.
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Fons Mans is an independent designer whose work I've been following for a while now. Above are examples of his latest designs—and they showcase something I deeply love: emails.
Sustainable Living
Tiny Grandeur by llabb shows how compact spaces can be transformed sustainably by reusing and enhancing what’s already there. Set in a historic palace in Genoa, the apartment preserves original features like high ceilings, terrazzo floors, and decorative stuccoes while adapting the space to modern needs. By working with the existing structure, the architects avoided waste and gave new life to a historic building.
Custom furniture plays a key role in making the most of the space. A staircase doubles as storage, a mezzanine adds extra living areas, and a floor-to-ceiling library maximizes functionality. These smart, multipurpose solutions meet the owners’ needs without unnecessary materials or waste.
Natural light and ventilation are central to the design, with large restored windows reducing the need for artificial lighting. Combining old and new, the project keeps the charm of the past while adding creative, low-impact touches like a 3D-printed stucco detail. It’s a perfect example of how sustainability can be stylish and practical.
Friends of James
Beehiiv — the powerhouse behind all my newsletters, helping me craft, design, grow my audience, and monetize effortlessly.
Notion — my go-to tool for the last 6+ years, where I store all my notes, manage tasks, and essentially run both my life and businesses.
Webflow — the engine behind all my websites, letting me design, build, and launch seamlessly without code.
Make — the tool that runs my business on autopilot, handling all recurring and time-consuming tasks
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