How I Sleep: The Data-Obsessed Doctor Who Can’t Function Without His Whoop
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Dr. Brian Levine, the founding partner and practice director of the fertility clinicCCRM, operates on a very strict daily regimen. It’s a holdover from his medical-school days at NYU, where he was forced to quickly figure out how to maximize both his waking and his sleeping hours. “Residency was a great training ground. You learn what your body can do on little sleep but also what itcan’tdo on little sleep,” he says. These days, as a doctor with both domestic and international patients, he credits his devotion to a strict, data-driven schedule — one that centers on sleeping exactly five and a half hours every night — with his ability to balance work, exercise, keeping up with current events,andspending time with his wife and two daughters.
On his regimented daily routine
I wake up every single day at 4:30 a.m. and I read non-digital material from 4:45 to 5:30 a.m., no screens, no distractions, to help warm up my brain and get myself psyched for the day. Usually it’s going to be scientific journals or something medically related. If I don’t have the articles, I will print them out. When I read for leisure, it’sThe Economist,Harper’s, or theThe Wall Street Journal.
From about 5:30 to 5:45 a.m. I walk to the gym, and then I work out from 5:45 until 6:45 a.m. I come back home, I have breakfast with my daughters, who are 8 and 4 years old. During the week I get them onto the school bus, and then I come to my office by 8 a.m.
Nutrition is part of having a good sleep routine. I have fresh fruit for breakfast, then a little bit of a bigger lunch. I try to get home by 8 p.m. to have dinner with my wife, and I tend to eat a lighter dinner. I have found that my best sleep occurs when I have a three-hour window between when I last eat and when I go to sleep. So I do my absolute best to eat dinner by 8 or 8:30 p.m. and to be in bed between 11 and 11:30 p.m. For me to function perfectly, I need around five and a half hours of sleep. If I sleep too much, I feel overtired, and if I sleep too little, I know that I need a nap during the day. My patients are shocked to learn that I don’t need the classic eight hours of sleep. The only way that I’m able to know that is by making data-driven decisions.
On his obsession with sleep tracking and health data
I was an early Jawbone user, which was one of the first wearable fitness trackers. Then I was a step tracker for a long time, using an Apple Watch and Fitbit. And then in 2019, I became aWhoopaddict. So now it’s been six years of Whoop, and it’s been fantastic.
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I am religious about tracking biometrics on the Whoop. I look at my sleep parameters every single morning. I’ve learned that my data is best when I’m on a strict routine where my day is five and a half hours of sleep, an hour of exercise early in the day, carbohydrate-rich meals throughout the day and less carbs for dinner, then three hours between eating and sleeping. I’m data-driven all the way.
If it ever broke or got lost, I would replace it immediately. I feel lost without it. Let me check my counter — I am at 1,194 days straight without interruption.
On getting his sleep set-upjust right
We useBrooklinen sheets, which we just love because they’re silky and soft. I like pajama sets, so I will frequently getpajama setsfrom Roller Rabbit because they match my kids. Amazon Basics also has goodcotton pajamas. When I was in medical school, I used to always sleep in just a T-shirt and boxers. But cotton T-shirts don’t breathe and move the way that pajamas do.
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Ireplace my pillowsevery one to two years, because I’m convinced that pillows end up harboring a lot of germs. Having both fluffiness and cleanliness is important. I always get mypillowsfrom Bloomingdale’s, and we have a mattress from Sferra, theVicari Ultra Plush mattress. My wife and I laugh that after 12 and a half years of marriage, we still like each other and we still sleep in a queen-size bed.
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Sferra Vicari Ultra Plush Mattress - Queen
Personal hygiene is part of sleep hygiene. So I take a shower, which is a nice way to signal to your body that you’re getting ready for bed. I also have a skin-care routine. Dry skin and dry eyes are irritative, so when you wake up you actually feel puffy. By going to sleep with moisturizers, you’re actually trying to prepare yourself to wake up. I really like Tracie Martyn’s products; I use thetonerand themoisturizer.
I set up our room to be as cool and dark as possible, with theblackout shadesdrawn and the temperature at approximately 65 degrees. Also, I am not afraid to have a melatonin before going to bed. Melatonin has been demonstrated in a lot of research to be both benign and a safe way to help induce sleep. I will sometimes have amelatonin gummyfrom Olly, because they have a very low sugar content. I always joke that I don’t need to be a hero and that if I really need to put myself to sleep, I’ll take half an Ambien or some sort of a sleeping medication, because if I don’t sleep, it’s a disaster.
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As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to wear glasses, and they all have blue-light treatment for the screens. My favoriteglassesare from a French company called Izipizi that are plasticated and super-lightweight. I bring them to my optician and I have high-end glass lenses put in them with blue-light treatment. I don’t know if it’s real or not, but I know that it freaks me out to not have it. At nighttime, if I don’t wear my glasses and I look at my screens without blue-light protection, it might be in my head, but it feels very jarring.
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If I use an alarm, it’s a gentle alarm on my phone. I don’t use any blaring alarm noises because if I’m in REM sleep, I don’t want it to be disrupted. I like to wake up very gradually. I also like the appEndel. It has different types of soundscapes, including deep work, chilling, self-care, and sleep focus. I don’t use white noise. I like the green and gray noise.
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On how he adapts his routine when he travels
Whenever I travel, I try to stay on the New York schedule to make my trips as functional and efficacious as possible. I try to really live the local life on a New York time zone. That works when I’m in the domestic United States. It also works when I go to England.
But I go to India about once a quarter to see patients; it doesn’t work there, because India is 9.5 hours ahead of New York. So instead I try to figure out, where is there a window where I can have five and a half hours of sleep? Where is there a window where I can eat dinner three hours before that? Then I plan my day backward from there.
For most Americans who fly to India, you’re going to land in the middle of the night. So I set my schedule to mimic my U.S. schedule, where I land tired. I power through emails, and I do lots of work on the airplane. Then by the time I clear customs and get to the hotel, it’s usually around 4 or 5 a.m., and I’ll start my day somewhere around noon because I want to get in my five and a half hours of sleep, get in my hour of working out. And then I’ll go straight to seeing patients from noon to about 8 p.m. Then I’ll have a sensible dinner and force myself to get back onto my schedule that night so that I’ll acclimate the next day.
I always travel with comfy pajamas. If I’m going to fly on an airline like Emirates, they supply you with pajamas that are really comfortable. But if not, I’ll actually takeEmirates pajamaswith me when I travel because they’re really small and compact and they’re really cool temperature-wise.
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When Americans want to fly back home from India, usually the flights are between 1 and 4 a.m. I power through as best as I can to stay awake so that when I get onto the airplane, I’m tired, and I get my sleep on the airplane. When I wake up, I do the rest of my work until I land in New York.
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