---
title: 'Sleep Improvement Tier List (For Maximum Gains)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zr09xyj2uzg'
video_id: 'zr09xyj2uzg'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 733
---

# Sleep Improvement Tier List (For Maximum Gains)

> Source: [Sleep Improvement Tier List (For Maximum Gains)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zr09xyj2uzg)

## Summary

The video presents a tier list of sleep improvement methods ranked by effectiveness for maximizing muscle growth. It covers non-negotiable habits like sleep duration and circadian rhythm alignment, very effective tools like earplugs and cool rooms, helpful extras like blue light filters, and habits to avoid like heavy late meals and daily melatonin.

### Key Points

- **Sleep is critical for muscle gains** [00:02] — Sleep quality determines muscle-building results; even a perfect routine fails without proper sleep. The video ranks methods into four tiers: non-negotiable, very effective, helpful, and avoid.
- **Non-negotiable: 8 hours of sleep** [00:54] — Average 8 hours per night is required for maximum muscle growth, though individual needs vary (7–9 hours). Chronic 5-hour sleep cuts gains and may shorten lifespan.
- **Earplugs and sleep masks** [01:32] — These accessories are lifesavers when noise or light disrupts sleep. A simple cotton mask works as well as fancy ones; blackout blinds are an alternative.
- **Blue light filtering is only helpful** [03:14] — Blocking blue light before bed works slightly, but the real fix is avoiding screens entirely. A night filter is a minor, helpful addition.
- **Avoid heavy meals before bed** [03:40] — Digesting a large meal keeps the body working and raises temperature, making it hard to fall asleep. Light, protein-focused meals are acceptable.
- **Keep the bedroom cool** [04:30] — A cooler room significantly improves sleep quality. If an AC is available, lowering the temperature can make a big difference.
- **Supplementation: magnesium/zinc vs melatonin** [04:55] — Magnesium and zinc only help if you're deficient. Melatonin builds tolerance quickly, is a band-aid, and should be avoided or used only occasionally.
- **Get physical activity during the day** [06:22] — Exercise beyond the gym, especially active recovery on rest days, helps you feel tired and fall asleep. Even a few thousand steps helps.
- **Follow your circadian rhythm** [07:13] — Sleeping at a reasonable night hour and waking in the morning yields the best quality. Night shift workers should use masks and earplugs to cope.
- **No phone in bed** [08:30] — Using screens in bed makes falling asleep much harder. The bed should be reserved strictly for sleeping to train the body.
- **Sleep trackers are optional** [09:22] — Wristbands/rings can help data-driven people, but those who get stressed or obsessive should skip them.
- **Caffeine: only in the first third of the day** [09:59] — Caffeine traces remain 8–12 hours after consumption. Consuming it later reduces the ability to fall asleep.
- **Pre-bed activities: reading/walking** [11:03] — Reading or walking can help, but if they keep you awake, find another screen-free activity. Avoid walks in sketchy areas.

## Transcript

one of these methods is going to help you build the most muscle. That is how important sleep is because it doesn't matter how good the rest of your routine is. If you fumble the ball here, it's over. To rank all the sleep improvement
methods, I prepared four different tiers. First is the non-negotiable tier. As the name implies, if you want to get the most gains out of your sleep, you Right below that, we have the very effective tier. The sleep improvement
methods in this tier can make a massive difference in the quality of your sleep. inspiration from the methods in this tier. Then, we have the helpful tier. While the methods in this tier might not result in a drastic change, at least
most of the time, what they bring to the table can be that last little notch that you need to get your sleep in check. And lastly, we have the avoid tier, which I don't think I need to describe any further. So, first, let's just move the
elephant out of the room right away. Sleeping on average 8 hours per night is just a must if you want to build the maximum amount of muscle and feel like a normal functioning human being. Of course, this varies from person to
person. Some people can get away with just 7 hours while others might need completely fine. Everyone is different. be constantly sleeping for 5 hours each night because that is not only going to
cut your gains short, but in the long term probably your entire life. So non-negotiable tier. I don't know about you, but where I live, every time it gets just slightly warm, all the construction crews just start spawning
all over the place. And you already know that if they start a reconstruction of getting any sleep for at least the next 4 months, which brings us to these two sleep accessories. And those are earplugs and a sleep mask. Based on your
situation, these can really be a lifesaver. And that's not even over exaggerating it. I can tell you from my experience that if it wasn't for the ear plugs, I would go clinically insane. I really can't imagine sleeping without
earplugs during the drilling season. And the sleep mask can be equally as effective if you really can't make your room as dark as you would want or if you come home from the night shift and the sun is already up. Because as you will
see later, actually being in a dark environment makes a massive difference. And if you can't achieve complete darkness organically, a sleep mask or blackout blinds are your best friends. The situation with sleep masks is kind
of weird nowadays, though. There is a lot of those fancy masks that play you lullabiabis or whatever, but really a super simple sleep mask made out of cotton or something like that is all that you need. Plus, those sometimes
feel even better than those bougie masks, at least in my opinion. So, while these accessories are obviously not a must, they can be insanely helpful if you keep getting disturbed by some random noise or if there is just way too
much light when you go to sleep. So, the ear plugs and the sleep mask/ blackout blinds go into the very effective tier. But do you know what else is very effective? That's right, it's the beginner bundle, which is the complete
package that includes a training, nutrition, and a cardio guide, which was designed to teach you the basics of each category without getting overwhelmed. If about it by clicking the first link below. Now, let's put another thing into
the list, and that is blocking blue light before the bed. And while it certainly works to some degree, it really is a very small puzzle piece in thing you can do is just not look at screens before bed altogether. But hey,
if you do anyway, it's probably for the best if you at least use a night filter for your screen. And while it will not change your life, it can give you a deserves to be put into the helpful tier. But do you know what is not
helpful at all? Eating a crapload of food before bed and not in like a don't eat any carbs after dark type of way. Simply eating a lot of any food before the bed will result in you not really being able to fall asleep. It's pretty
self-explanatory. When you eat something, your body needs to digest it. It needs to work. And if your body is busy working on digesting all the food, going to sleep isn't very high on its priority list. You could get away with
some small lighter meals that are mainly protein, but eating a meal with a lot of carbs and especially fat is going to make your body work overtime. And you will definitely notice that because your body will be all hot and unable to fall
asleep. So eating a heavy meal before going to bed is something you should definitely avoid. As I just told you, when your body gets hot, it's super difficult to fall asleep. That is why it's very important that your room is on
the cooler side of things when you go to sleep. For some people, that is have no real way of controlling the temperature of my bedroom. All I can do is put up blackout blinds, open up the
window later at night, and hope that it will be all right. But if you get an AC or some kind of device that can make your room colder, I highly recommend you lower. You might be surprised how big of a difference it actually makes. That's
why it deserves to go into the very effective tier. Which brings us to supplementation, which on one hand can be pretty good, but on the other not so supplementing with magnesium and zinc can improve your sleep, which is
definitely true. But the thing is, you have to be deficient in magnesium and zinc in the first place. Otherwise, you probably won't notice any difference when you start supplementing. So yeah, this in some situations can be pretty
helpful. But then we have the other side of supplementation, the more evil one. I'm of course talking about melatonin. And I got to be honest, I have also used it occasionally. But that is the key word, occasionally. Because taking it
every single day is just not a good idea. As with basically anything that you take, your body creates some level of tolerance. You might have started with just a tiny nibble of melatonin and it felt more than enough. But after a
couple of months, it turned into one entire pill and then into two. And that's when you know you've got a problem. Melatonin is just a band-aid solution. So if you find yourself in a situation where you are dependent on
melatonin to fall asleep, you have to get your sleeping basics and hygiene in because once you get to a point where you take such a big dose of melatonin that it could put a horse to sleep, but
it has no effect on you anymore, you have nowhere to go and you never want to get to a situation like that. So, my best recommendation is to just avoid melatonin altogether. But what you should definitely not avoid is doing
throughout the day. Most people nowadays only go to the gym and that's where their physical activity ends. But if that is the case, on your rest days or on the days where you had an easier workout, you will just not really feel
tired and it will be much harder to fall asleep. That is why I am such a big fan of active recovery days. But that is a video for some other day. The TLDDR is you should do some other physical activity. I, for example, go rocking on
my rest days, which gives me the same feeling as if I did a workout, which then makes it so much easier to fall asleep. And the funny thing is having active recovery days instead of just sitting around can actually help you
recover faster. But as I said, that is a video for another day. All I can say that even just walking a couple thousand steps can definitely make a difference. That's why doing some kind of physical activity is going into the very
responsible for getting that high quality sleep that allows you to build as much muscle as possible is following the circadian rhythm. Understanding and the most important things on this deal list. Simply put, the circadian rhythm
is your body's internal clock that tells you when to feel awake and when to feel sleepy. This is mostly dependent on light and dark. That is why when it gets dark, you automatically start feeling sleepy. And when the sun starts shining
in the morning, you slowly start feeling more and more ready for the day. That's why the most ideal scenario is going to sleep at some reasonable nightly hour and then actually waking up in the morning. Not going to sleep at 4:00 a.m.
and then waking up at 3:00 p.m. That will guarantee you very poor sleep quality, which will just be confirmed by how bad you will be feeling when you that some of you are working night shifts. And in that scenario, it is what
it is, mate. All you can do in that case is just putting on a sleep mask and earplugs and praying to God that you will not feel super terrible. You got to play the hand that you have been given. But if you are just staying up super
late for absolutely no reason, that is entirely on you. So if you are in a situation where you can follow the circadian rhythm, it's absolutely non-negotiable to do so. But what you should definitely not do is be on your
phone in bed. I know that we always joke around with it in these sleep focused videos where I say there is definitely someone watching this video in bed at 3:00 a.m. And then someone comments, I'm literally watching this in my bed at
3:00 a.m. And then we all laugh about it together. But this really makes it so Staring into a screen and doom scrolling is one thing, but doing it in your bed makes it thousand times worse. You want to keep your bed as a holy space that is
only for sleeping. If you want to watch videos before the bed, do it on your PC or watch your TV in the living room. Is that good? No. But it's so much better than watching videos in bed. You need to teach your body that going to bed
actually means going to sleep. It might not seem like that big of a deal, but it really is. It's the same exact reason why you shouldn't be laying in bed all day playing your PlayStation. Remember, going to bed means going to sleep, and
that is absolutely non-negotiable. Now, we have to talk about sleep tracking accessories like those wristbands or rings. These can definitely be helpful to see what is going on. But if you are that type of person to get stressed out
by seeing how bad your sleep is, which then makes your sleep even worse, then you are probably better off staying awake. or if you tend to get really overobsessed, then you might be better off just passing on these trackers. It
really just depends on what type of person you are. If you are datadriven person and you enjoy it, absolutely go for it. Why not? But it is definitely not a must-have by any means. For the right person, it can be pretty helpful
and that's why it's going exactly into that tier. When it comes to sleep, we of course can't forget about one thing in particular and that is caffeine. Because a ton of people are completely unaware of how long it takes all the caffeine to
exit your system. If we take a can of Monster as an example, which has like 160 mg of caffeine, you would think that the entire caffeine amount will completely fade away relatively quickly. But that is not really the case. There
can still be some traces of caffeine like 8 to 12 hours later after you consumed it. So, you might think that drowning an energy drink at 3:00 p.m. will be fine. But if you plan on going to sleep at like 10 p.m., you will most
definitely be affected by the leftover caffeine at least a little bit. The effects will of course depend on your genetics and your tolerance, but is least aware of. I always recommend only consuming caffeine in the first third of
the day. Any later than that will almost certainly decrease your ability to fall asleep. So, only the first third of the day. That's non-negotiable. What is a very popular recommendation to do before going to sleep is reading a book or
going for a walk. In one of my previous videos about sleep, when I talked about reading before bed, a lot of you guys said that it's not a good idea because you want to keep reading. I guess I didn't really consider the fact that
some people like reading way too much because when I read before the bed, it's more in the style of okay, I will go to sleep because I don't want to read anymore. But I guess some of you have it a little different. I'm a much bigger
bed. That's where the exact thing happens to me where I would like to keep on walking even if I should already go to sleep. But I guess that is also not a because if you live in some sketchy area, this is probably the fastest way
of getting mocked. If you can find an activity before the bed that fits you and does not involve a screen, then that will be definitely very helpful. And that is my sleep t list. I hope you found it useful and if you would like to
please don't forget to check out the beginner bundle by clicking the first link below. Thanks for watching and I will see you next time. If you like this one too. [music]