The Sleep Era Is Upon Us (and I, For One, Am Thriving)

Somewhere between the protein obsession and the cold plunge discourse, sleep quietly became the coolest thing you can do for your health. And honestly? It's about time.

Bustle recently ran a piece on sleep tips from Olympic athletes — the people whose entire careers depend on physical recovery — and what struck me wasn't how extreme their routines were. It was how unsexy most of the advice was. Consistent bedtimes. Dark rooms. No screens. The boring stuff, done with unusual commitment.

I have been doing the boring stuff, and I will not be humble about it: my Oura ring recently gave me a 97% sleep score. In my family, this is not surprising. We are, all of us, gifted sleepers: the kind of people who can fall asleep anywhere, at any time, under any conditions. It's less a wellness practice and more a personality trait we were born into. My contribution to the family legacy is simply that I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. That's genuinely the whole routine.

And I think that's kind of the point.

We've spent so long treating sleep as the thing you sacrifice to prove you're serious... about work, about ambition, about being the kind of person who has a lot going on. Hustle culture practically made exhaustion a personality trait. I'll sleep when I'm dead was said, out loud, by adults, as if that were a flex and not a warning sign.

The research keeps piling up — sleep touches everything from cortisol to immunity to how we process emotions and regulate appetite — and now Olympians are talking about it. Not as recovery. Not as a biohack. Just as the thing that makes everything else possible.

I don't have an eight-step routine. I have a bedtime I actually keep. And apparently, in 2026, that's enough to score a 97. The ring doesn't lie.