Tech entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson has spent millions optimizing his health, but among all the therapies and interventions he’s tested, one metric stands above the rest: resting heart rate before bed.
“It is the single most effective therapy I’ve ever found,” Johnson explains in a recent event, emphasizing that managing this simple measurement has become the foundation of his entire wellness routine.
The logic behind Johnson’s discovery is elegantly simple yet powerful. A lower heart rate before sleep directly correlates with better sleep quality, which then creates a cascading effect on overall health behaviors.
He said, “The lower your heart rate before bed, the more likely you’ll sleep well. And when you sleep well, you have more willpower and you want to exercise and eat well when you don’t sleep well.”
According to Johnson, quality sleep strengthens willpower, making it easier to maintain exercise routines and healthy eating habits. Conversely, poor sleep compromises the prefrontal cortex—the brain region responsible for decision-making and self-control—leaving individuals more vulnerable to unhealthy choices.
Johnson has become so attuned to this metric that he can predict his sleep quality with remarkable precision. He said: “If I go to bed tonight, my heart rate between 39 and 44 beats per minute, I will have a perfect night’s sleep. I’ll fall asleep within 2 minutes. I’ll have roughly 2 hours of REM, roughly 2 hours of deep.”
The difference between optimal and suboptimal is stark. When his heart rate climbs to the low 50s before sleep, Johnson reports experiencing 30 to 40 percent lower quality sleep, with more frequent nighttime awakenings and fragmented rest patterns.
“I’ve built my entire life around my resting heart rate before bed,” Johnson states, highlighting how this single data point has become his primary health compass.
The biohacker’s approach suggests that rather than focusing on multiple complex interventions, monitoring and managing resting heart rate could serve as a master lever for improving overall health outcomes.