JEFFREY DURMER
Dr. Jeffrey Durmer is a neurologist, neuroscientist, and the Chief Clinical Strategy Officer at Happy Health, an FDA-cleared sleep diagnostics company building what he calls "the anti-Oura." Before Happy Health, Jeffrey spent 25 years at the intersection of sleep science and entrepreneurship. He was a professor at Emory and Penn, teaching neuroscience, sleep medicine, and circadian neurobiology. He also founded Fusion Sleep and Nox Health, built one of the first telemedicine programs for sleep, and has worked with the NIH, the CDC, and the RLS Foundation, where he's the board of directors chair.
Jeffrey also designed the circadian adjustment program for Olympic weightlifters heading to the 2020 Tokyo Games, training them at midnight in Honolulu to match competition time in Japan. He's been at the forefront of sleep medicine since before the Apple Watch existed, and his advice is simpler than you'd expect.
HOW HE OPERATES:
How Jeffrey manages his health and energy after 25 years in sleep science:
Wakes up at the same time every day
This is the anchor. Same wake-up time sets the circadian rhythm and creates the conditions for everything else, including deep sleep the following night.
On weekends, you can be flexible by 30 to 45 minutes, an hour at most, if needed.
"If you don't have regular wake-up times, you end up with irregular everything else"
Gets light early and often
Gets as much sun exposure as he can throughout the day. He goes outside and even sets up his office to get the most light through the window
Gets outside to move and get sunshine in his eyes
Morning light activates the circadian rhythm, and evening sunset light (the shift from blue-green to orange-red wavelengths) activates circadian cues for sleep
Eats like a king in the morning, prince in the afternoon, and a pauper at night
Front-loads calories toward the beginning of the day for energy throughout
Dinner is smaller, eaten four hours before bedtime
Eating too close to bedtime disturbs the beginning of your night, which is where your deepest, most restorative non-REM sleep happens
You don't need intermittent fasting. Just eat more earlier and less later.
Avoids alcohol and caffeine in the evening
If he's going to have a glass of wine, it's at lunch
Coffee in the morning, not later in the day
Alcohol in the evening disturbs the architecture of your sleep, especially that critical first window of deep non-REM
Winds down with zero screens and real connection
Turns all the lights down in the house in the evening
TV off an hour before anyone's bedtime
Plays guitar and talks about the day with his son. Communication over externalization.
“The night before the night before” mindset
A concept from his athletic background: if it's the night before your race, it's too late to do anything about it
Start increasing your recovery period days in advance (aka sleep banking)
Studies confirm it works: if you don't sleep well the night before, the banked sleep softens the blow
Same principle applies to jet lag: for every time zone you shift, you need one day to adjust
Keeps the brain’s B team on the bench
Jeffrey shows functional MRIs of sleep-deprived brains vs rested ones in his lectures
When you're 24 hours awake, the parts of your brain meant for complex thinking go offline
Subcortical areas take over. That's why you're slower, less accurate, worse at decisions
His analogy: "You've got your physics and math whiz doing your physics and math, and then later on, you got the liberal arts guys trying to do your physics and math. Do you really want them doing your physics and math?"
Frames sleep as the beginning of your next day, not the end of today
The biggest reframe he teaches patients, residents, and athletes
When you think of sleep as something that "just happens" at the end of the day, you don't protect it
When you think of it as preparation for tomorrow, you take it seriously
That FOMO keeping you up (one more episode, one more text) runs counter to this. You're borrowing from tomorrow.
Doesn't wear a single device
Builds them for a living. Wears zero.
Believes consumer wearables are creating more anxiety than insight
It’s crazy to trust a device over your sense of your own body.
"Even people at MIT are making themselves crazy. We even have a disorder now because of this." (It’s called orthosomnia - the obsession of attempting to achieve “perfect sleep” via trackers ironically leading to poor sleep)
His take: if you don't have a medical purpose for a device, don't let a consumer electronics company invent one for you
The device he is currently scaling is purely a diagnostic tool; use it when you go to sleep to detect an issue, then take it off; that’s it.
Knows circadian rhythm is personal
Everyone's rhythm is theirs. Studies are averages on a bell curve.
Some people can shift their rhythm easily; others are more fixed. It's familial.
The Sentinel Theory: older members of a group naturally wake earlier; younger members stay up later. It may have evolved as a way to protect the group around the clock.
Chooses companies by mission, not title
Has been a CEO, CMO, founder, advisor, consultant, the title doesn't matter to him
Looks for teams that are advancing the field, not just scaling for money
Has watched startups get greedy once they hit scaling mode and walked away
Joined Happy Health full time because they're scaling and still staying true to their foundation
“Sleep is not the end of your day. It's actually the beginning of your next day. Once you start to see it that way, you start to protect it.”
MY TAKEAWAY:
Jeffrey knows sleep better than anyone, and his advice comes down to the basics. And this is someone who literally builds sleep technology for a living. He doesn't wear a single one.
It was also so great to be validated from an actual sleep scientist that circadian rhythm is personal. Ever since I adjusted my workout schedule from morning to evening, I swear I have SO much more energy.
Something I started noticing as a pattern is the athletes who grew up playing their sport after school are the ones who enjoy the evening physical activity. I grew up playing tennis and always played better at night than the morning, so now I feel like I’m going back to my tennis roots. Jeffrey said the same, he grew up a rower and still feels like every day at 3 pm he should be rowing.
WHAT MOVES THE NEEDLE (From Jeffrey):
Don’t drink alcohol or coffee in the evenings. As much as you can.
Wake up at the same time every day. Even if it doesn’t feel great sometimes.
Get yourself moving. Get some sunshine in your eyes, get out there and do something every day. It doesn't have to be CrossFit. It doesn't have to be something serious. Go for a walk, get outdoors, get into nature, do something with your body. That's why you have one.
STEAL THIS:
Actions you can take right now
Set a consistent wake-up time for the next two weeks. Same time, every day, weekends included (30 minutes of flex is fine). Notice what happens to your energy by the end of week two.
Try to eat dinner 1 hour earlier than usual and watch how it affects your sleep and digestion.
WHAT HE IS BUILDING:
Happy Sleep
Happy Health/Happy Sleep is an FDA-cleared sleep diagnostics company. Their ring is not a consumer wearable, it's a medical device used to diagnose sleep disorders, monitor therapy effectiveness, and measure autonomic nervous system function. Patients enter through a clinical program with sleep-trained doctors, get a home sleep test, and receive a personalized care plan. Everything runs on telemedicine with insurance, FSA/HSA, and 0% financing. They're currently FDA-clearing cuffless blood pressure measurement and AFib detection from the finger, with cardiovascular and metabolic health programs on the way. The mission: help the 80% of people with undiagnosed sleep apnea actually get diagnosed and treated. He isn’t looking to get a ring on every finger, he’s looking to help the ones that need it.
Check out Happy Sleep:
Thank you for reading!
