A biohacker who claims to have de-aged himself by decades has revealed his evening routine, which he suggests has been essential to him holding back the sands of time.
In the event that you don’t know about biohacking – you’re in for a treat – it’s a process that some people use in order to give themselves longevity or to reverse the effects of aging.
They do this through a variety of processes and methods, usually involving some sort of rigid and fast diet, but also sleep monitoring, exercise, and use of technology, too.
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It’s easy to be cynical about these sorts of things – and fun—but if it makes these people live for years longer and retain their youth well into those years - we’ll all be laughing on the other side of our faces, won’t we?
Dr Mark Hyman is 63-years-old, but he claims tests show that he has the biological age of a 43-year-old man.
He credits lots of exercise, a healthy diet, and some other slightly more out-there stuff with helping him achieve this.
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But, in the evenings, as he starts to wind down for sleep, he says that he just wants to keep things simple.
Whilst that might mean a book and a cup of tea to some of us, to Dr Hyman it means keeping his stress levels low, and resetting his nervous system to optimise his sleep.
Doesn’t sound like a small task, so how does he accomplish it?
Speaking to MailOnline, he explained how he stops all technology at 7:00pm, has a balanced meal full of veggies, healthy fats and carbohydrates, then has a hot bath and does meditation.
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There are environmental factors, too.
A tidy bedroom, as well as a decent eye mask and air-conditioning unit are key, he reckons.
He explained: “My evening routine is a wind down really. I turn off screens a couple of hours before bed.
“I like to take a hot bath. [The aim is to] help reset my nervous system.”
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Whilst he lets himself use his phone during the meal, after that it’s gone and the ‘electronics watershed’ commences.
He’s got about two hours before bed to take care of jobs around the house, read a book, or take a walk.
Then, at 9:00pm, it’s bath-time.
In that bath, there’s Epsom salts and lemon oil, aimed at alleviating muscle tension and killing bacteria in pores.
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He also meditates, then takes magnesium glycinate before bed.
That’s a supplement that is supposed to reduce stress, by the way.
Then it’s eye mask on, ear plugs in, and off to sleep.
There’s quite a bit of science to back all of this up, too, as studies suggest that the bath idea is great because it causes a heat purge from the body and lowers its temperature, meaning deeper sleep.
That AC unit is great too, as we sleep better in cooler temperatures.
Banning screens is obviously a big one for sleep experts, so he’s onto a winner there, as well.
Sleep is vitally important for us to stay healthy, as well as decreasing the effects of aging, so maybe there is something to this whole biohacking method after all.
Still, it’s a lot of effort and it would seem like you’d have to have a very easy-to-control life to make it stick.
Fair play if you can, but it’s clearly not going to be possible for lots of people.
Tom Wood