Everyone's buying $300 rings and $200/month blood panels to 'optimize.' Cool, but most people haven't fixed the free lever first: light exposure timing.

Your circadian rhythm runs on light, not willpower. Two things that move the needle immediately:

1. Morning light within 30-60 min of waking — even on a cloudy day, outdoor light is 10-50x brighter than indoor lighting. This is what anchors your cortisol/melatonin cycle for the next 16 hours.

2. Dim/warm light after sunset — bright overhead lights and screens at night tell your brain it's still noon, delaying melatonin release by hours.

I've tracked this for 6 weeks with a $0 budget (just phone reminders) and it did more for my sleep latency and morning energy than any supplement stack I've run. The data backs it too — this is core circadian biology, not wellness-influencer fluff.

Started writing these breakdowns up weekly — protocol + the actual study behind it, no fluff. If that's useful to you, I run it at Optimal Human.