Zest Labs

Biological rhythms

Why the Best Time to Drink Coffee Is Before You Wake Up

Why the recent trend of delaying your coffee is not quite right, and how Zest's delayed-release caffeine gets ahead of the curve

Sleep health

Why Do We Have Daylight Saving (*not Savings) Time?

7 in 10 Americans hate resetting their clocks twice a year. So how did this unpopular tradition come about?

Members only

Protocol guides

Protocol: Consistent Morning wake time and routine

Nutrition

6 Nutrients To Help Promote Sleep

Check out these 6 nutrients that support sleep-inducing hormones and improve metabolic health to give you the best zzzzzz's

Physical recovery

Top Advice for Athletes From Our Professional Sleep Coaches

Here’s the Zest sleep expert team's recommended game plan when they work with professional athletes.

Nutrition

Stay Hydrated, Sleep Better!

Water is essential for the human body and staying properly hydrated is important for you to function at optimal levels, and this includes optimal sleep! Dehydration can cause you to feel sluggish...

Members only

Nutrition

Intermittent Fasting

Nutrition

Sugar & Sleep: 5 ways they interact

Sugar and sleep have a multi-dimensional relationship that bears enough weight to have its own article. It affects our stress hormones, sex hormones, and inflammation which all relate to sleep.

Sleep 101

Your Circadian Clock

You can think of your circadian clock as the conductor of an orchestra, with the instruments being different types of bodily systems. Each part of the orchestra functions independently, but we feel best when they are in sync.

Sleep 101

Why do I have trouble sleeping?

These are changes to behavior or thought patterns that accidentally make the insomnia continue beyond the initial stressor— or the "glue" that keeps the poor sleep patterns together.

Cognitive performance

5 Ways to Optimize Your Coffee Nap

Drinking coffee before a short nap has been shown to increase energy levels and productivity better than doing either of those things on their own. These 5 tips will help you maximize those benefits.

Sleep health

How does Alcohol Impact Your Sleep?

Alcohol has a sedative effect that someone might mistake as relaxing or helpful with sleep, but from a physiological perspective that is not the case.

Nutrition

Nutrition and sleep basics

What and when we eat can help or hinder the quality of our sleep. A Standard American Diet high in processed and refined foods has been linked to a lower quality of sleep...

Protocol guides

Protocol: Consistent Sleep Window

Practicing a consistent "in bed" window is one of the most important behaviors that create better quality sleep. You can calculate your ideal "in-bed" window by...

Sleep health

Adenosine: the link between sleep, exercise and caffeine

Have you ever wondered what makes you feel sleepy or alert throughout the day? The answer lies in a molecule called adenosine.

Physical recovery

Heart Rate Variability (HRV): what it is, and why it matters to your health and your sleep

In recent years, the medical profession has also adopted heart rate variability, or HRV. Although it first took hold in a clinical context in 1965, over the years researchers have learned more and more about its causes and effects, and what HRV measurements can tell us about the human body.

Nutrition

Why Over-The-Counter Sleeping Pills are harmful for your sleep

A deeper look at OTC sleeping pills and how they affect our sleep and sleep quality.

Exercise Recovery Formula

We create the “demand to grow” in the gym. The body says, “Woah that was intense! I'd better adapt just in case...

Cognitive performance

Breathing exercises for sleep, stress and relaxation: The link between deep breathing and the parasympathetic nervous system

From our friends at Othership: a guide to how breathwork can improve your sleep, stress, and recovery, and the science behind how deep breathing influences your autonomic nervous system!

Sleep 101

What You Should Know about Temperature and Sleep

Everybody knows that trying to sleep in a room that’s too hot or too cold can be troublesome. But the science behind it is more detailed than you might think.

Biological rhythms

Why Understanding Your Daily Rhythms Is Important

Understanding the concept of Circadian Rhythms – your body's natural rhythms of sleep, energy, and performance, can help you better decipher how your actions impact how you'll feel for the rest of the day, and to build stability into your daily life.

Physical performance

What Is the Relationship Between Exercise and Sleep?

Discover how sleep and exercise affect each other and help you achieve optimal health.

Physical recovery

Sleep and Muscle Recovery

If there’s one aspect of training that many athletes neglect, it's the importance of sleep to their strength and recovery routine. But that's when the magic happens.

Cognitive performance

Fact or Myth: Hitting Snooze Provides a Few Extra Minutes of Meaningful Sleep

The inventor of the snooze button did not have your best sleep interests in mind.

Physical performance

Want to sleep better? Lift some weights.

Results of a new study show that resistance exercise promotes better sleep among inactive adults, especially those who are poor sleepers.