This Performance Coach’s Simple Protocol Will Help You Sleep Like An Olympian

This article, written by Chloe Aiello, was originally published on Inc.com.

One of the biggest topics in performance for 2026 is perhaps the most elusive. Sleep optimization is all the rage in biohacking and longevity communities—and for good reason. 

Research shows that people who regularly get less than the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep are 19 percent less productive, more prone to eating a less healthy diet, and even have impaired reaction times similar to those caused by drinking alcohol.

But nothing seems to ruin a good night’s sleep quite like stressing out about it, as performance coach Sam Neame knows well. He recommends clients ditch the wearables in favor of a protocol that can help them sleep “like a caveman”—or more accurately, like an Olympic athlete. 

After a career in finance left Neame stressed, exhausted, and burned out, the former collegiate rower started researching sleep and performance. He founded Sam Neame Performance in 2020. He has since worked with a slate of executives and athletes, including Olympians Lucy Renshall, a British Judo athlete who competed in the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, and Isabelle Petter, a field hockey player, who helped usher team Great Britain to a bronze medal win during the 2020 Olympics before competing again in the 2024 games.

Petter says she sought out Neame’s help after struggling with what she calls “competition insomnia,” and struggling to sleep during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“I had trained so hard for so long and I found my enjoyment was snubbed by lack of sleep which led to a lot of anxiety during the games,” she writes via email.

Since implementing Neame’s recommendations, she says she’s noticed a tremendous improvement in the quality and duration of her sleep. 

“On a recent trip to China with the team I can happily say I slept for over 8 hours each night,” she says, adding, “I feel I am more energised and motivated to train, as training after a bad night’s sleep is never nice, now I feel I have my enjoyment and I do not dread or feel anxious about trips or tournaments anymore.”

For results like Petter’s, Neame recommends the following practices. He says they can work for anyone who wants to improve their sleep—whether prepping for a stressful pitch or training to hit the slopes in Cortina.

Ditch The Phone To Reduce Stress

Managing stress is among the most important factors when pursuing a good night’s sleep. Although there’s no way to control a big deadline or international athletic competition, one small way to keep stress in check is by limiting phone access around sleep time—both in the morning and at night.

Smartphones are a portal to the worries of the world, as well as a source of dopamine, and Neame recommends a phone-free environment for the first 30 or 40 minutes of the day.

“Your brain is the most malleable it’s going to be in the entire day,” he says. “If the first thing I do is go on my phone, we’re going to be filling ourselves with micro stress doses, which is very important, because that sets the tone for the day.”

And at night, Neame recommends keeping the phone out of the room altogether to avoid the temptation to cruise apps like Instagram or TikTok. “It’s like giving a kid so much candy before sleep. It’s so stimulating on another level,” he says.

For those who use their phones as alarms, this can be a tough adjustment. But bedside alarm clocks pose an obvious solution to the problem, as does placing a phone on airplane mode.

Seek Daylight First Thing

Here’s where sleeping like a caveman comes into play. Neame says viewing bright light in the morning can signal to the brain that it is time to wake up. (Although it goes without saying, do not stare directly into the sun!) That may all sound like common sense, but there is research to back it up. And opening the curtains just won’t cut it. 

It comes down to lux, which is a measurement of light intensity. Even in places where light is weaker, especially during winter months, stepping outdoors is a surefire way to get more lux for your buck. According to Mount Sinai, light can be as much as 300 times more intense outside versus inside. Bright lights facilitate the release of cortisol, which is best done early in the day, as well as the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine that are associated with well-being, alertness and responsiveness, according to Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman’s popular podcast, Huberman Lab.

Neame says stepping outside for five to 10 minutes in the morning can set you up for success hours later when it is time to sleep.

Know Your Caffeine Limits

If the morning doesn’t feel complete without a giant mug of coffee, fear not. Neame doesn’t recommend cutting it out altogether. Much like his take on smartphones, caffeine intake is all about moderation. 

“Drink as much as you like, but just stop it by midday. See how you sleep,” Neame says. “You’ll be very surprised.”

To be more specific, Neame recommends stopping caffeine intake around 12:30 p.m. That’s because the half-life of caffeine—or the time it takes for a body to metabolize half of the caffeine consumed—is about five hours in healthy individuals, according to research from the Institute of Medicine Committee on Military Nutrition Research.

Tire Yourself Out, Mentally And Physically

For high-performance founders, executives, and employees, mental fatigue may be easy to achieve. But Neame says it is important to be physically tired as well. This means exercise—but timing is key.

Exercising earlier in the day is ideal, Neame says, given strenuous exercise spikes levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. And a 2024 study, published in the journal Sleep, found that higher levels of cortisol in the body before bed reduces the duration and quality of sleep.

“If you can’t exercise at midday, I make sure that my clients don’t weight lift in the evening, because that spikes cortisol,” he says. “That basically means you’re going to have a high adrenaline going into sleep.”

But Neame says exercise in the evening is better than no exercise at all. And for those who prefer to—or can only—steal away for later workouts, lower-impact activities, like yoga or light cardio, are best.

Carbs Are Your Friend

Sleeping like a caveman doesn’t mean eating like one—at least not in the way certain controversial influencers would have you believe. Neame advocates for a balanced, whole foods-based diet. But, again, timing is key. 

For optimal sleep, he says start the day off with a protein-heavy meal, limiting starchy carbs. But he says that those carbs play a big role in sleep later on, so it is crucial to consume a meal heavier in starchy carbs at night. Whole foods sources of starchy carbs include root vegetables like potatoes and yams; legumes which include lentils and beans; and whole grains, such as rice and quinoa. A study published in 2024 in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition found that diets with a higher concentration of quality carbs can mitigate the risk of poor sleep, although low quality carbs, like those high in sugar and low in fiber, can actually harm sleep.

Your Bedroom Is Your Cave

Sleep environment is crucial for quality of sleep, Neame says. He advocates for a pitch black, quiet environment with windows cracked—even in winter—to let in fresh, cool air. He recommends dimming indoor lighting around 8 p.m. or whenever the sun might naturally be setting.

“You’re going to start to mimic what would happen as cavemen, for example. And then it’s going to put you into a slower state of sleep and tiredness,” he says. “Your melatonin will increase when the lights come down, and you’ll feel it.”

Neame himself lives in a cottage in the countryside about 50 minutes outside of London, where he says there are “horses outside my window.” For someone like Neame, achieving a restful, quiet place to sleep may be more accessible than it would be for a founder or executive living in a big city—there’s nothing quite like a passing ambulance to interrupt a restful night’s sleep.

So for those who can’t replicate that environment on their own, he recommends earplugs, black-out curtains and an air purifier—or even an assortment of houseplants. A 1989 NASA study found that houseplants have the potential to remove volatile organic compounds from air, potentially providing an economical way of improving air quality inside enclosed spaces, although the study was conducted in a controlled lab setting.

And sorry spouses and pets—Neame’s hot take is that sleeping alone is best when the pressure is on. The arrangement can help to avoid a “partner who keeps kicking us” or “someone’s cat running across their head.” As for wearables, Neame has yet another opinion he calls “quite controversial.”

“I think that wearables create more competition than anything else. It’s like waking up and saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got a bad score. That’s a bad start of the day.’ That troubles me,” he says, and advocates that athletes remove sleep trackers seven days prior to a big event to eliminate that potential source of stress.

When traveling, as athletes and executives often must, it’s possible to recreate a restful home environment, even in an unfamiliar place. Neame recommends bringing along the pillow used at home, or even a mattress if that is a viable option, as Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers) famously did during the 2010 Tour de France. If a hotel doesn’t have quality curtains, products like portable blackout curtains that suction onto the windows, are an affordable option.

Finally, A Word For Leaders

With burnout rampant in corporate America, leaders who are considering sleep quality to enhance their own performance might also be thinking about how their employees can get the best night’s sleep. 

Neame advises leaders to check in with their employees, as often as once weekly, to get a sense of whether sleep is a problem. If so, he recommends offering educational resources about sleep hygiene, as well as establishing healthy boundaries.

“That cut off in the evening from work is really important,” Neame says, as is “having good communication between your team as a business leader when it comes to their physical, mental well being.”