The One Healthy Habit Even The U.S. Surgeon General Struggles With

“What I really should be doing is I should be sleeping somewhere around eight hours,” he said. “I should be sleeping at a consistent time at night. And I should be keeping distractions away from me, like phones.”

All those factors are components of what’s known as sleep hygiene, which is broadly defined by the CDC as “good sleep habits,” like turning off electronics before bed, not eating or drinking alcohol too close to bedtime, and going to sleep at the same time every night.

The problem for Murthy and, we suspect, many other people, isn’t a lack of desire to do these things: “That’s something I want to do,” he says, “but I’ve struggled… I haven’t prioritized and executed on getting to bed.”

He’s not the only expert who struggles to prioritize a healthy sleep routine in their own life. mbg’s co-founder Colleen Wachob got less than ideal sleep for two decades before finding a solution that worked for her (which you can read more about here!).