Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup: October 9

Welcome to Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup!

In this weekly post, I share with you my most interesting discoveries of the week, including the latest news on the fronts of fitness, nutrition, health, wellness, biohacking, and anti-aging research. I also recap my upcoming events and special announcements so you can keep up with opportunities to learn, giveaways, discounts, and more!

New Discoveries

Think a Cooler Bed Is Just About Comfort? New Research Shows It Can Change Your HRV, Mood, & Next-Day Focus 🛏️

Do you wake up feeling hot, wired, and unrested? Maybe you fall asleep fine, but then around 2 or 3 a.m. you’re awake, kicking off the covers, and you spend the next day dragging, no matter how many hours in bed you logged.

That pattern often traces back to your body temperature, one of the most overlooked levers in sleep.

Your core temperature has to drop for you to fall asleep and stay in deeper sleep, then rise again as morning approaches. A bed that traps heat works against that rhythm, and your overnight heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV, a marker of autonomic nervous system function and recovery) tend to reflect it.

One fix is to control the temperature of the bed itself. I use the Orion temperature-controlled sleep system every night to do this. It cools the bed through the night and warms it again toward morning, following the same temperature curve your body runs on. It’s also a low-EMF, affordable option for cooling your mattress.

Two new studies looked at how that kind of temperature control affects sleep and recovery:

• Lower overnight heart rate and higher HRV: In the first study, 171 people wore physiological monitors for seven nights in their usual beds, then seven nights on Orion. Their average overnight heart rate dropped, and their HRV went up, both encouraging signs of better relaxation, recovery, and nervous system balance during sleep.

• Better sleep, mood, and mental sharpness: In the second study, 14 existing Orion users spent seven nights with the temperature control disabled, then seven nights with it fully active. During the active week, they reported 14% better mental sharpness, 11% better mood, and 9% improvements in both sleep quality and feeling rested.

Participants in the second study were told the temperature system was active both weeks, which helps account for expectation effects. Both studies were short and small, though, so larger independent trials need to confirm the findings.

My takeaway: if your sleep tracker looks fine but your mornings don’t, temperature is something worth looking at. Cooling and warming my bed on a schedule has made a noticeable difference in my sleep quality, and these early results point to measurable benefits beyond just feeling comfortable.

And in case you’re wondering how this might affect someone else you sleep with, Orion also has partner-specific temperature controls, so you can set each side of the bed separately (use code GREENFIELD15 here to save 15% off).

You can listen to my related podcast episode with sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus on bed cooling, Orion, and sleep here. And for more on how temperature affects sleep, HRV, and recovery, you can explore my full sleep guides and other resources:

• Top Sleep Experts Share BEST Tips to Fall Asleep Faster, Boost Deep & REM Sleep & Biohack Your Circadian Rhythm: Best Of Sleep!
• The Best Sleep Podcast Ever: Everything You Need To Know About Sleeping Better, Hacking Sleep, Sleep Cycles, Insomnia, Sleep Apnea & More With Dr. Daniel Gartenberg (Best of LIFE Network’s Experts!).
• The Last Resource On Sleep You’ll Ever Need: Ben Greenfield’s Ultimate Guide To Napping, Jet Lag, Sleep Cycles, Insomnia, Sleep Food, Sleep Supplements, Exercise Before Bed & Much, Much More!
• The Best Time Of Day To Exercise, Have Sex, Take Supplements, Read A Book, Take A Nap & More!
• Deep Sleep Decoded: Everything You Need To Know To Increase Your Deep Sleep Percentages.

It’s Official: Boundless Is HERE & Ready to Stream 🔥 🎬

After years in the making, Boundless: The Man Who Became Human is officially available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon.

For two decades, I measured nearly everything I could about my body and performance. I built my life around optimization, longevity, better biomarkers, and pushing the limits of what a human being could do.

And a lot of it worked.

But Boundless is about what none of those numbers could measure, and what that relentless pursuit nearly cost me.

The film follows my journey from extreme self-optimization and physical mastery to a much deeper reckoning with my family, relationships, faith, purpose, and what a life well-lived actually looks like. 

Losing my father and nearly losing my family forced me to confront a question no protocol, wearable, blood test, or biohack could answer: What are you optimizing for in the first place?

So if you know me for biohacking, fitness, or longevity, you may be surprised by this film. It’s ultimately less about mastering your body and more about everything that mastery can’t reach.

Watch Boundless: The Man Who Became Human now on Apple TV or Amazon.

This Week in Health & Performance: What the Latest Research Says

🌿 IBS Symptoms? Peppermint Oil May Offer Some Relief: If you’re dealing with bloating, abdominal pain, or other irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms, peppermint oil may be worth considering. A recent analysis of seven studies found that peppermint oil improved IBS symptoms compared with placebo, with a reported benefit of more than 63%. Enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules are commonly used to help relax intestinal muscles, although results vary and peppermint can worsen reflux in some people (full study here).

🏋️‍♂️💪 Do Your Muscles Compete With Each Other for Growth? Apparently Not: Some trainers believe that working multiple muscle groups in one session limits how much each can grow. But new research challenges that idea, suggesting that training your chest and legs doesn’t automatically steal growth from your biceps. It’s another reason I’m a fan of full-body strength training three to four days per week rather than complicated body-part splits. You can train efficiently without necessarily sacrificing muscle gains (read the study here).

🤸 How Well Do You REALLY Move? These Six Tests Can Help Reveal the Answer: Strength and endurance are important, but so is movement quality. A recent study identified six useful assessments for athletes: the active straight-leg raise, shoulder mobility test, squat, push-up, lateral bound, and triple hop. Together, these evaluate mobility, stability, control, and explosive movement, providing a more complete picture of athletic function than any single test (full study here).

⚡💪 Blood Flow Restriction Training Isn’t Just for Muscle Growth: You probably know blood flow restriction (BFR) training as a way to challenge your muscles using lighter weights and specialized cuffs. But a recent systematic review and meta-analysis suggests it may also improve explosive power in athletes. That means BFR could have applications beyond hypertrophy, strength, and endurance, although the best protocols for developing power still need more research (read the review here).

Key Takeaway: You don’t need complicated body-part splits to build muscle, and BFR may offer benefits beyond traditional strength and hypertrophy training. Meanwhile, movement assessments can help reveal weaknesses worth addressing, and peppermint oil continues to show promise for managing IBS symptoms.

Want to dive deeper? Click the links above to explore the research, and click here to follow me on X for all the latest health and performance news hot off the press!

Product Of The Week

::: Waking Up at 3 A.M. to Pee? This Could Be the Reason (How to Save 15% on Prosta Support Advanced) :::

Waking up at 3 a.m. to pee is common as men age, but it’s not something you have to accept. 

Hormonal shifts, including changes in DHT, and low-grade inflammation can affect your prostate before you notice frequent nighttime bathroom trips, a weaker stream, or that never-quite-finished feeling.

Xtend-Life’s Prosta Support Advanced was formulated to support prostate and urinary health, combining saw palmetto, stinging nettle root, and beta-sitosterol.

These three ingredients work on hormones, inflammation, and urine flow in complementary ways, and research suggests they work better together than alone.

Here’s what Prosta Support Advanced was designed to do:

• Support healthy urinary flow and bladder comfort
• Reduce nighttime bathroom trips
• Support normal prostate function and hormone balance

Results vary, but some men notice a difference within 4 to 8 weeks, and benefits can continue to build over 3 to 6 months of consistent use.

If you’re looking to get proactive about prostate health, check out Xtend-Life’s Prosta Support Advanced here and use code BEN15 to save 15% on your first order.

Podcasts I Recorded This Week:

The Little-Known “Throwaway” Gland That Is CRITICAL For Immunity (& The Unexpected Peptides To Support It) With Abud Bakrii

Doctors Gave Him 4 Years To Live: How A Biochemist REVERSED His Heart Disease, With Patrick Theut