Ben Greenfield’s Weekly Roundup: September 4

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

Can a Vibrating Wristband *Really* Help You Sleep Longer? Nearly 475,000 Nights of Data Say It Might… 😴⚡

I’ve been using a little vibrating wristband/ankle band for the past few years, after interviewing Dr. David Rabin about the science of the Apollo SmartVibes® wearable (you can check out those podcasts here and here). 

Apollo is a wearable you strap to your wrist or ankle that delivers gentle, patterned vibrations through your skin. This is known as transcutaneous vibratory stimulation (TVS), a type of “haptic” stimulation—basically, technology that communicates with your body through the sense of touch. The goal is to influence the autonomic nervous system and help shift your body toward states such as relaxation and sleep.

Now, a massive new study suggests this form of vibration-based stimulation can actually help people sleep longer, especially those who aren’t getting enough sleep to begin with.

The study analyzed nearly 475,000 nights of real-world sleep data from 935 people using both Apollo Neuro and an Oura Ring over three years. 

Among those getting less than six hours of sleep, nighttime Apollo use was associated with significantly longer total sleep time. 

The study found a dose-response relationship, meaning longer periods of nighttime stimulation tended to be associated with greater improvements. Those using 240+ minutes of transcutaneous vibratory stimulation (TVS) gained about 36 minutes of sleep compared with their baseline, while nighttime use was also associated with a 77% reduction in the odds of having a short night of sleep. 

The extra sleep also contained proportionally more REM sleep at the expense of light sleep.

One important caveat: this wasn’t a randomized controlled trial. Researchers analyzed real-world Apollo and Oura data, so the findings show an association rather than proving that Apollo directly caused people to sleep longer. Still, almost half a million nights of data make this an interesting real-world signal worth paying attention to.

So how can you actually use this information? 

If you’re already getting seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep, don’t expect a wearable to add another hour magically. The effects were smaller as baseline sleep increased. 

But if you’re routinely falling short on sleep, nervous-system regulation can be another lever worth experimenting with alongside the fundamentals: a consistent bedtime, morning sunlight, a dark and cool bedroom, smart caffeine timing, and a solid wind-down routine.

And if you experiment with a sleep wearable or nervous-system device, track the results rather than guessing. Give it enough time, keep the rest of your routine reasonably consistent, and watch trends in total sleep time, awakenings, REM/deep sleep, HRV, and, most importantly, how you actually feel the next day.

For more ways to optimize your sleep and benefit from wearables, you can check out my resources on nervous system regulation, HRV, light and circadian rhythms, and my previous conversations with Dr. David Rabin:

Younger Skin, Boundless Energy & Unbeatable Sleep Scores: My Upgraded End-of-Summer Protocol Is HERE ⚡💤

Summer has a way of writing checks your recovery can’t cash.

Late nights, hot days, travel, and nonstop training add up, and by September, you may be feeling it.

These are the products I’ve been using to close out summer strong, from daily nutrition and ketones to hydration, skincare, sleep, and recovery. Everything here is something I personally use and have vetted for its science and effectiveness.

Inside my end-of-summer protocol, you’ll find:

• IM8 Daily Ultimate Essentials PRO — 90+ nutrients in one daily drink, replacing a pile of separate supplements.
• Tecton Ketones — My pre-sauna and cold-plunge ketone shot for clean energy and mental clarity.
• Formula IQ CopperIQ Serum — Copper peptides + hyaluronic acid to support hydrated, resilient, youthful-looking skin.
• BIOptimizers — My go-to supplements for sleep, digestion, stress, and metabolic support.
• LMNT Iced Tea — Electrolytes to replenish sodium, potassium, and magnesium.
• Young Goose — Science-driven skincare designed to support cellular repair, energy, and healthy aging.
• LIFE Market Peptides — Physician-reviewed peptide options for metabolic health, recovery, skin, hormone support, and more.

I’ve also pulled together discounts and special offers to help you try them for less. If you want to head into fall sharper, stronger, and better rested, you can start here.

Boundless Hits Streaming September 22nd + How to Pre-Order the Film Now 🎬

The Boundless Live tour has allowed me to share Boundless: The Man Who Became Human on the big screen alongside my family. Now, the film is almost available to everyone at home.

You can now pre-order Boundless on Apple TV (and on Prime Video soon!), with the full streaming release taking place on September 22nd.

Boundless isn’t just a typical film about biohacking, longevity, or pushing the limits of human performance. It’s about what I discovered after years of doing exactly that, and why faith, family, relationships, purpose, and ultimately the soul became far more important than another biomarker or optimization hack.

If you missed the live world premiere, you don’t have to wait for it to come back around. You can pre-order it here on Apple TV (with Prime Video coming soon!).

Every pre-order between now and September 22 helps push Boundless into the trending titles the moment it launches.

So if you weren’t able to join us for one of the live screenings, or you’ve been waiting to watch the film at home, you can pre-order Boundless now here.

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

😴🧬 Want to Age More Slowly? There May Be a Sleep “Sweet Spot”: A massive new Nature study using data from around 500,000 people compared sleep duration with 23 biological aging clocks spanning multiple organs and molecular markers. Researchers found a U-shaped relationship: the lowest biological age gaps showed up around 6.4–7.8 hours of sleep, depending on the organ and sex. Both short sleep (under six hours) and long sleep (over eight) were associated with greater biological aging, systemic disease, and mortality risk. That said, needing more sleep doesn’t necessarily mean sleep itself is causing the problem. Long sleep can sometimes point to underlying health issues. And highly active people, such as professional athletes, might legitimately require more recovery sleep (read the full study).

🏃‍♂️🔥 In Pain? One of the Best Things You Can Do May Be to MOVE: This probably won’t surprise you, but the evidence behind exercise for pain is very convincing. A huge umbrella review pulled together 157 systematic reviews encompassing 2,736 randomized controlled trials and more than 221,000 participants. Overall, exercise significantly reduced pain across acute and chronic conditions, with benefits from aerobic exercise, resistance training, yoga, Pilates, and tai chi. You don’t necessarily have to crush yourself either; lower-intensity programs actually showed greater effects in this analysis. The lesson: when appropriate for your condition, movement can be medicine (full study here).

⚡❤️ Got a Teen Who Loves Monster or Red Bull? They Should Know This: A new systematic review looked at caffeine-related heart rhythm problems in children and teens and found that high doses delivered through energy drinks, caffeine tablets, and powders can trigger abnormal heart rhythms and ECG changes. Reported problems ranged from rapid heart rate and premature beats to supraventricular and ventricular tachycardia, QTc prolongation, and other electrical abnormalities. The evidence base is still relatively small (just 12 eligible publications involving 39 adolescents), but it’s another reason teenagers shouldn’t treat highly caffeinated drinks and supplements like they’re harmless (read the full review).

🧪🧴 Can You Actually REMOVE Microplastics From Your Body? Here’s Some Very Early Research: Most microplastic advice focuses on reducing exposure, but a tiny proof-of-concept human study tested an oral food-grade Plastic Adsorptive Compound (PAC) designed to bind ingested micro- and nanoplastics in the gut and facilitate their elimination. Seven adults took PAC for 30 days, after which researchers reported an average 74% reduction in detectable plastic particle concentration in blood. That’s intriguing, but this was an open-label study with only seven people and no placebo group, so it’s too early to conclude that PAC can “detox” us from microplastics until we have evidence from larger randomized trials (read the proof-of-concept study here).

Key Takeaway: This week’s research reinforces some fundamentals: sleep in the sweet spot, keep moving even as you age, and be cautious with concentrated caffeine, especially in younger people. But we’re also starting to see research into something much newer: whether it may eventually be possible to actively reduce the micro- and nanoplastics that make their way into the body.

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

::: How Fast Are You REALLY Aging? Find Out + Save 20% on TruDiagnostic 🧬⏳ :::

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That’s where TruDiagnostic can help. Their epigenetic testing measures biological aging markers, giving you a way to see how your habits affect how you age.

I’ve always thought measuring biological age is one of the missing pieces in most people’s health routines. You track your workouts, macros, sleep scores, and other biomarkers, but almost nobody tracks aging itself. And it’s critical because aging is the #1 risk factor that increases your chance of poor performance and sickness over time.

Instead of only feeling like your habits are working, TruDiagnostic gives you objective data you can track over time. If you’re serious about longevity, this is one more way to measure whether your protocol is actually moving you in the right direction.

Right now, you can use code BEN20 to save 20% on all TruDiagnostic products and subscriptions.

Podcasts I Recorded This Week:

How To Build An Ideal Workday With Powernaps, Email Delegation & Deep Work Tactics, Featuring Chandler Bolt

This Guy Healed Knee Arthritis *Without* Surgery (& Chest-Pressed 555lbs For 14 Reps) – Cellular Hydration Secrets With John Jubilee