This Property Agent Dad Is Dangerously Tired. Can He Get His Energy Back? | Restless - Part 1/2

Summary

Property agent and father Jeffrey, working mother Chelsea, and shift-working nurse Michelle investigate their exhaustion with guidance from digital medicine expert Professor Dean Ho. By tracking sleep, activity, food, and other health data, they identify ways to make small, manageable changes rather than attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul.

Jeffrey’s long workouts and short, phone-disrupted nights appeared to contribute to severe afternoon drowsiness and irritability. After five weeks of earlier bedtimes, less screen time, shorter workouts, and dietary changes, he reported better afternoon energy and improved interactions with his family. His recorded sleep rose to more than seven hours on average, and his testosterone increased by almost 50%.

Chelsea struggled to balance work, parenting, and personal time. She found that moving bedtime earlier and meditating with her husband helped her sleep more consistently and strengthened their relationship. She also learned to use glucose data to notice how food choices and late eating could affect her.

Michelle’s rotating shifts made consistent rest difficult. Tracking her performance and sleep helped her see the effects of limited recovery. She began using a wind-down alarm and prioritizing sleep and breaks when work was busy.

The central message is that small, repeatable adjustments—guided by personal data and support from others—can improve how people feel, even when life’s demands remain.

Key Strategies and Techniques

• Make sleep changes gradually. Small shifts, such as going to bed 15 minutes earlier, may be easier to sustain than a dramatic change. Repeating a small change can help it become a habit.
• Reduce bedtime phone use. Jeffrey tried leaving his phone outside the bedroom to avoid doomscrolling and sleep disruption. Although he worried about missing work messages, he found he could usually respond the next morning.
• Create a wind-down routine. Michelle set a 9:30–9:45 p.m. wind-down alarm to help build more consistency around sleep when her shifts allowed.
• Protect recovery as well as exercise. Jeffrey reduced his three-hour workouts to 90 minutes by streamlining exercises and rest periods. The program highlighted that excessive training combined with insufficient sleep may undermine recovery.
• Use personal data as feedback. Wearables, glucose monitoring, and cognitive tests helped participants connect sleep, food, and exercise patterns with changes in alertness, glucose, and resting heart rate. The expert emphasized that these measurements are useful checkpoints, not just one-time health snapshots.
• Notice food timing and composition.
  • Chelsea observed that eating protein and fiber, such as salad, before carbohydrates could reduce her glucose spike.
  • The program noted that late meals and snacks, especially after 8 p.m., could interfere with Chelsea’s sleep.
  • Jeffrey adjusted his post-workout choices, including choosing salmon and potatoes instead of a large, high-glycemic meal. The discussion also emphasized fatty fish, other healthy fats, and zinc-containing foods.
  • Michelle prepared filling snacks such as rice cakes with cottage cheese or fruit with Greek yogurt. She also limited tempting snack foods by not keeping them at home.
• Use intentional, restorative personal time. Chelsea reflected that unplanned, numbing downtime could leave her drained, while deliberate self-care, such as meditation, felt more restorative.
• Lean on support. Chelsea and her husband meditated and kept each other accountable. Michelle described the value of friends and support networks, particularly in nursing. Family support also helped participants maintain healthier routines.
• Take dangerous drowsiness seriously. Jeffrey’s fatigue while driving was a safety risk. His family sometimes told him to stop so someone else could drive; the program’s changes aimed to reduce the underlying fatigue.

Presenters and Sources

• Professor Dean Ho — Director of the Institute for Digital Medicine at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; guided the participants’ data-informed lifestyle changes.
• Jeffrey Pong, Chelsea, and Michelle — Featured participants sharing their experiences.
• CNA Insider — Video publisher.