April 9, 2024 • 34 mins
This week on the pod I am thrilled to share my conversation with Jack Dell'Accio from Essentia.
Jack Dell’Accio, Certified Sleep Coach and CEO & Founder of Essentia, has been focused on analyzing sleep for over 20 years. Of most importance to Jack is the impact of restorative sleep in terms of recovery from disease, prevention of disease, longevity, and performance. Jack has worked with some of the world's top athletes to optimize their recovery and performance. Through the years, he has worked directly with health gurus, professional athletes and teams in the NBA, NFL, MLS, and over 25% of active NHL players on creating healthy sleep performance. Essentia’s organic mattress has been recognized by several internationally renowned organizations including the Mayo Clinic’s Well Living Lab. Essentia has been named the #1 foam mattress by Consumer Reportsfor 7 consecutive years.
We talk all things mattresses, sleep soundly tactics, and how Jack is prioritizing his own health and wellness as a busy CEO.
Enjoy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi everyone. Welcome back.
It's great to be with you and thanks for joining me for
another episode of the podcast. Super psyched to get back.
To the interview format today and we're going to chat about
sleep. I know this is such a huge issue
for so many people and we get somany questions about sleep in
our community. One with the people that we work
with that it's great to get backto this topic again.
To that end, we interview today Jack Del Acchio, who is a
(00:23):
certified sleep coach and the CEO and founder of Essentia,
which is a mattress company. That just so happens this is not
a sponsored podcast, but just sohappens that all my family
sleeps on Essentia and has for about 10 years.
So when Jack reached out and we got to chatting and figured that
that this would be a great show to do, I was super psyched
(00:44):
because these are the products that I used to sleep on.
Jack has been focused on analyzing sleep for over 20
years. One of the things that's of the
highest importance to Jack is the impact of restorative sleep
in terms of recovery from disease, prevention of disease,
longevity and performance. Actually started out making
(01:04):
mattresses to help people with cancer.
Jack has worked with some of theworld's top athletes to optimize
their recovery and performance throughout the years.
He has worked directly with health gurus, professional
athletes and teams from the NBANFLMLS and over 25% of active
NHL players on creating healthy sleep performance.
(01:25):
Essentia's organic mattresses. We will discuss what that is has
been recognized by several internationally renowned
organizations including MYO Clinic.
Essentia has been named the number one foam mattress by
Consumer Reports for seven consecutive years and so this is
something that I use and I wanted to share that with you.
(01:45):
Not a sponsored post, but super.Thrilled to be.
Able to talk to you about one ofthe core strategies of how to
get a great night's sleep, whichis to have a good mattress.
And I know that for a lot of people, mattresses are
expensive, actually expensive for everybody.
And this is a major investment, but you'll have it for 10 years
plus. So when you think about it in
terms of like a dollars per night investment, it completely
(02:08):
changes the game. And the things that Jack and I
are going to talk about will hopefully help you to justify
that investment. All right, here we go.
Let's dive into this conversation all about sleep
with certified sleep Coach and CEO and Founder of Essentia Jack
del Accio Doc. Thank you so much for joining
us. I really appreciate it.
It's great to see you. Thank you, Doctor.
(02:29):
I really appreciate having the opportunity to be on here with
you. So give us a little.
Bit of the background in the origin story just for people
that aren't familiar with you and then we can take it from
there. I'm on by the way I'm just in
the intro I mentioned that obviously you're the creator of
essential mattresses my entire family is on and essential
mattresses. This is not a sponsored podcast,
(02:49):
but we have a brand alignment. I use all of your stuff, so I'm
super thrilled to have you on onthe show and just love to hear a
little bit more about your background and how you got the
company started. Sure.
I mean for me this dates back 23years, company's 19 years old,
but 23 years ago is when my pathwas redirected for what I was,
what I was already doing. I was kind of always been raised
(03:11):
in this entrepreneurial world. So my curiosity usually end up
taking a business path. And 23 years ago I had some
people in the family were I'll going through cancer and trying
to figure out not only the path to to healing but the path to
tolerating it and be able to handle some of the pain and and
that they had to go through. And during those times I was
(03:31):
learning a whole lot about the importance of a clean home,
clean environment and clean sleep environment.
And my my family does have a history in latex foam.
So there was a kind of an understand understanding of the
flexible foams and and what goesinto mattresses.
And so I took the direction of understanding why we're not all
using organic foams and the problems with organic phones and
(03:53):
those challenges and then basically hit the labs and
started working on different formulations to try to make a
pressure redistributing organic foam.
And that was the I was it was driven by trying to understand
products that can help people who were facing maybe their
largest challenge. But that was just the infancy of
(04:14):
the company. That's when they started in
2006. Initially we were really a
resource to people who were either going through cancer in
remission, but our path evolved from there.
Then it was people wanted us forprevention purposes and and and
then it was just the lifestyle people were looking for organic
lifestyle by but my I never tookoff my research and development
(04:36):
hat that's always I've always been driven to that I I I still
today I still continue working on formula I still continue
working on new iterations and I'm always thinking how to make
it better what's that I'm not the business guy who's looking
at the industry and seeing how to navigate.
I really just so self-centered in our product and how to make
our product better whether the industry is ready for it or not.
(05:00):
I'm just really focused on the Wellness.
So by 2009 I've patented essential formula and core,
which not only was the organic core that I had originally
developed, but now it was understanding how to improve
deep sleep. Longer sleep cycles but but
truly relevant sleep not not thelight cycles and by 2012 people
(05:23):
started noticing. 2012 is when we had our pro athletes notice
and a lot of the strength and conditioning coaches, medical
Staffs of teams started reachingout and wanted to understand the
technology, wanted to go throughsome evaluations and it's been
it's been a ride since then. It's been interesting because we
love helping people. It's just so really important
(05:44):
part of our of our user base, our people with going through
their life challenges, but also just general people who are
trying to be champions in their own world.
People want achieve high goals whether it's be in business, in
their personal levels, just being your best every single
day. And the athletes were really
incredible kind of audience to work with similar to my first
(06:06):
audience who were ill and reallyfelt a lot of pain and were able
to communicate what they were feeling.
The athletes took it to a different level because and they
weren't distracted by some of the ailments that they were
going through. They were really focused on how
their body feels after practice,after training, after injury and
learned a lot from them and where it was able to continue to
(06:28):
develop essentia to what it is today.
Amazing story. I also got involved with the
brand around 2012 and it was in through my work with athletes at
the time. That led me to exploring and
what's the best mattress I found?
You guys put a bunch of the athletes I was working with on
them. Ended up over time getting them
for every single member of of myfamily.
(06:50):
My only beef with you guys is that you stopped with the
ergonomic pillows the the one with the the extra support
around my neck. So I broke my neck and so I have
four of them. They're now in hidings that I
can use those for the rest of mylife.
Maybe we can work on that together, getting the ergonomic
pillow back, but talk to me a little bit about what are the
differences between different types of mattresses.
(07:11):
Sleep is a massive issue for this community.
Whenever I post anything on sleep, it is by far the most
engaged information. So because everyone listening is
probably on a whole bunch of different mattresses.
So what are our options and Orient us to why this is so
important? We realized early on it it it's
the game changer. It's the one thing in your life
(07:32):
that the most impactful in how you will perform and your
Wellness. It's passive, you know so so
unfortunately doesn't get the credit it deserves because you
don't. You don't hit to a gym to get
your sleep, but this is something that you can do
passively. It's lights out and you go to
sleep. However, everything you do in
(07:53):
your day will only be as good ashow well you've slept.
And if we really didn't need it,we'd have a pill to stay awake
24/7. But but it's so critical.
And then it's not just hours. I know we like to generalize
things that you need 7 to 9 hours of sleep or 8 hours of
sleep, but it's really not the same for every individual.
It's how much REM and deep sleepthat you log.
(08:14):
And we've been obsessed with this probably since around 2012,
2013, where 2009, we really focused on so many things, but
we've obsessed with it, you know, in the last 10 years or
so, just because we realize thatthat's what moves the needle is
really getting increased R.E.M. increased deep.
And we have athletes who would, you know, struggle with getting
(08:37):
even close to six or seven hoursof sleep.
They'd only get 5 hours of sleep.
But we were, if we were able to get them to up to about 5 1/2
hours of sleep. But they logged in three hours
of R.E.M. and deep. I mean, they're as good as new.
They've recharged, they're recovered, and they're ready to
take on the next day. It really is something that
helps prevent everything you canimagine.
(08:57):
It sounds like a blanket statement, but proper sleep
helps for Alzheimer prevention helps for both both body and
mind happiness. It touches everything because
everything that's happening in the body is correcting itself
during sleep at night you know when it whether it be your your
mind where your glymphatic system is really clearing up all
(09:19):
the waste and helps with memory,helps with storage and all these
things help for your mind and spirit to take on your days.
I mean I could ramble for hours about the importance of sleep it
it and and really want to pass on.
It's so important differences between mattresses is in most
cases you're always have to compromise and that's what we've
(09:41):
been so focused on is making an uncompromising product that
really gives you everything you need.
But we've kind of identified butI I like I call them stimulants.
Stimulants that obstruct sleep, and the most obvious ones are
outside of the bed light sound, you know, obviously these are
(10:02):
things that you can see and theykeep you awake, but what we
focus on is what you can't really notice the VO CS in the
room, so you're indoor air quality.
And most people don't realize that the highest concentration
of toxins in a bedroom comes from a mattress.
So is there nothing else in thatroom that is emitting as much
(10:23):
toxins as a mattress because they're typically made with
chemicals and fire barrier chemicals And what's been
popular over the last 10 years have been because people have a
complaint of sleeping hot in in in these foam mattresses.
Well, now they've added a chemical which are phase
changing chemicals to help cool you down.
It's a chemical reaction happening.
(10:43):
You're adding to the cocktails of off gassing that's coming out
of that mattress. So we we focus on not using any
of those, focus on being organic, but just being organic
is not good enough. You need pain relief, you need
pressure redistribution, you need posture support, you need
thermal regulation. So I'm rambling a little bit,
but when you get into thermal regulation, it's not just about
(11:06):
dropping the temperature of yourroom, it's about your body
dropping in temperature. You know, it's kind of actively
while you sleep. We have this inner clock in US,
right? We all have it and it is it's
sort of wraps around the circadian rhythm.
Daytime, night time. Very historically our bodies are
are, are are designed that we wake up to light and heat and we
(11:30):
sleep to darkness and cold. And that's the kind of the
combination if if the temperature, if your body
temperature is dropping throughout the night, you're
allowing it to get into deeper sleep and stay longer in these
deeper sleep cycles. And the opposite happens.
If you're heating up, your body's tends to think that it's
(11:50):
it's time to wake up. So those are all the different
types of stimulants that we really focus on.
Amongst others, we've identified7 different stimulants from
pressure relief and pressure redistribution, posture support
and posture alignment. The Emfs, which basically are
the waves. Again, something you can't see.
There's there's so much that youcan't see that interrupts your
(12:10):
sleep. With Emfs are signals and waves
that are coming from cell phonesand cell phone towers and
downloads and streaming. And I'm not a person who've
always I've embraced technology.So how do we move forward with
technology and mitigate those damages rather than saying, hey,
I'm not going to embrace technology at all.
We're not going to live without our cell phones.
(12:31):
We're not going to live without streaming.
We've been able to identify thatthrough dark field microscopy.
We've identified that your bloodcells behave erratically in the
presence of cell phone downloadsand all.
The 3G-4G5G, that erratic behavior of cell phone, we
believe because it's erratic andit's and it's clumping them
(12:53):
together, it's not allowing oxygen to flow as freely through
your blood cells. What we've been able to do is
through our latest iteration thelast two years, all of the
central mattresses basically have a new formula which has our
ports technology in it and the quartz stores memory and it
maintains an organic an organic low level frequency which
(13:15):
prevents all of these Emfs. While you can still use your
phone, it comes in at an organicwave rather than an erratic wave
and we've been able to identify that you no longer get that
blood activity, that erratic blood activity while using
technology. So that's how we really get into
such small but a really important details on expanding
(13:39):
sleep. Two years ago we ran a study
with 75 pro athletes and it was it was a long study, it was a 10
week study and we really obviously double-blind so no one
knew what they were sleeping on.We were able to identify that we
we were able to improve and increase Prem sleep and deep
sleep by as little as 20% and asmuch as 60% over that ten week
(14:03):
period and everyone was immediately improving their
results over everyone that had the non essential mattresses.
It's real. And it's pretty incredible
results, actually. That's a lot and I'm fascinated.
I'm going to have to dig into some of the things that you
mentioned because I'm unfamiliarwith them.
But I would love to go back a little bit and talk about
(14:24):
volatile organic compounds or Vocs and off gassing and why?
Because people often probably don't think about I need an
organic mattress or an organic mattress would benefit me.
Like why is that a factor? What are Vocs?
What is off gassing and and and why could we potentially move in
this different direction when itcomes to what we're sleeping on?
(14:47):
So this we had this was basically at the core of
essentia and and and realizing early on that this is something
was one of the key stimulants that keep people from getting
into deep sleep and and REM sleep or or at least not logging
in as much time as they should. So what the VO CS are, are the
chemicals, chemical compounds that are in most mattresses,
(15:10):
whether you find them in the polyurethane foam which contain
formaldehydes and and and and benzene and every type of
petroleum based component that you could that that you can
imagine or it's in the Fr which is the fire rating requirements.
So there's so many chemicals in there, either on the textile or
on the foam themselves so that they won't spread fires.
(15:34):
And that's a that's a law that is required to to have mostly in
the United States but also in Canada and around the world.
They're all using them because no one wants to run multiple
productions. Basically, these gases that are
constantly emitting from synthetic products, they're in
the air. Everything has AVOC level when
exposed to heat, even when you're burning wood, there's
(15:55):
Vocs that come out of it, but obviously in the chemicals, they
don't need to be heated up. They're they're constantly
emitting from these products. What we've been able to identify
is that basically this is a stimulant, so your body has to
resist it. You have to fight it, and you're
unconsciously fighting it. So your central nervous system
is actively preventing you from,or at least trying to prevent
(16:19):
you from absorbing these. So it's a defense mechanism that
your immune system has to to defend itself while you're
sleeping and while you're awake.But while you're sleeping is
critical because we want the bind and the central nervous
system to be slowing down and tobe allow for deep sleep and REM
sleep. I kind of call VOC sort of like
the sleeping pill of mattresses.A sleeping pill.
(16:41):
The way it works if you've ever used one before knocks you out,
but you wake up feeling groggy because it'll keep you in light
sleep cycles, but it really doesn't get you in those deep
sleep cycles that are so much needed.
And VOC has worked the same way.You may go to sleep at night,
but you're not really at the deep, restful sleep because your
central nervous system is overactive defending against
(17:04):
them. Got it.
That's super helpful and definitely one of the reasons
why we went with Essentia for our family and as our family was
growing, so we started in 2012 and that's in and around when I
became aware of you. And so that's why I'm, I asked
about that. That's an interesting factor.
I also want to get into another one of the stimulants that you
mentioned, which is pressure. And the reason why I asked that
(17:25):
is because some people love sleeping on hard mattresses,
some people like sleeping on softer mattresses.
But I'm curious about preferences for hard versus
soft, why those differences exist and why What your thoughts
are it with regards to the pressure being a stimulant that
can disrupt? Sleep.
So this the the question. Kind of reminds me of when I
(17:47):
either consult with some athletes, but my favorite was
with consulting with an owner ofa team.
It was actually, it was interesting.
He was the owner of the MontrealCanadiens and he comes over to
our showroom and I I I met with him and he goes, well, how do I
go about choosing which mattress?
And it goes and I said no, no, we do the choosing for you.
So a lot of times people think it's about comfort, what your
(18:11):
preferences soft, medium, firm and whatever the mattress
language is. But really it's your posture
that dictates what you should besleeping on.
And the the problem with the status quo in the mattress
industry is they don't know how to make a soft mattress that's
high density. So they make everything.
So they add air anytime they want to make something softer.
(18:34):
So by adding air, it makes it fluffier, softer feeling.
They've eliminated density at and replaced it with air.
So a foam will feel softer or they'll have fibers on it which
will, which will give you that initial comfort feeling.
But without the density it's notgiving you any support.
So what we've actually developedis something that is high
(18:58):
density, high elasticity becausewhat what a a soft bed is for is
somebody who has a very pronounced, very curved spinal
alignment and posture. And because if you, if if you
imagine if you have a very curved lower back, we need to
eliminate that negative space, we need to support it.
So you need to get into the mattress.
If you have a very flat back, you need to almost stay on the
(19:20):
mattress. And really, if I had to put it
in in comfort preferences. So if you have a flat back, you
need to be on a firmer bed. If you have a curved back, you
need to get on a softer bed. But it's not just about soft and
firm, because if you bind the wrong soft mattress, it's not
doing anything for you because it's not very supportive.
So not only do we have to support that fill up that
(19:42):
negative space, but it's got to be filled with something dense,
something with high elasticity so that it's not putting too
much pressure on your shoulders when it's cradling your lower
back. Well, the way we designed our
latex is kind of, if you can imagine, maybe it's my Italian
background. It always reminds me of pizza
dough. It's thick, it's heavy, but yet
(20:05):
it has that elasticity to mold to your body.
That's really a key part to having a proper, softer feeling
bed. It is.
It kind of a trick. It's not really a soft bed, but
it it appears to be because of its elasticity.
When you're on it horizontally, it really is molding and
supporting both shoulders and lower back.
(20:26):
And on an essential bed you really only look at two types.
One is do I sink deeper in because I've got a very
pronounced lower back to fill, or am I keeping you closer to
the surface? If you have a very flat back,
that's really the differences inthe comfort is there on both of
them. However, the the the true
comfort is no pain, no pressure throughout the night and if
(20:51):
you're sleeping on the right theright surface that's really
supporting that and not giving you pressure, that's going to be
the the full 8 hours of comfort throughout the night.
Let's take a step back and go toa 30,000 foot view of the
situation that we're in right now, which is that about 25% of
our population diagnosed sleeping disorder, very high
(21:13):
levels of fatigue, burnout and of course mental health
challenges which are related to sleep, nutritional challenges
which are related to sleep. We know that cardiovascular
disease is related to sleep. So it's very important for us
not only that it unlocks our learning, our cognition, our
ability to solve problems, be creative, to innovate.
(21:33):
So it's essential for us. Maybe that's why you named your
company essentially. I'm not sure if anyway, it's
very important. And yet as a society, we really
struggle to prioritize sleep. In fact, often sleep is looked
at as a weakness or something that is a badge of honor that
you don't need sleep or that youdon't get any sleep because
(21:55):
you're working so hard. Why do you think that is?
And what do you think we can do about that?
To help people to prioritize sleep and to make that
investment in terms of time and effort to and attention and
commitment to sleeping well. You know, it's really
(22:15):
interesting that mindset and andsleep is sort of like a
marathon. It's not a Sprint and and and
people are so focused on that short term Sprint and everything
and you know you overrun the Sprint, you can never win a
marathon and that's where sleep is the long game.
It was somebody who was in it really aware and I always
(22:36):
encourage everyone to be so aware of sleep whether you're
using a tracker and and I'm not talking about daily tracking
because that could be a distraction as well.
But if your overall looking at your 10 day or your two weeks or
your one month, you're kind of run rate to make sure that
you're in order and focus on your sleep environment.
Why I say that is because then you'll start to realize that if
(22:59):
you're getting the right sleep you are feeling better and
you're performing better. Again, it's a marathon, not a
Sprint. Just reminds me of At one point
I was, I was working with Andy O'Brien and he was consulting
with Sid Crosby and and and the Penguins at the time.
And he was talking about how he was talking to the players to
try to help them understand the shift in how how it is.
(23:22):
And and that shift hasn't reallymade it to the general public
yet to understand. And it's already hard enough for
somebody who's fully focused on their Wellness.
But you talk about the pyramid. And the pyramid was everyone
used to think that the foundation to their performance
was training, and then they realized that nutrition played a
part in it, and recovering sleepwas the smaller part of that
(23:46):
pyramid. Because the reality is that
that's flipped upside down. The true success comes with
recovery and sleep being your most important element, followed
by nutrition. And the least important part is
training. But I'll tell you I like it's
still something that's so hard to penetrate into the general
(24:08):
because people just feel that when they go to the gym.
They feel the pain. They're able to see if they're
able to identify if they're feeling the pain.
They know they're doing something for their muscles.
They don't realize that the bestthing for those muscles are
happening at night when they're recovering.
But really that's where the magic happens.
So we've been trying to tell people how to flip that mindset
(24:30):
upside down, and the only way todo it is to be awareness.
Aware of your sleep environment,aware of your sleep, maybe even
tracking it. But sleep needs to be a priority
for mental health, for physical health, for longevity, and for
performance. And every high performer I know
right now is no longer bragging about how they can go without
(24:52):
sleep. So it's the it's the uninformed
that are talking about and hopefully we get to them so we
can make them informed on how important recovery is.
What are some other tactics, in addition to sleeping on a great
mattress, that are important from your perspective, for
people to practice in order to be able to fall asleep, stay
(25:13):
asleep, and get a great night's sleep?
So every everything's interconnected and so this is
where to me, I number one I I tell people focus on that sleep
environment. So for us, we've taken care of
it when it comes to the mattressand eliminating all stimulants.
But then from there it goes to lighting, not to have those
stimulants of lighting, not to have the stimulants of sound.
(25:34):
And I'm not saying no sound, no light, because there's the right
type of light and there's the right type of sound.
So certain sounds will help and other sounds will irritate.
Then from there we go on to routine.
Routine is probably the number one biggest thing.
More than light, more than soundis routine.
Again, I go back to that inner clock.
If you are constantly changing your sleep routine at the time
(25:57):
that you go to sleep every night, that inner clock can't
predict. Because that that that
prediction that your your mind is making of when it's time to
go to sleep is a major part of having a success be having being
successful in your onset of sleep.
However, if it's whatever that time is, if it's 10:00 PM every
single night, well your body will get will adjust to that and
(26:19):
as it's about to get to 10:00 PMyour inner clock will be winding
down and expect to go to sleep. It'll be easier for you to get
to sleep, faster you to get to sleep.
And it'll be way more effective.Because again, our bodies are
made to heal, but our bodies aremade to perform, and the the
more predictable our routines are, well, the better our our
(26:42):
bodies will adapt to it. You made an interesting
statement there that our bodies are made to heal and our bodies
are made to perform. And it's incredible that when we
give ourselves the nutrition, sleep, exercise and the mindset,
how much that almost becomes inevitable?
Is that am I reading that right?Am I?
(27:03):
Am I? Correctly.
Absolutely. And and one of the things that I
was going to point on and you just mentioned it yourself is
nutrition. I would almost tell you if you
eat for sleep, it's it's an interesting concept.
So you wake up in the morning and you start thinking about
your sleep. What do I mean by that?
Is eating the right foods or a healthier day and something that
(27:26):
will not stiff stimulate you or over stimulate you at night over
stimulate your digestion system.So choosing the right foods at
the right time of day almost focused on your sleep will make
healthier nutritional choices while at the same time really
prep you for the key to your performance which is the rest
and recovery that comes at night.
And as I said, they're all interconnected.
(27:47):
It's a 24 hour day and and basically sleep is responsible
for, you know, a good third of that, right?
So do it right, do it well. But whatever you do, the
remaining 16 hours is actually critical to also having a good
night's sleep. Yeah, it's almost like a ripple
effect or something like that. And sadly, there's no there's no
shortcuts. No, there really isn't.
(28:09):
And it's funny you mention that,right, because when we were
getting ready for this segment, I mentioned to you like my
audience is often like high performers, people are
interested in health and well-being.
And biohackers I actually hate, don't like that term because it
means that there's a shortcut and there isn't.
It's practice, it's consistency.It's doing the right things as
often as you possibly can for aslong as you possibly can.
(28:29):
Those aggregates build up over time to get you in the place
where you're able to do what youwant to do.
Which leads me to my last question as we begin to wrap
things up. So I know that you're super
busy, is all around like, what are you doing right now?
Like, what's your challenge? What are you trying to overcome?
What practices are you trying toinstall?
Like people want to know about about you as well because we
know that you're into Wellness. We know you've got a great
(28:50):
business and this is your life. So if this is your life, I'm
sure that you're still struggling with it because it's
done ongoing practice. What are you working on?
Like what's what's top of mind for you right now?
Well, for me, what's top of mindfor me on a personal level is
how do I make time. For me, I do struggle with it
and it is it is a big challenge.I'm I'm a competitive person and
(29:14):
if you've been usually been ableto take care of myself in the
context of a competition. So you know when a friend
challenged me through triathlon I was fully dedicated to sleep
and training for my triathlon. However the most of my daily
life is Essentia and and and So what you know right now I've
been as soon as I, I, I I take on certain types of work.
(29:38):
So for example, right now we're working on new formula and I've
been working on it for about a year and we're we're really,
we've gained so much momentum onit.
And I get so entrenched into that development stage that my
Wellness always gets put on the side.
And it's a problem. It's a problem that I have and I
know better. And that's why I know, I know
(29:59):
it's a struggle for everyone because, you know, listen, I
lecture on sleep. I know the importance of sleep,
but yet something pops into my mind.
My laptop opens and I start writing notes for my lab day the
next day. So I I do struggle with that,
keeping that commitment to nutrition, keeping that
commitment of balance. But I pull myself back.
(30:20):
I pull myself back when I realize I've gone too far deep
into that, I I say, hey, it's, you know, I because I also know
better that when I'm properly balanced with proper nutrition,
proper sleep, I actually think better.
I think I see, I see, I see the paths and the solutions a lot
sooner than when I'm exhausted. But it is difficult because I I,
(30:41):
I am a super motivated and and to always be out doing what we
do. We have a a real clear mission
here to help people sleep and wedo it in everything we do
whether it be in our philanthropic you know we we
give these performing beds to shelters women's shelters and we
you know we're just so proud of everything we do focus on along
(31:03):
sleep because we know that we help people's lives get better
if we are really surrounding them properly.
So my personal struggle is not to put in all essential time and
put in me time because it's actually helpful for my family
as well. Have way more energy when I'm
well balanced and rested for my boys and and friends and family,
right? Yeah, I know.
(31:24):
It's amazing like when we take care of ourselves, how much, how
much easier it is to take care of other people and how much
better every aspect of our our lives gets, which is, you know,
and obviously sleep is a massivepart of that.
So thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us.
I really appreciate you bringingour attention back to sleep.
We haven't done a podcast episode on sleep in quite some
(31:45):
time, so bringing our attention back to this is amazing.
If people want to learn more about you and Essentia, where
can they go to find out a littlebit more?
If they go on myessentia.com, wehave tons of articles our our
testing that we did with pro athletes is on there, all of our
stimulants. So there's a lot of articles and
(32:06):
go on there to learn. Obviously if you want an
essentia where, that's what we're here for, but you know,
just go there to get yourself inthe right mindset of how
important sleep is. Amazing.
Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Hopefully we can hang out in Florida sometime and keep this
message going, but really appreciate because sleep is a
massive part of my mission as well.
(32:28):
So I'm honored to have you have you here and to share your
information. Jack, thank you so much for
showing up with us. Thank you very much and yes,
give me a shout when you're herein Florida or when I'm in
Montreal. I've always in both cities, but
look forward to connecting again.
Right on. And the Montreal Canadiens are
my team, so we'll have to work on that as well.
Anyway, thanks Jack. All right.
See you all. Right everyone, hope you enjoyed
(32:50):
that podcast. I certainly did.
Jack's awesome and super thrilled that we were able to
have that conversation. If you want to track your own
sleep, please consider checking out Vivio, our health and
performance apps available on the App Store.
And it tracks your sleep. If you have an Apple Watch as
accurately as any other wearabledevice app out there on the
(33:13):
market, we're super proud of it.It is working phenomenally well
right now and we are pumped to have that out in the world.
So if you want to check that out, it's at VIIV dot IO vivio
and we'd be thrilled to have youas part of that.
Also if you want to get my new weekly newsletter goes out every
Friday afternoon and you can check that out at Doctor Greg
(33:35):
wells.com/newsletter. Super simple.
And in that we provide you with tools, tactics, strategies and
techniques to improve your sleep, nutrition, exercise and
mindset every single week. We keep it super tight, super
simple, super focused, but we'rejust trying to make a big
difference and get you awesome information every single week
that can make a difference in your life.
So if you can check that out, that'd be awesome.
(33:56):
All right everyone, have a greatweek.
Really appreciate you being hereand being part of this
community. Hope that conversation with Jack
was helpful and we'll see you next week.
Hi everyone. Welcome back.
It's great to be with you and thanks for joining me for
another episode of the podcast. Super psyched to get back.
To the interview format today and we're going to chat about
sleep. I know this is such a huge issue
for so many people and we get somany questions about sleep in
our community. One with the people that we work
with that it's great to get backto this topic again.
To that end, we interview today Jack Del Acchio, who is a
(00:23):
certified sleep coach and the CEO and founder of Essentia,
which is a mattress company. That just so happens this is not
a sponsored podcast, but just sohappens that all my family
sleeps on Essentia and has for about 10 years.
So when Jack reached out and we got to chatting and figured that
that this would be a great show to do, I was super psyched
(00:44):
because these are the products that I used to sleep on.
Jack has been focused on analyzing sleep for over 20
years. One of the things that's of the
highest importance to Jack is the impact of restorative sleep
in terms of recovery from disease, prevention of disease,
longevity and performance. Actually started out making
(01:04):
mattresses to help people with cancer.
Jack has worked with some of theworld's top athletes to optimize
their recovery and performance throughout the years.
He has worked directly with health gurus, professional
athletes and teams from the NBANFLMLS and over 25% of active
NHL players on creating healthy sleep performance.
(01:25):
Essentia's organic mattresses. We will discuss what that is has
been recognized by several internationally renowned
organizations including MYO Clinic.
Essentia has been named the number one foam mattress by
Consumer Reports for seven consecutive years and so this is
something that I use and I wanted to share that with you.
(01:45):
Not a sponsored post, but super.Thrilled to be.
Able to talk to you about one ofthe core strategies of how to
get a great night's sleep, whichis to have a good mattress.
And I know that for a lot of people, mattresses are
expensive, actually expensive for everybody.
And this is a major investment, but you'll have it for 10 years
plus. So when you think about it in
terms of like a dollars per night investment, it completely
(02:08):
changes the game. And the things that Jack and I
are going to talk about will hopefully help you to justify
that investment. All right, here we go.
Let's dive into this conversation all about sleep
with certified sleep Coach and CEO and Founder of Essentia Jack
del Accio Doc. Thank you so much for joining
us. I really appreciate it.
It's great to see you. Thank you, Doctor.
(02:29):
I really appreciate having the opportunity to be on here with
you. So give us a little.
Bit of the background in the origin story just for people
that aren't familiar with you and then we can take it from
there. I'm on by the way I'm just in
the intro I mentioned that obviously you're the creator of
essential mattresses my entire family is on and essential
mattresses. This is not a sponsored podcast,
(02:49):
but we have a brand alignment. I use all of your stuff, so I'm
super thrilled to have you on onthe show and just love to hear a
little bit more about your background and how you got the
company started. Sure.
I mean for me this dates back 23years, company's 19 years old,
but 23 years ago is when my pathwas redirected for what I was,
what I was already doing. I was kind of always been raised
(03:11):
in this entrepreneurial world. So my curiosity usually end up
taking a business path. And 23 years ago I had some
people in the family were I'll going through cancer and trying
to figure out not only the path to to healing but the path to
tolerating it and be able to handle some of the pain and and
that they had to go through. And during those times I was
(03:31):
learning a whole lot about the importance of a clean home,
clean environment and clean sleep environment.
And my my family does have a history in latex foam.
So there was a kind of an understand understanding of the
flexible foams and and what goesinto mattresses.
And so I took the direction of understanding why we're not all
using organic foams and the problems with organic phones and
(03:53):
those challenges and then basically hit the labs and
started working on different formulations to try to make a
pressure redistributing organic foam.
And that was the I was it was driven by trying to understand
products that can help people who were facing maybe their
largest challenge. But that was just the infancy of
(04:14):
the company. That's when they started in
2006. Initially we were really a
resource to people who were either going through cancer in
remission, but our path evolved from there.
Then it was people wanted us forprevention purposes and and and
then it was just the lifestyle people were looking for organic
lifestyle by but my I never tookoff my research and development
(04:36):
hat that's always I've always been driven to that I I I still
today I still continue working on formula I still continue
working on new iterations and I'm always thinking how to make
it better what's that I'm not the business guy who's looking
at the industry and seeing how to navigate.
I really just so self-centered in our product and how to make
our product better whether the industry is ready for it or not.
(05:00):
I'm just really focused on the Wellness.
So by 2009 I've patented essential formula and core,
which not only was the organic core that I had originally
developed, but now it was understanding how to improve
deep sleep. Longer sleep cycles but but
truly relevant sleep not not thelight cycles and by 2012 people
(05:23):
started noticing. 2012 is when we had our pro athletes notice
and a lot of the strength and conditioning coaches, medical
Staffs of teams started reachingout and wanted to understand the
technology, wanted to go throughsome evaluations and it's been
it's been a ride since then. It's been interesting because we
love helping people. It's just so really important
(05:44):
part of our of our user base, our people with going through
their life challenges, but also just general people who are
trying to be champions in their own world.
People want achieve high goals whether it's be in business, in
their personal levels, just being your best every single
day. And the athletes were really
incredible kind of audience to work with similar to my first
(06:06):
audience who were ill and reallyfelt a lot of pain and were able
to communicate what they were feeling.
The athletes took it to a different level because and they
weren't distracted by some of the ailments that they were
going through. They were really focused on how
their body feels after practice,after training, after injury and
learned a lot from them and where it was able to continue to
(06:28):
develop essentia to what it is today.
Amazing story. I also got involved with the
brand around 2012 and it was in through my work with athletes at
the time. That led me to exploring and
what's the best mattress I found?
You guys put a bunch of the athletes I was working with on
them. Ended up over time getting them
for every single member of of myfamily.
(06:50):
My only beef with you guys is that you stopped with the
ergonomic pillows the the one with the the extra support
around my neck. So I broke my neck and so I have
four of them. They're now in hidings that I
can use those for the rest of mylife.
Maybe we can work on that together, getting the ergonomic
pillow back, but talk to me a little bit about what are the
differences between different types of mattresses.
(07:11):
Sleep is a massive issue for this community.
Whenever I post anything on sleep, it is by far the most
engaged information. So because everyone listening is
probably on a whole bunch of different mattresses.
So what are our options and Orient us to why this is so
important? We realized early on it it it's
the game changer. It's the one thing in your life
(07:32):
that the most impactful in how you will perform and your
Wellness. It's passive, you know so so
unfortunately doesn't get the credit it deserves because you
don't. You don't hit to a gym to get
your sleep, but this is something that you can do
passively. It's lights out and you go to
sleep. However, everything you do in
(07:53):
your day will only be as good ashow well you've slept.
And if we really didn't need it,we'd have a pill to stay awake
24/7. But but it's so critical.
And then it's not just hours. I know we like to generalize
things that you need 7 to 9 hours of sleep or 8 hours of
sleep, but it's really not the same for every individual.
It's how much REM and deep sleepthat you log.
(08:14):
And we've been obsessed with this probably since around 2012,
2013, where 2009, we really focused on so many things, but
we've obsessed with it, you know, in the last 10 years or
so, just because we realize thatthat's what moves the needle is
really getting increased R.E.M. increased deep.
And we have athletes who would, you know, struggle with getting
(08:37):
even close to six or seven hoursof sleep.
They'd only get 5 hours of sleep.
But we were, if we were able to get them to up to about 5 1/2
hours of sleep. But they logged in three hours
of R.E.M. and deep. I mean, they're as good as new.
They've recharged, they're recovered, and they're ready to
take on the next day. It really is something that
helps prevent everything you canimagine.
(08:57):
It sounds like a blanket statement, but proper sleep
helps for Alzheimer prevention helps for both both body and
mind happiness. It touches everything because
everything that's happening in the body is correcting itself
during sleep at night you know when it whether it be your your
mind where your glymphatic system is really clearing up all
(09:19):
the waste and helps with memory,helps with storage and all these
things help for your mind and spirit to take on your days.
I mean I could ramble for hours about the importance of sleep it
it and and really want to pass on.
It's so important differences between mattresses is in most
cases you're always have to compromise and that's what we've
(09:41):
been so focused on is making an uncompromising product that
really gives you everything you need.
But we've kind of identified butI I like I call them stimulants.
Stimulants that obstruct sleep, and the most obvious ones are
outside of the bed light sound, you know, obviously these are
(10:02):
things that you can see and theykeep you awake, but what we
focus on is what you can't really notice the VO CS in the
room, so you're indoor air quality.
And most people don't realize that the highest concentration
of toxins in a bedroom comes from a mattress.
So is there nothing else in thatroom that is emitting as much
(10:23):
toxins as a mattress because they're typically made with
chemicals and fire barrier chemicals And what's been
popular over the last 10 years have been because people have a
complaint of sleeping hot in in in these foam mattresses.
Well, now they've added a chemical which are phase
changing chemicals to help cool you down.
It's a chemical reaction happening.
(10:43):
You're adding to the cocktails of off gassing that's coming out
of that mattress. So we we focus on not using any
of those, focus on being organic, but just being organic
is not good enough. You need pain relief, you need
pressure redistribution, you need posture support, you need
thermal regulation. So I'm rambling a little bit,
but when you get into thermal regulation, it's not just about
(11:06):
dropping the temperature of yourroom, it's about your body
dropping in temperature. You know, it's kind of actively
while you sleep. We have this inner clock in US,
right? We all have it and it is it's
sort of wraps around the circadian rhythm.
Daytime, night time. Very historically our bodies are
are, are are designed that we wake up to light and heat and we
(11:30):
sleep to darkness and cold. And that's the kind of the
combination if if the temperature, if your body
temperature is dropping throughout the night, you're
allowing it to get into deeper sleep and stay longer in these
deeper sleep cycles. And the opposite happens.
If you're heating up, your body's tends to think that it's
(11:50):
it's time to wake up. So those are all the different
types of stimulants that we really focus on.
Amongst others, we've identified7 different stimulants from
pressure relief and pressure redistribution, posture support
and posture alignment. The Emfs, which basically are
the waves. Again, something you can't see.
There's there's so much that youcan't see that interrupts your
(12:10):
sleep. With Emfs are signals and waves
that are coming from cell phonesand cell phone towers and
downloads and streaming. And I'm not a person who've
always I've embraced technology.So how do we move forward with
technology and mitigate those damages rather than saying, hey,
I'm not going to embrace technology at all.
We're not going to live without our cell phones.
(12:31):
We're not going to live without streaming.
We've been able to identify thatthrough dark field microscopy.
We've identified that your bloodcells behave erratically in the
presence of cell phone downloadsand all.
The 3G-4G5G, that erratic behavior of cell phone, we
believe because it's erratic andit's and it's clumping them
(12:53):
together, it's not allowing oxygen to flow as freely through
your blood cells. What we've been able to do is
through our latest iteration thelast two years, all of the
central mattresses basically have a new formula which has our
ports technology in it and the quartz stores memory and it
maintains an organic an organic low level frequency which
(13:15):
prevents all of these Emfs. While you can still use your
phone, it comes in at an organicwave rather than an erratic wave
and we've been able to identify that you no longer get that
blood activity, that erratic blood activity while using
technology. So that's how we really get into
such small but a really important details on expanding
(13:39):
sleep. Two years ago we ran a study
with 75 pro athletes and it was it was a long study, it was a 10
week study and we really obviously double-blind so no one
knew what they were sleeping on.We were able to identify that we
we were able to improve and increase Prem sleep and deep
sleep by as little as 20% and asmuch as 60% over that ten week
(14:03):
period and everyone was immediately improving their
results over everyone that had the non essential mattresses.
It's real. And it's pretty incredible
results, actually. That's a lot and I'm fascinated.
I'm going to have to dig into some of the things that you
mentioned because I'm unfamiliarwith them.
But I would love to go back a little bit and talk about
(14:24):
volatile organic compounds or Vocs and off gassing and why?
Because people often probably don't think about I need an
organic mattress or an organic mattress would benefit me.
Like why is that a factor? What are Vocs?
What is off gassing and and and why could we potentially move in
this different direction when itcomes to what we're sleeping on?
(14:47):
So this we had this was basically at the core of
essentia and and and realizing early on that this is something
was one of the key stimulants that keep people from getting
into deep sleep and and REM sleep or or at least not logging
in as much time as they should. So what the VO CS are, are the
chemicals, chemical compounds that are in most mattresses,
(15:10):
whether you find them in the polyurethane foam which contain
formaldehydes and and and and benzene and every type of
petroleum based component that you could that that you can
imagine or it's in the Fr which is the fire rating requirements.
So there's so many chemicals in there, either on the textile or
on the foam themselves so that they won't spread fires.
(15:34):
And that's a that's a law that is required to to have mostly in
the United States but also in Canada and around the world.
They're all using them because no one wants to run multiple
productions. Basically, these gases that are
constantly emitting from synthetic products, they're in
the air. Everything has AVOC level when
exposed to heat, even when you're burning wood, there's
(15:55):
Vocs that come out of it, but obviously in the chemicals, they
don't need to be heated up. They're they're constantly
emitting from these products. What we've been able to identify
is that basically this is a stimulant, so your body has to
resist it. You have to fight it, and you're
unconsciously fighting it. So your central nervous system
is actively preventing you from,or at least trying to prevent
(16:19):
you from absorbing these. So it's a defense mechanism that
your immune system has to to defend itself while you're
sleeping and while you're awake.But while you're sleeping is
critical because we want the bind and the central nervous
system to be slowing down and tobe allow for deep sleep and REM
sleep. I kind of call VOC sort of like
the sleeping pill of mattresses.A sleeping pill.
(16:41):
The way it works if you've ever used one before knocks you out,
but you wake up feeling groggy because it'll keep you in light
sleep cycles, but it really doesn't get you in those deep
sleep cycles that are so much needed.
And VOC has worked the same way.You may go to sleep at night,
but you're not really at the deep, restful sleep because your
central nervous system is overactive defending against
(17:04):
them. Got it.
That's super helpful and definitely one of the reasons
why we went with Essentia for our family and as our family was
growing, so we started in 2012 and that's in and around when I
became aware of you. And so that's why I'm, I asked
about that. That's an interesting factor.
I also want to get into another one of the stimulants that you
mentioned, which is pressure. And the reason why I asked that
(17:25):
is because some people love sleeping on hard mattresses,
some people like sleeping on softer mattresses.
But I'm curious about preferences for hard versus
soft, why those differences exist and why What your thoughts
are it with regards to the pressure being a stimulant that
can disrupt? Sleep.
So this the the question. Kind of reminds me of when I
(17:47):
either consult with some athletes, but my favorite was
with consulting with an owner ofa team.
It was actually, it was interesting.
He was the owner of the MontrealCanadiens and he comes over to
our showroom and I I I met with him and he goes, well, how do I
go about choosing which mattress?
And it goes and I said no, no, we do the choosing for you.
So a lot of times people think it's about comfort, what your
(18:11):
preferences soft, medium, firm and whatever the mattress
language is. But really it's your posture
that dictates what you should besleeping on.
And the the problem with the status quo in the mattress
industry is they don't know how to make a soft mattress that's
high density. So they make everything.
So they add air anytime they want to make something softer.
(18:34):
So by adding air, it makes it fluffier, softer feeling.
They've eliminated density at and replaced it with air.
So a foam will feel softer or they'll have fibers on it which
will, which will give you that initial comfort feeling.
But without the density it's notgiving you any support.
So what we've actually developedis something that is high
(18:58):
density, high elasticity becausewhat what a a soft bed is for is
somebody who has a very pronounced, very curved spinal
alignment and posture. And because if you, if if you
imagine if you have a very curved lower back, we need to
eliminate that negative space, we need to support it.
So you need to get into the mattress.
If you have a very flat back, you need to almost stay on the
(19:20):
mattress. And really, if I had to put it
in in comfort preferences. So if you have a flat back, you
need to be on a firmer bed. If you have a curved back, you
need to get on a softer bed. But it's not just about soft and
firm, because if you bind the wrong soft mattress, it's not
doing anything for you because it's not very supportive.
So not only do we have to support that fill up that
(19:42):
negative space, but it's got to be filled with something dense,
something with high elasticity so that it's not putting too
much pressure on your shoulders when it's cradling your lower
back. Well, the way we designed our
latex is kind of, if you can imagine, maybe it's my Italian
background. It always reminds me of pizza
dough. It's thick, it's heavy, but yet
(20:05):
it has that elasticity to mold to your body.
That's really a key part to having a proper, softer feeling
bed. It is.
It kind of a trick. It's not really a soft bed, but
it it appears to be because of its elasticity.
When you're on it horizontally, it really is molding and
supporting both shoulders and lower back.
(20:26):
And on an essential bed you really only look at two types.
One is do I sink deeper in because I've got a very
pronounced lower back to fill, or am I keeping you closer to
the surface? If you have a very flat back,
that's really the differences inthe comfort is there on both of
them. However, the the the true
comfort is no pain, no pressure throughout the night and if
(20:51):
you're sleeping on the right theright surface that's really
supporting that and not giving you pressure, that's going to be
the the full 8 hours of comfort throughout the night.
Let's take a step back and go toa 30,000 foot view of the
situation that we're in right now, which is that about 25% of
our population diagnosed sleeping disorder, very high
(21:13):
levels of fatigue, burnout and of course mental health
challenges which are related to sleep, nutritional challenges
which are related to sleep. We know that cardiovascular
disease is related to sleep. So it's very important for us
not only that it unlocks our learning, our cognition, our
ability to solve problems, be creative, to innovate.
(21:33):
So it's essential for us. Maybe that's why you named your
company essentially. I'm not sure if anyway, it's
very important. And yet as a society, we really
struggle to prioritize sleep. In fact, often sleep is looked
at as a weakness or something that is a badge of honor that
you don't need sleep or that youdon't get any sleep because
(21:55):
you're working so hard. Why do you think that is?
And what do you think we can do about that?
To help people to prioritize sleep and to make that
investment in terms of time and effort to and attention and
commitment to sleeping well. You know, it's really
(22:15):
interesting that mindset and andsleep is sort of like a
marathon. It's not a Sprint and and and
people are so focused on that short term Sprint and everything
and you know you overrun the Sprint, you can never win a
marathon and that's where sleep is the long game.
It was somebody who was in it really aware and I always
(22:36):
encourage everyone to be so aware of sleep whether you're
using a tracker and and I'm not talking about daily tracking
because that could be a distraction as well.
But if your overall looking at your 10 day or your two weeks or
your one month, you're kind of run rate to make sure that
you're in order and focus on your sleep environment.
Why I say that is because then you'll start to realize that if
(22:59):
you're getting the right sleep you are feeling better and
you're performing better. Again, it's a marathon, not a
Sprint. Just reminds me of At one point
I was, I was working with Andy O'Brien and he was consulting
with Sid Crosby and and and the Penguins at the time.
And he was talking about how he was talking to the players to
try to help them understand the shift in how how it is.
(23:22):
And and that shift hasn't reallymade it to the general public
yet to understand. And it's already hard enough for
somebody who's fully focused on their Wellness.
But you talk about the pyramid. And the pyramid was everyone
used to think that the foundation to their performance
was training, and then they realized that nutrition played a
part in it, and recovering sleepwas the smaller part of that
(23:46):
pyramid. Because the reality is that
that's flipped upside down. The true success comes with
recovery and sleep being your most important element, followed
by nutrition. And the least important part is
training. But I'll tell you I like it's
still something that's so hard to penetrate into the general
(24:08):
because people just feel that when they go to the gym.
They feel the pain. They're able to see if they're
able to identify if they're feeling the pain.
They know they're doing something for their muscles.
They don't realize that the bestthing for those muscles are
happening at night when they're recovering.
But really that's where the magic happens.
So we've been trying to tell people how to flip that mindset
(24:30):
upside down, and the only way todo it is to be awareness.
Aware of your sleep environment,aware of your sleep, maybe even
tracking it. But sleep needs to be a priority
for mental health, for physical health, for longevity, and for
performance. And every high performer I know
right now is no longer bragging about how they can go without
(24:52):
sleep. So it's the it's the uninformed
that are talking about and hopefully we get to them so we
can make them informed on how important recovery is.
What are some other tactics, in addition to sleeping on a great
mattress, that are important from your perspective, for
people to practice in order to be able to fall asleep, stay
(25:13):
asleep, and get a great night's sleep?
So every everything's interconnected and so this is
where to me, I number one I I tell people focus on that sleep
environment. So for us, we've taken care of
it when it comes to the mattressand eliminating all stimulants.
But then from there it goes to lighting, not to have those
stimulants of lighting, not to have the stimulants of sound.
(25:34):
And I'm not saying no sound, no light, because there's the right
type of light and there's the right type of sound.
So certain sounds will help and other sounds will irritate.
Then from there we go on to routine.
Routine is probably the number one biggest thing.
More than light, more than soundis routine.
Again, I go back to that inner clock.
If you are constantly changing your sleep routine at the time
(25:57):
that you go to sleep every night, that inner clock can't
predict. Because that that that
prediction that your your mind is making of when it's time to
go to sleep is a major part of having a success be having being
successful in your onset of sleep.
However, if it's whatever that time is, if it's 10:00 PM every
single night, well your body will get will adjust to that and
(26:19):
as it's about to get to 10:00 PMyour inner clock will be winding
down and expect to go to sleep. It'll be easier for you to get
to sleep, faster you to get to sleep.
And it'll be way more effective.Because again, our bodies are
made to heal, but our bodies aremade to perform, and the the
more predictable our routines are, well, the better our our
(26:42):
bodies will adapt to it. You made an interesting
statement there that our bodies are made to heal and our bodies
are made to perform. And it's incredible that when we
give ourselves the nutrition, sleep, exercise and the mindset,
how much that almost becomes inevitable?
Is that am I reading that right?Am I?
(27:03):
Am I? Correctly.
Absolutely. And and one of the things that I
was going to point on and you just mentioned it yourself is
nutrition. I would almost tell you if you
eat for sleep, it's it's an interesting concept.
So you wake up in the morning and you start thinking about
your sleep. What do I mean by that?
Is eating the right foods or a healthier day and something that
(27:26):
will not stiff stimulate you or over stimulate you at night over
stimulate your digestion system.So choosing the right foods at
the right time of day almost focused on your sleep will make
healthier nutritional choices while at the same time really
prep you for the key to your performance which is the rest
and recovery that comes at night.
And as I said, they're all interconnected.
(27:47):
It's a 24 hour day and and basically sleep is responsible
for, you know, a good third of that, right?
So do it right, do it well. But whatever you do, the
remaining 16 hours is actually critical to also having a good
night's sleep. Yeah, it's almost like a ripple
effect or something like that. And sadly, there's no there's no
shortcuts. No, there really isn't.
(28:09):
And it's funny you mention that,right, because when we were
getting ready for this segment, I mentioned to you like my
audience is often like high performers, people are
interested in health and well-being.
And biohackers I actually hate, don't like that term because it
means that there's a shortcut and there isn't.
It's practice, it's consistency.It's doing the right things as
often as you possibly can for aslong as you possibly can.
(28:29):
Those aggregates build up over time to get you in the place
where you're able to do what youwant to do.
Which leads me to my last question as we begin to wrap
things up. So I know that you're super
busy, is all around like, what are you doing right now?
Like, what's your challenge? What are you trying to overcome?
What practices are you trying toinstall?
Like people want to know about about you as well because we
know that you're into Wellness. We know you've got a great
(28:50):
business and this is your life. So if this is your life, I'm
sure that you're still struggling with it because it's
done ongoing practice. What are you working on?
Like what's what's top of mind for you right now?
Well, for me, what's top of mindfor me on a personal level is
how do I make time. For me, I do struggle with it
and it is it is a big challenge.I'm I'm a competitive person and
(29:14):
if you've been usually been ableto take care of myself in the
context of a competition. So you know when a friend
challenged me through triathlon I was fully dedicated to sleep
and training for my triathlon. However the most of my daily
life is Essentia and and and So what you know right now I've
been as soon as I, I, I I take on certain types of work.
(29:38):
So for example, right now we're working on new formula and I've
been working on it for about a year and we're we're really,
we've gained so much momentum onit.
And I get so entrenched into that development stage that my
Wellness always gets put on the side.
And it's a problem. It's a problem that I have and I
know better. And that's why I know, I know
(29:59):
it's a struggle for everyone because, you know, listen, I
lecture on sleep. I know the importance of sleep,
but yet something pops into my mind.
My laptop opens and I start writing notes for my lab day the
next day. So I I do struggle with that,
keeping that commitment to nutrition, keeping that
commitment of balance. But I pull myself back.
(30:20):
I pull myself back when I realize I've gone too far deep
into that, I I say, hey, it's, you know, I because I also know
better that when I'm properly balanced with proper nutrition,
proper sleep, I actually think better.
I think I see, I see, I see the paths and the solutions a lot
sooner than when I'm exhausted. But it is difficult because I I,
(30:41):
I am a super motivated and and to always be out doing what we
do. We have a a real clear mission
here to help people sleep and wedo it in everything we do
whether it be in our philanthropic you know we we
give these performing beds to shelters women's shelters and we
you know we're just so proud of everything we do focus on along
(31:03):
sleep because we know that we help people's lives get better
if we are really surrounding them properly.
So my personal struggle is not to put in all essential time and
put in me time because it's actually helpful for my family
as well. Have way more energy when I'm
well balanced and rested for my boys and and friends and family,
right? Yeah, I know.
(31:24):
It's amazing like when we take care of ourselves, how much, how
much easier it is to take care of other people and how much
better every aspect of our our lives gets, which is, you know,
and obviously sleep is a massivepart of that.
So thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us.
I really appreciate you bringingour attention back to sleep.
We haven't done a podcast episode on sleep in quite some
(31:45):
time, so bringing our attention back to this is amazing.
If people want to learn more about you and Essentia, where
can they go to find out a littlebit more?
If they go on myessentia.com, wehave tons of articles our our
testing that we did with pro athletes is on there, all of our
stimulants. So there's a lot of articles and
(32:06):
go on there to learn. Obviously if you want an
essentia where, that's what we're here for, but you know,
just go there to get yourself inthe right mindset of how
important sleep is. Amazing.
Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Hopefully we can hang out in Florida sometime and keep this
message going, but really appreciate because sleep is a
massive part of my mission as well.
(32:28):
So I'm honored to have you have you here and to share your
information. Jack, thank you so much for
showing up with us. Thank you very much and yes,
give me a shout when you're herein Florida or when I'm in
Montreal. I've always in both cities, but
look forward to connecting again.
Right on. And the Montreal Canadiens are
my team, so we'll have to work on that as well.
Anyway, thanks Jack. All right.
See you all. Right everyone, hope you enjoyed
(32:50):
that podcast. I certainly did.
Jack's awesome and super thrilled that we were able to
have that conversation. If you want to track your own
sleep, please consider checking out Vivio, our health and
performance apps available on the App Store.
And it tracks your sleep. If you have an Apple Watch as
accurately as any other wearabledevice app out there on the
(33:13):
market, we're super proud of it.It is working phenomenally well
right now and we are pumped to have that out in the world.
So if you want to check that out, it's at VIIV dot IO vivio
and we'd be thrilled to have youas part of that.
Also if you want to get my new weekly newsletter goes out every
Friday afternoon and you can check that out at Doctor Greg
(33:35):
wells.com/newsletter. Super simple.
And in that we provide you with tools, tactics, strategies and
techniques to improve your sleep, nutrition, exercise and
mindset every single week. We keep it super tight, super
simple, super focused, but we'rejust trying to make a big
difference and get you awesome information every single week
that can make a difference in your life.
So if you can check that out, that'd be awesome.
(33:56):
All right everyone, have a greatweek.
Really appreciate you being hereand being part of this
community. Hope that conversation with Jack
was helpful and we'll see you next week.
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