Galpin's Mission
Galpin says his work focuses on removing barriers to performance and health. He works with both elite athletes and ordinary people who want to feel and function better.
Sleep Apnea Expert: Most People Who Have This Silent Killer Will NEVER Find Out! | Dr Andy Galpin
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Performance Scientist Dr Andy Galpin reveals the BIGGEST sleep mistakes ruining your health, how to build better energy every day, why your sleep tracker could be making things worse, and whether health optimisation can actually backfire! Dr. Andy Galpin is a Professor of …
Performance Scientist Dr Andy Galpin reveals the BIGGEST sleep mistakes ruining your health, how to build better energy every day, why your sleep tracker could be making things worse, and whether health optimisation can actually backfire! Dr. Andy Galpin is a Professor of Kinesiology and Executive Director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. He has spent over 2 decades working with Olympic gold medallists, world champions, professional athletes, military special forces, and also hosts the Perform with Dr Andy Galpin podcast. He explains: ◼ Why millions unknowingly have a sleep disorder that's silently damaging their health ◼ The morning routine that resets your body clock for better sleep at night ◼ The truth about melatonin, and why most people are taking it the wrong way ◼ The simple sleep tests you can do at home before visiting a specialist ◼ Why waking up exhausted after 8 hours could be a warning sign Independent Fact Check: https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/DOAC-Andy-Galpin-Independent-Research-Further-Reading.pdf Chapters 00:00:00 Why do you do what you do 00:03:38 What goals bring people to you? 00:07:30 Health anxiety and over-optimising 00:08:33 Sleep disorders are a health crisis 00:10:29 Does sleep apnea disrupt sleep? 00:14:20 Why is sleep apnea so common? 00:15:17 Do I have a sleep issue? 00:18:28 Pros and cons of wearables 00:21:20 What causes a high resting heart rate? 00:21:48 Why is sleep getting worse? 00:22:58 Morning light and light pollution 00:25:16 How much does sound matter? 00:26:51 Best evidence-based sleep supplements 00:29:25 Do you recommend melatonin? 00:34:38 Is there a downside to coffee? 00:36:46 What mattress should I sleep on? 00:37:49 The real issue with screen time 00:47:08 Sleeping when you share a bed 00:48:48 Sleeping in new environments 00:49:34 Optimal temperature for sleep 00:55:34 Ads 00:57:32 Energy management for high performers 01:02:35 Steve's cholesterol results 01:07:06 Why healthy people can have an enlarged heart 01:10:20 Lowering cholesterol with lifestyle and medicine 01:13:55 Low vitamin D 01:16:42 Omega 3 and mercury levels 01:17:32 Exercise and the SAID principle 01:23:17 Use it or lose it with age 01:27:51 Ads 01:28:53 Is grip strength linked to mortality? 01:33:53 How to build muscle power 01:36:26 Does more exercise equal better? 01:40:59 What supplements do you take? 01:42:56 The best way to lose weight 01:50:25 Exercise and weight loss myths 01:52:32 The 54321 method for fat loss 01:54:08 Why am I not progressing? 01:55:50 Can AI create a workout plan? 02:00:06 What motivates people to change? 02:06:26 Are my goals bad? 02:08:43 What is worth doing if you might fail? Quiz Links: PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) — https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/E41eW4P ASSQ (Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire) — https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/3yDF4PF ESS (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) — https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/9RKtDoZ STOP-BANG (Obstructive sleep apnea risk screener) — https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/7UxNsxH ISI (Insomnia Severity Index, PDF) — https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/4mgzHRs Follow Dr Andy: Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/CQDR1q8 YouTube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5Squ4wN X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/1Fw5A7k Podcast - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Fu8uPd7 LinkedIn - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5ykmlog Website - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/8T6M9KJ Performance Coaching - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/8QLLu9w The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://thediary.com/products/one-percent-diary ◼ The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://thediary.com/products/the-conversation-cards-2nd-edition ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4
Key Topics
- Galpin's Mission
- Rebuild vs Upgrade
- Health Anxiety vs Real Disease
- Sleep Apnea Underdiagnosis
- Who Gets Sleep Apnea
- What Apnea Is
- Why Apnea Happens
- Precision Sleep Treatment
- How To Screen Sleep Problems
- Limits of Wearables
- Using Data For Sleep Patterns
- Modern Environment and Sleep
- Noise and Sleep Quality
- Podcasts and Cognitive Downregulation
- Sleep Aids With Evidence
- Melatonin Cautions
- Screens and Novelty
- Sleeping With a Partner
- Travel and New Environments
- Temperature and Air Quality
- Mothers and Sleep Disruption
- Sleep Resilience
- Energy as a Core Complaint
- Energy Management in High Performers
- Visible and Hidden Stressors
- Exercise and Mitochondria
- Use It or Lose It
- Performance Span
- Bloodwork and Cholesterol Context
- Diet, Imaging, and Heart Risk
- Fiber, Stress, and Statins
- Vitamin D and Omega-3
- Grip Strength in Context
- Muscle Power and Aging
- Gym Progress Requires a Plan
- Rest Between Sets
- Creatine and Supplement Logic
- Fat Loss Is Simple but Hard
- Cook vs Baker Dieting
- Learning Through Tracking
- Exercise and Weight Loss
- 5-4-3-2-1 Method
- AI and Coaching
- What Actually Changes Behavior
- Better Goals
Rebuild vs Upgrade
He frames client goals in two buckets. Rebuild addresses clear problems like injury, poor sleep, or obesity, while upgrade targets better energy, cognition, and performance.
Health Anxiety vs Real Disease
As a starting point, he warns against obsessing over minor optimization. He argues people should rule out actual disease before chasing performance tweaks.
Sleep Apnea Underdiagnosis
A central claim is that sleep apnea is massively underdiagnosed. He says many cases, especially in women, are missed despite serious effects on mortality, mood, cognition, and metabolism.
Who Gets Sleep Apnea
He challenges the stereotype that apnea only affects larger men. Women, athletes, and people without obvious body composition issues can also have clinically meaningful apnea.
What Apnea Is
In simple terms, apnea involves repeated breathing disruption during sleep. He notes it may not fully wake a person, which is part of why it often goes unnoticed.
Why Apnea Happens
He describes several causes, including anatomy, fluid shifts when lying down, neural factors, environment, and sleep position. That mix makes one-size-fits-all treatment less effective.
Precision Sleep Treatment
Galpin argues sleep medicine is moving toward more personalized treatment. Different apnea types may call for different tools like CPAP, oral appliances, or surgery.
How To Screen Sleep Problems
For first steps, he recommends validated questionnaires for apnea, insomnia, restless legs, and circadian issues. If those flag problems, he suggests escalating to home tech or formal sleep studies.
Limits of Wearables
He sees wearables as useful for awareness and trends, especially total sleep time. He says they are much weaker at estimating sleep stages and overall sleep quality scores.
Using Data For Sleep Patterns
Wearables become more useful when paired with subjective feeling and long-term patterns. He gives an example where lower resting heart rate consistently tracked with longer sleep duration.
Modern Environment and Sleep
He argues sleep is worsening partly because the world is brighter, louder, and more urban. Morning light exposure can help buffer some of the harm from late light exposure.
Noise and Sleep Quality
He says sound inconsistency can be as disruptive as many other sleep factors. White noise can help, but it should generally stay low and not be placed too close.
Podcasts and Cognitive Downregulation
Using podcasts or TV to fall asleep may help someone switch off initially. He argues the better solution is to address the underlying need for cognitive downregulation rather than masking it.
Sleep Aids With Evidence
He reviews several sleep interventions with some evidence, including chamomile or apigenin, magnesium, kiwi fruit, tart cherry juice, and omega-3s. He presents them as tools, not cures.
Melatonin Cautions
He treats melatonin as a circadian tool rather than a nightly sedative. He recommends much lower doses than common products use and warns about mislabeled supplements and next-day grogginess.
Screens and Novelty
His concern with screens is not just blue light. He says the bigger problem is novelty, engagement, and arousal from feeds, games, and personalized content that keep the brain searching.
Sleeping With a Partner
He notes that people often sleep worse when sharing a bed. Practical fixes include separate bedding, motion reduction, earplugs, or partial sleep separation if needed.
Travel and New Environments
Sleeping in unfamiliar places can disrupt rest through changes in sound, light, smell, and temperature. He suggests recreating parts of the home sleep environment when traveling.
Temperature and Air Quality
A cool room usually helps, but extreme cooling or noisy air systems can backfire. He also points to dirty air conditioners and direct fans as possible causes of nighttime breathing issues.
Mothers and Sleep Disruption
He highlights childbirth and infant care as major sleep disruptors for women. In some cases, the disrupted patterns can persist long after children are older.
Sleep Resilience
His broader goal is not a perfect bedtime ritual. He wants people to build sleep resilience so they can recover from occasional bad nights and still perform.
Energy as a Core Complaint
Galpin says low energy is one of the most common reasons people seek help. He distinguishes between feeling tired, losing recovery capacity, and struggling to sustain mental output.
Energy Management in High Performers
He believes elite performers are not simply tougher. They are better at protecting their energy and directing it toward the few things that matter most.
Visible and Hidden Stressors
He divides energy problems into obvious and hidden causes. Visible causes include poor exercise and sleep habits, while hidden causes can include underfueling, pathogens, mold exposure, or chronic stress.
Exercise and Mitochondria
Exercise supports energy by improving mitochondrial quantity and quality, blood volume, and oxygen delivery. He emphasizes that the body adapts specifically to the demands regularly placed on it.
Use It or Lose It
He reinforces the idea that avoiding hard or painful activities can start a decline loop. Regularly challenging the body helps preserve function rather than accepting every change as aging.
Performance Span
He pushes beyond lifespan and healthspan toward what he calls performance span. The aim is to stay capable, sharp, and physically expressive for as long as possible.
Bloodwork and Cholesterol Context
Looking at the host's labs, he says bloodwork matters most through interpretation and follow-up. High cholesterol markers become more concerning when paired with family history, even in a lean active person.
Diet, Imaging, and Heart Risk
He suggests ketogenic eating may have contributed to the host's lipid profile. At the same time, he stresses imaging and physician guidance because blood markers alone do not tell the whole cardiovascular story.
Fiber, Stress, and Statins
He shares a case where fiber and stress reduction substantially improved cholesterol markers. Medication then pushed results further, which he presents as an example of lifestyle and medicine working together.
Vitamin D and Omega-3
He describes vitamin D as both broadly important and commonly low. For omega-3s, he notes source quality matters because mercury exposure can rise alongside fish intake.
Grip Strength in Context
He says grip strength is a useful broad health signal, especially at the low end, but not something most people should obsess over maximizing. Grip asymmetry may also reveal neurological issues.
Muscle Power and Aging
He explains power as force times velocity. Loss of power, not just muscle size, matters with aging because it affects falls, reactions, and real-world function.
Gym Progress Requires a Plan
When people plateau, he often blames lack of programming rather than lack of effort. The plan itself matters less than having a structure that allows progressive overload.
Rest Between Sets
For strength and muscle, he says better recovery between sets often improves workout quality. Short rests can be useful, but they should not reduce performance so much that total training quality drops.
Creatine and Supplement Logic
He separates supplements that correct deficiencies from those that enhance performance. Creatine fits the performance category, while things like vitamin D or fish oil depend more on personal need.
Fat Loss Is Simple but Hard
He argues fat loss is conceptually straightforward but difficult in practice. The biggest mistake is believing there is one magical food rule or exercise trick that drives the outcome.
Cook vs Baker Dieting
He matches fat loss strategies to personality. Some people do better with exact tracking, while others do better with a few clear rules about protein, vegetables, timing, or food quality.
Learning Through Tracking
Short-term food tracking can teach people what is really in their diet. He says most people discover they eat more fat and carbs and less protein than they assumed.
Exercise and Weight Loss
He says exercise helps weight loss, but not always by burning as many calories as people think. Its biggest long-term value may be helping people keep fat off after the diet phase.
5-4-3-2-1 Method
His fat loss shorthand is five active days, four structured exercise days, three days hard enough to sweat, two strength sessions, and one high heart rate day. It is meant as a practical baseline.
AI and Coaching
He thinks AI can generate decent beginner training plans. But he says real coaching still matters because accountability, judgment, and human connection drive follow-through.
What Actually Changes Behavior
Behavior change often follows a catalyst like personal data, a family health scare, or a major life transition. He says information alone rarely changes habits without that emotional trigger.
Better Goals
He cautions against goals that are rigid or shallow, like never missing a workout. Better goals focus on the real barrier and define success more broadly than a single number on the scale.