By invitation This is a manuscript circulated to the reviewers I have written to, behind a password, and I am asking that it go no further. It is not published, nothing here is for sale, and please do not post it publicly.

Sleep. Eat. Exercise.

A manuscript, open to invited reviewers

Eighty-four pages on the few things that change health outcomes, and nothing else. Almost every claim is traced back to the document it rests on. Most of those sources carry a grade for how good they are; guidelines and background reading carry a label instead. Where a claim has no source behind it, the book says so on the page.

If you are a reviewer, start here

The system map from page 6: seven nodes across sleep, nutrition and exercise, joined by twelve numbered pathways, four drawn solid and eight dashed.
Page 6. Twelve pathways between the pillars. Four are established and drawn solid, eight are associations and drawn dashed.

Clinicians and researchers

Which reader are you?

I am not asking anyone to read all 84 pages. Every request names the specific pages where a wrong line would do the most damage, and those pages are the ask. Two further questions are put to everyone at the foot of the reviewer page, and both are optional. If I have written to you, one of the two routes below is yours. Take whichever one describes you.

Both routes go to the same address, [email protected]. If you are comfortable with it I would like to thank you by name in the acknowledgments, and I ask before anyone is listed. What being thanked will and will not mean.

What it is

A short list, not a long book

The book covers sleep, food and training for a general reader, in 84 pages. It keeps what the evidence supports, grades most of the sources it keeps, and says plainly where a number is a working rule rather than a trial result. It is deliberately short, so it carries two risks: compression, where a claim squeezed into one line ends up stronger than the study behind it, and omission, where a caution that should be on a page is missing. Those are what I am asking you to check.

  • Nothing for sale
  • No consumer launch
  • Not yet published
  • Corrections still open
The method

Why you could believe any of it

Because the method is the credential. Almost every claim is traced to a source, whether a study, a guideline or a label, and most of them carry a grade. Where the evidence is thin, the book says so. Where a number is a working rule rather than a trial result, the book says that too.

  • 84pages
  • 107on the evidence scale
  • 4grades, plus two labels
  • 12mapped pathways
Where the 138 entries sit on the evidence scale A bar chart. Strong, 12 sources. Established, 13. Moderate, 45. Emerging, 37. Guideline, 28. Background, 3 and ungraded. Strong 12 Established 13 Moderate 45 Emerging 37 Guideline 28 Background 3, ungraded
Strong 12, Established 13, Moderate 45, Emerging 37, Guideline 28, Background 3. The largest single group sits at Moderate, and the book says so on the page rather than dressing it up. The rubric is my own. It was informed by how GRADE thinks about certainty, but it rates each source rather than a body of evidence, so it is not GRADE and should not be read as it.
What earns each grade
GradeWhat earns it
StrongMeta-analysis or systematic review of randomized trials, large enough to settle the direction, or a pre-registered replication across many laboratories.
EstablishedSeveral randomized trials agreeing, or one large enough to settle the question on its own.
ModerateProspective cohorts, a systematic review of studies that are not randomized trials, or more than one trial where the samples are small, the durations short or the outcomes stand-ins.
EmergingCross-sectional or mechanistic work, animal studies, or one small trial standing on its own. On the map a pathway is drawn solid only where it reaches Established or above; everything else, including anything resting on a guideline, is dashed.
GuidelineA clinical body, a regulator or a formulary sets the rule, and the book says which one. This is a kind of source, not a rung on the scale: guidelines rest on evidence of their own, which I have not re-graded.
BackgroundReading that informs the argument without being a study, so it carries no grade.
What is in it

Three pillars, one system

The book treats sleep, food and training as one loop rather than three separate lists, because that is how the evidence behaves. Twelve pathways connect them.

  • Sleep. Where to start

    A fixed wake time, morning light, caffeine and alcohol timing, and what each stage of the night does. Pages 13 to 23.

  • Eat. The fuel

    Protein and plants, the six nutrients it focuses on, fiber, and the gut as something you feed rather than test. Pages 24 to 34.

  • Exercise. The engine

    Strength, an easy aerobic base, a little hard work, balance, and where recovery happens. Pages 35 to 44.

The shape of the book across 84 pages Eight parts drawn to scale along the length of the book. Front matter, pages 1 to 12. Sleep, 13 to 23. Eat, 24 to 34. Exercise, 35 to 44. Data and support, 45 to 49. Making it stick, 50 to 53. The situations, 54 to 67. The back matter, 68 to 84. Front matter 1 to 12 Sleep 13 to 23 Eat 24 to 34 Exercise 35 to 44 Data, support 45 to 49 Making it stick 50 to 53 The situations 54 to 67 Back matter 68 to 84 Warning signs, page 69. Sources, from page 77.
Each bar sits where that part sits in the book and is drawn to its true length. Front matter 1 to 12, Sleep 13 to 23, Eat 24 to 34, Exercise 35 to 44, Data and support 45 to 49, Making it stick 50 to 53, The situations 54 to 67, the back matter 68 to 84. The system map is on page 6, the grade rubric on page 9, the warning signs on page 69, and the source list runs from page 77.
The conflict

Where I sit, and where that might show

I am Chris Ngoi. I am not a doctor and I am not a researcher. What is here is my best-effort reading of the studies I could find, which is why the method has to be the credential rather than the author, and why a correction from you is worth more than anything I can add.

I am in the wellness industry, so I sell into the same space this book covers. Read all of it knowing that.

I grade supplement categories against the published evidence like everything else, and most of them come out badly. No company and no product is named or featured anywhere in the book, including mine, and there is nothing in it to buy. The support chapter sits behind a screen designed to talk you out of most of it. Wherever a free basic does the job, the book says to do that instead.

What the book contains is what the published evidence says, graded, with the gaps marked. If a grade anywhere looks generous to you, say so and I will take it seriously.

Before you use any of it

This is information, not medical advice

Nothing in the book or on this site was written about you, because I do not know your history, your medicines or your conditions. It is not a substitute for a doctor, a pharmacist or a nurse, and reading it does not put you in anyone's care.

Do not start, stop or change a medicine because of anything here. Where the book says something needs adjusting, that is a question to put to whoever prescribes for you. If anything here contradicts what your own clinician has told you, they are right and the book is wrong.

Do not delay care because of anything you read. If something worries you, get it looked at. Thresholds, doses, what is available on prescription and what you are obliged to report all differ by country, so use the figure that applies where you live. The book is written for adults, and the disclaimer that governs every page is on page 2.

The full terms, and how this site handles your data.