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Today’s Health Upgrade

• How to stay mentally sharp after sleepless nights

• Why we forget things (and methods to improve retention)

• The benefits of adding a little variety to your diet

• To improve meaningful connection, ask this question

On Our Radar
The Daily Habit That Could Keep Your Brain Sharp, Even When You Don’t Sleep Enough

You can’t always control when you have a bad night of sleep. But more evidence continues to suggest that a daily habit could ensure that your brain doesn’t feel the effects of not getting enough rest. 

A new study found that taking creatine before a sleepless night helped people think more clearly and stay mentally sharp.

Scientists had healthy adults pull an all-nighter in a lab. Half took creatine beforehand; the other half took a sugar pill. Then researchers tested them on logic puzzles, number problems, and reaction time tasks throughout the night. 

The creatine group held up better on logic, with the sharpest effect showing up in how slowly their scores fell as the night went on. The placebo group's logical thinking deteriorated much faster.

This isn’t the first study to suggest that creatine helps offset poor sleep and keep your brain functioning at a higher level. However, it’s worth noting that the amount of creatine used — about 14 grams for an average person — is more than the 5-10 grams most people take daily. 

Also, while performance didn’t decline as much, the creatine didn't make anyone feel less tired. People in both groups felt equally exhausted. The difference was only in how well their brains performed despite being tired. 

And there was one other interesting finding: women tended to benefit more from the supplementation. 

The scientists believe that because women usually have lower natural creatine stores in the brain than men, partly because creatine levels appear connected to hormones that fluctuate across the menstrual cycle and into menopause. If your tank is running low to start, you may have more to gain by adding more. This was a small subgroup finding, so it's early, but it's consistent with a growing body of research on why women may get more out of creatine overall.

Creatine is one of the most popular supplements, but studies show there’s a legitimate purity issue with brands you might trust. For example, if you take creatine gummies, a report found that many popular products — despite label claims — contained hardly any creatine. 

If you’re looking for creatine you can trust, stick with creatine that is NSF Certified For Sport, so you know that what’s on the label is actually in the product. This is the brand we use.

This isn't a reason to skip sleep and take creatine instead. Think of it less as a fix and more as a buffer; one that might hold your brain together a little better on the days when rest isn't an option.

Together With Shortform
Why Your Brain Deletes Most of What You Learn (and the Simple Fix)

You read something that finally clicks. A new framework for sleep, or why protein timing matters, or the one habit that actually reduces stress. You bookmark it. Maybe share it. Two weeks later, it's gone.

That’s not a glitch. That's your memory working exactly as designed.

Research suggests that without active reinforcement, roughly two-thirds of newly learned information fades within 24 hours, and as much as 90% disappears within a week.

The roots of memory date back to the 1800s, and more recently, researchers replicated the original 1885 forgetting-curve experiments — one of the most foundational studies in memory science — using the same methodology over 70 hours of trials. 

They confirmed what scientists first documented: memory decay is rapid, predictable, and nearly universal. The curve drops steeply in the hours after learning, then gradually flattens. It doesn't reverse on its own. 

The real problem isn't that you forget. It's how most people try to prevent it. 

Rereading and highlighting — the two most common strategies — are rated as low utility by researchers who evaluated ten learning techniques across hundreds of studies. They create a feeling of familiarity without building actual recall.

The fix is counterintuitive. Testing yourself is more powerful than reviewing. In controlled research, retrieval practice — actively recalling information without looking at the text — can more than double long-term retention compared to an equivalent amount of passive rereading. 

Combine that with spaced review, and the effect compounds: across 839 experimental comparisons, spacing practice across multiple sessions outperformed cramming in 96% of studies.

If you want a way to boost your memory, after reading something worth keeping, close the tab and write three sentences from memory: what it said, why it matters, and what you'd actually do with it. Come back to those notes two days later. That moment of friction is the mechanism. It's not a trick. It's how memory consolidates.

The other way is to consolidate what you need to learn and create lessons that make it easier to build depth to your knowledge, rather than just constantly quizzing yourself. 

Our favorite solution is Shortform.

Most people assume it's a book summary app. Shortform's team of writers and editors produces in-depth guides to thousands of nonfiction titles — not condensed overviews, but genuine analysis. 

Each guide includes a full 1-page summary of the entire book, a chapter-by-chapter breakdown with original commentary, and connections to what other authors say on the same topic, including counterpoints and updates from more recent research. 

As the research shows, this type of information setup makes it easier to retain what you read. And, it comes with exercises after each section that prompt you to recall and apply what you just read — exactly the retrieval practice the science points to, built directly into the experience.

Shortform has also expanded well beyond books. Master guides compile everything experts have written on a single subject — sleep, stress, recovery — into one place. Article and podcast guides extend the same depth to other formats. And their browser extension summarizes anything online — articles, emails, YouTube videos — in one click.

For roughly the price of one book a month, you get access to thousands of them, with the structured engagement that makes what you read actually last.

APC readers get a free trial and 25% off the annual plan at shortform.com/arnold. The discount applies automatically when you sign up for the annual subscription through that link — no code needed.

The forgetting curve is predictable. And that means it's beatable. Shortform gives you the structure to beat it.

Instant Health Boost 
Why Colorful Plants Are So Good for Your Gut (It's Not Just Antioxidants)

You've heard that berries, green tea, and dark chocolate are good for you. Antioxidants, sure. But a meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials points to something most people don't know: the more interesting action happens long after digestion begins, deep in your colon, where trillions of bacteria are waiting.

Polyphenols, the natural compounds in colorful fruits, vegetables, tea, and cocoa, appear to strengthen your gut lining and increase production of a key bacterial fuel source.

Researchers combined data from 13 trials to examine how eating polyphenol-rich foods affected gut bacteria, cellular damage, and inflammation in adults who were overweight or obese. A few things shifted in ways that mattered. 

Levels of a harmful waste product that seeps into your bloodstream when your gut wall weakens (a sign the lining has developed small cracks) dropped significantly. And levels of butyrate rose significantly. Butyrate is the main fuel for the cells lining your colon. The way your muscles need glucose, your gut wall cells need butyrate. 

When those levels go up, the lining gets better fed and stays more intact. The body's ability to protect against cell damage also improved. 

The mechanism is the surprising part. Most polyphenols aren't absorbed in the small intestine; they reach the colon largely intact. Gut bacteria transform them into smaller bioactive compounds, and in return, produce more butyrate. 

It's a genuine exchange: polyphenols feed beneficial bacteria, and beneficial bacteria keep the gut lining intact.

If you want to get more benefits from polyphenols, focus on variety. Add berries to breakfast. Drink green tea or coffee daily. Eat across the color spectrum: red, blue, purple, and green all interact differently with gut bacteria. And keep the fiber. 

Better Questions, Better Solutions
The Connection Miscalculation

Researchers who study what keeps people alive longest don't always land on the answers you'd expect. There are the usual suspects: Exercise matters, and so does diet and sleep. 

But an underrated predictor of how long you'll live — and how well — isn't in your workout or your bloodwork. It's whether you feel genuinely close to other people.

Loneliness carries health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Weak social ties accelerate cognitive decline. Strong relationships, on the other hand, are associated with lower rates of depression, better immune function, and significantly longer life. 

So why do so many people feel like they're surrounded by others and still somehow alone?

Old question: Why don't I feel close to people?
Better question: When was the last time I allowed someone to see something real about me?

The old question prompts you to look outward at the people around you, at your circumstances, and at whether you have "enough" social contact. It frames loneliness as something that happens to you.

The better question puts you in control of your connections and relationships.

Connection doesn't grow from proximity. You can share an office or a home and feel completely unknown. 

A key ingredient of closeness is vulnerability: the willingness to show something true, something unpolished, something you're not entirely sure will be received well.

Research on what builds relational intimacy consistently points in this direction. Reciprocal self-disclosure — the gradual, mutual sharing of real experience — is one of the most reliable drivers of felt closeness. Not time logged together. Not shared activities. The actual exchange of something honest.

The problem is that vulnerability feels like a risk. So most people avoid it, hoping connection will deepen on its own. It rarely does.

If you want to feel more connected, work on sharing the things you'd normally keep to yourself. Not a confession, just something honest. A doubt. A fear. Something you're figuring out. Notice what happens on the other side of it.

You don't need more people in your life. You might just need to let the ones already there actually see you.

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to review our interpretations of the research and ensure scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell