How To Flip Repetitive Negative Thoughts

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• The melatonin rules

• How to flip repetitive negative thoughts

• Asymmetrical returns

Health 
The Melatonin Rules

If you’ve ever struggled with sleep, you’ve probably seen melatonin pop up as a “natural” fix. But the fine print is worth reading if you want melatonin to work for you. 

A new analysis found that the right dose and timing of melatonin can improve sleep quality—but using too much, too late, could disrupt your sleep or make melatonin ineffective.

Scientists reviewed 26 randomized controlled trials to paint a better picture of melatonin’s effectiveness. They analyzed studies that included dosages ranging from one-tenth of a milligram of melatonin up to 10 milligrams per day and also compared them to placebo. The studies ranged from one day to one month. 

When the dust settled, the review suggested that benefits were most significant when participants took 3 to 4 mg of melatonin approximately three hours before bedtime.

Compared to placebo, melatonin resulted in less time laying awake in bed, cutting about 10 minutes off the time it takes to fall asleep. Melatonin also increased sleep duration by an average of 20 minutes, but there was a big catch. If it wasn’t taken at least three hours before bedtime (on non-time released formula), then it didn’t significantly impact total rest. 

While research doesn’t suggest melatonin is dangerous, it’s still a hormone, and there are many questions about its effectiveness and safety and whether it can disrupt your natural circadian rhythm.

Melatonin is not addictive but also not free of side effects. When you have too much melatonin, it can lead to grogginess, nausea, headaches, fatigue, confusion, nightmares, and low blood pressure. If you take other medications, be sure to check with your doctor because it has many potential interactions.

Because of that, if you’re going to take a supplement, we prefer non-melatonin-based products and recommend this one. 

But before popping pills, here’s your sleep checklist for better rest:

• Go to bed at a similar time each night.

• Upgrade your mattress, and keep your room and mattress cooler to support deeper, higher-quality sleep.

• Get sunlight into your eyes early in the day to help set your circadian rhythm. 

• Cut off caffeine at least 9 to 10 hours before you sleep.

• Limit technology at least 1 hour before sleep, and keep lights dimmer. 

• Cut off food at least 2 hours before you sleep. 

• Don’t sleep with the lights on; keep your room as dark as possible.

• Read, talk with a friend, or journal at night. Do something that shifts your brain into something enjoyable and away from anxiety. 

Mindset
How To Disrupt Repetitive Negative Thoughts

Ever noticed how a walk outside can clear your mind? It’s more than a coincidence.

Scientists found that spending time in nature does more than give you fresh air — it can boost your mood and help you focus on what really matters. 

Getting outdoors and moving might be the ultimate mindset fix. Movement can help improve your mood, and being outdoors can help end repeated negative thought patterns. 

Specifically, the combination of exercise and nature reduces rumination—repetitive, negative thinking linked to depression and anxiety.

While any movement works, being in nature appears to have more positive benefits than a walk in an urban setting. So, while something is better than nothing, if you can step outside the city, it’s even more impactful. 

This study highlights how powerful nature can be for mental well-being. While exercise alone has benefits, nature adds something special—a sense of awe and peace that can reset your mind. Reducing rumination can lower stress, improve mental clarity, and even boost creativity, making it easier to focus on the positive aspects of life.

Best of all, it doesn’t take much time. The study found that a 30-minute walk boosted your mood and reduced negative thoughts. 

Adam’s Corner 
Forget “Hacks.” Find Asymmetrical Returns

Have you ever tried “scoring” the health advice you receive?

The moment you realize that most wellness tips have a minor upside, it becomes much easier to invest time in what really matters.

Every day, whether in newsletters (like the one you’re reading now), social media, online articles, TV shows and documentaries (the epicenter of fear), or conversations with trainers and nutrition coaches, you are overwhelmed with an endless amount of information, recommendations, and suggestions. 

The information age has two parts that work against action. The first part frustrates most people—knowing who to trust is impossible. 

It’s why we write this newsletter. Our job is to give a balanced look at all the information. That’s not to say we’re not fallible (sometimes, we get things wrong), but we try to build trust by sharing when we make errors, why we got it wrong, and how to make it right.

However, another side of this isn’t discussed enough: the volume of information makes it hard to create change because you have more tips than you can apply. Social media is filled with 17-step routines that are both unrealistic for most and — more importantly — completely unnecessary. 

Behavioral change happens when you make it so easy that it’s hard to fail. Often, that means focusing on simpler tips, mastering those, and then making them more complex once you’re ready. But it’s also a matter of having fewer changes to make. 

Many of you love making to-do lists. It’s satisfying to cross something off the list and feel accomplished. However, you also know the feeling of adding more items than you cross off and the overwhelming feeling that comes with a to-do list that never ends. 

That’s wellness in a nutshell. More items are constantly added to the list, which means you either take fewer actions, feel overwhelmed, or potentially focus on the wrong behaviors that don’t drive significant results. 

No one is immune to this, but you can minimize the noise by looking for asymmetrical returns. These are the health decisions that — when done repeatedly — have an exponential upside compared to the effort or cost involved. 

And that’s the key. It’s impossible to say, “This is the best thing every person needs to do,” when so many individual variables influence how you live. I think resistance training is the best longevity medicine, but you might have reasons that don’t let you train like I would.

So, the goal is to give guidance while at the same time finding behaviors that don’t have barriers to entry.

The goal is to help you focus on health behaviors that aren’t complicated, don’t take up much time, are not expensive (or completely free), and have so much evidence that it’s almost inevitable it will deliver you some benefit.

This is the asymmetry you want: low effort, high reward. Again, it’s not about the highest potential reward but what gives the best return for the lowest investment. 

Here are a few behaviors with incredible asymmetrical upside. 

More Fiber: Supplements get all the attention (which is why they are a multi-billion dollar industry), but they come with lots of red tape, and many products (not all, though) don’t deliver on their hype. Fiber is different. It’s not a supplement, is found in foods (and powdered form), and is connected to less hunger, more weight management, lower LDL cholesterol, less heart disease, and diabetes. Research suggests that those who eat more fiber (via foods like beans and chickpeas) have healthier diets, eat more protein and less sugar, consume more vitamins and minerals, and have lower body weight and waist circumference. And unlike so many supplements, getting more fiber in your diet tends to be incredibly affordable. 

More Walking: Back in the day, I lived in the gym and a sloth outside of it. Once I left my workouts, I was chained to my desk and averaged about 2,000-3,000 steps daily (this is not good). Over time, I’ve learned that walking is an antidote for any health-based goal, such as better brain and cardiovascular health, a mood booster and tonic for mental health, a cognitive enhancer that improves focus and creativity, and a way to improve fitness and fat loss. And it’s a great indicator of longevity. It’s easy to get obsessed with the 10k steps — and it’s a great goal — but benefits can start as little as 4,000 to 5,000 steps per day, and with every 1,000 steps you add, the upside increases. 

Social Connection: Fitness, nutrition, and sleep get all the attention for good reason. But we are social beings built on interaction and connection. You don’t need to have a lot of friends to be healthy, but it helps to have deep connections that support purpose, meaning, love, support, and fight against loneliness. Researchers from three different universities studied the impact of social isolation and unhappiness on older individuals and found that loneliness ages a person faster than smoking. Prior research had already suggested that a lack of family, friendship, or community was linked to a 30 percent increase in the likelihood of heart disease and stroke and a 50 percent increase in the probability of dementia. The data suggests a lack of connection and hopelessness was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day or having six drinks daily. 

Isolation creates a domino effect that reduces the likelihood of performing healthy behaviors, which is a genuine reason for concern. According to the researchers, lonely people tend to get less exercise and don’t sleep or eat as well. We know it can be hard to connect, so being social is not about the total number of friendships. It’s about sharing values, beliefs, and interests, whether connecting with old friends or family, people in a chat room or gaming environment, or at an event like a concert or sports. All have a positive effect and lead to feeling connected. 

Are there other behaviors with asymmetrical upside? Of course. But I’d be a hypocrite to discuss adding to your long to-do list with another lengthy to-do list. Instead, focus on any of these until it feels easy or automatic. Once that happens, you can try to master it deeper — such as going from 20 grams of fiber per day to 30 grams or progressing from 5,000 steps per day to 6,000 — or you can add a secondary behavior from the list. 

Focusing on easy behaviors is a cheat code. Because behaviors with asymmetrical upside that you can do repeatedly are an insurance policy. We celebrate the perfect meal or setting new personal records, but that’s for show.

Long-lasting health is about anticipating that life sometimes makes it hard to be healthy. And that means you need habits and routines that don’t fluctuate so you can do the little things that give your body what it needs. 

When life gets hard and chaotic, these behaviors provide a stable foundation to ensure your health doesn’t spiral. And that’s really how you get better over time. -AB

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell