Mick Unplugged
Dave Asprey: The Art of Biohacking, Sleep Mastery, and Lasting Leadership
Mon, 26 May 2025
Dave Asprey is widely known as “the OG of biohacking”—a visionary entrepreneur, best-selling author, and pioneer who sparked a global movement focused on upgrading human potential. From transforming coffee into a performance-enhancing tool to turning aging into a choice, Asprey has dedicated his life to uncovering the systems and protocols that optimize health, performance, and longevity. Once a successful Silicon Valley computer hacker with a personal health crisis, Dave used his relentless curiosity—and scientific rigor—to create a revolution now valued at $63 billion worldwide. His latest book, Heavily Meditated, delivers a blueprint for mastering mental and emotional resilience to unlock true human potential. Takeaways: You Cannot Hack What You Can't Track: Dave emphasizes the importance of measuring your recovery and performance—using tools like sleep trackers—so you can make meaningful improvements to your health and productivity. Darkness is a Powerful Bio-hack: Simply sleeping in complete darkness—with blackout curtains and no light leaks—can significantly improve sleep quality, boost cognitive function, and reduce risk of depression and aging-related decline. Energetic Peace is Key for Leaders: True leadership and personal growth come from “choosing peace, no matter what.” When you master your emotional state and triggers, you lead your team and yourself with more clarity, resilience, and authentic power. Sound Bites: “Now, you can hack it because you can track it. You cannot hack what you can't track.” “One of the cheapest biohacks of all that improves leadership and performance and longevity in aging is darkness.” “If anything on earth can trigger me, it’s in charge, not me—and that is a very high standard for living.” Quote by Mick: “I feel like sometimes our soul needs to know that we are worthy of the praise that we're getting. And so I want you to know, man, like, you are worthy of all of this praise, brother.” Connect & Discover Dave: Website: https://daveasprey.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Daveaspreyofficial/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dave.asprey/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daveaspreyofficial YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DaveAspreyBPR LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asprey/ Podcast: The Human Upgrade Book: Heavily Meditated FOLLOW MICK ON:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickunplugged/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mickunplugged/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mickunplugged LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickhunt/Website: https://www.mickhuntofficial.com Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mick-unplugged/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is biohacking and why is it important?
Now you can hack it because you can track it. You cannot hack what you can't track. And that's one thing. And if you're saying, I don't want to do that, that's too much work. One of the cheapest biohacks of all that improves leadership and performance and longevity and aging is darkness.
Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership, and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just hard-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today I just told him offline, this is probably the highlight of my 2025. He didn't just spark a movement. He built a blueprint for human potential. He turned aging into a choice Coffee into a Weapon and Biohacking into a Global Revolution.
Best-selling author, relentless entrepreneur, the original mind behind the upgrade. I call him the OG of biohacking. Ladies and gentlemen, this is David Asprey. Dave, how you doing today, brother?
I'm doing really well. Wow, what an intro. I've never thought of weaponizing coffee, but I like your words.
Hey, you did. You did. I love it, man. Dave, you know, I have so many questions I want to ask you from my soul. I told you, you know, Gary Brecka, Damon John, all been telling me a lot about you towards the end of last year. And I really started diving deep into you and all the things that you're doing, man.
And so I wanted to tell you face to face, even though we're virtual, but face to face, I just respect and appreciate the heck out of you, man. Like, the lives you're changing, the insights you're giving. I know you don't get enough credit for it. I know you also don't seek credit for a lot, knowing the soul that you are, but I just wanted to tell you, bro, freaking appreciate you.
Thank you, Mick.
Just freaking appreciate you, dude. And I know this, you've spent a lot of your life building systems and protocols to upgrade the human body. But I want to go a little bit deeper. I'm interested in the man, the person that needed it. Like who was Dave Asprey before the hacks, before the tools, before the protocols and what broke Dave, man?
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Chapter 2: How can measuring recovery improve performance?
So all of a sudden now, how does my behavior influence my recovery? And that is a major signal. Now you can hack it because you can track it. You cannot hack what you can't track. And that's one thing. And if you're saying, I don't want to do that, that's too much work. One of the cheapest biohacks of all that improves leadership and performance and longevity and aging is darkness.
What I'm talking about is get yourself some blackout curtains and put tape over every single source of any light in your bedroom. And if you have to, put a towel under the door. No light at all. Sleep in a cave. And people say, oh, but that doesn't really matter. No, it matters far more than you might imagine because your body
is desperately trying to figure out what time is it because if it's nighttime i should be recovering and if you look at the last two billion years there was never any bright light at night except for firelight and maybe lightning that was it so now you turn on your bathroom lights or you have a little blue or green or yellow or white led in the bedroom the cells in your body are going
there's light, it must be daytime, and then it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. And my evidence, a study in Japan of 800 people show that the amount of light that leaks in around your curtains from streetlights increases depression by 69%. It literally makes you old, it makes you insulin resistant. So blackout your room, you don't have to do any of the tracking, just do that.
Because now we understand why we understand the science. Blackout curtains are cheap.
Dave, When I see you in person next, I'm giving you a big hug and I might give you a kiss on the cheek from me for my wife. I have been telling my wife for over a year, babe, turn the TV off when it's time for bed. Like I traditionally...
was always it has to be pitch black for me to sleep now i know why you just explained to me why my wife on the other hand tv's on she needs the sound i'm like we can get noise machines you dave proven my point probably saved my marriage all at the same time you didn't even know that i appreciate you brother i got two more hacks for you around that because you shared that with me
there's a good chance that you might not succeed in getting her to do the TV thing. You can get the true dark glasses. True dark is a circadian biology company. I started it 10 years ago. These are the daytime glasses I'm wearing right now. The yellow ones, we make glasses for sleep that are on the true dark.com website.
And we just published in a medical journal, a study of brainwaves and 15 minutes of wearing the true dark glasses and put your brain in a state of meditation, and they trick your brain into thinking it's pitch dark, even if there's light. So even if she's got those on, you put on those glasses, you'll look a little bit like Cyclops from the X-Men.
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Chapter 3: What role does darkness play in sleep quality?
If I can make fun of you right now and it pushes any button, makes you tighten your jaw, makes your stomach flip, even if you're smiling, you're pretending like it didn't, dude, I'm in charge of your nervous system. If you're in leadership, you have great power over others. You cannot allow anyone else to change your state. It is the fundamental thing.
So if your body's in survival, your business will be in survival. And if I can put you in survival by acting like a seventh grade bully because they're still driving you or like one of your mean parents because that's still driving you and you don't know it's still driving you. You are not doing what you can as a leader. And there's nothing wrong with that. We are wired.
All humans are wired to process reality according to specific rules that I figured out through this hacking stuff. And it's not you. It's your operating system doing that. And there's no shame in it. There's no guilt. It's not you. The mean voice in your head is not you. It's a separate consciousness keeping your meat alive as if you were not in there.
And let me walk you through those steps because I think our listeners are going to love it. And this is right at the heart of what's in Heavily Meditated. So all life, I don't care if you're a blade of grass, a tree, or a slime mold like a politician or anything like that, or a human being, you are following these rules.
And this is happening in one third of a second before your brain gets to grasp reality. So this is provable that there's a window where it happens. And your cells do this individually, even inside your cells, your mitochondria do it. Number one is fear. They're all F words. So fear. If something is scary, run away from, kill, or hide.
And your body will put nine times more focus on things that might be scary if you have a normal system. And if you hack your system and you meditate or do the things in the book, you can put six times more energy. This is really useful because if a tiger jumps out or you lean on a hot stove accidentally, your body will react before you can think. And that's good.
But you don't want it to be reacting to your mother-in-law like it's a hot stove. Right? So fear. The second one is food. Right? Because all life has gone through famines. One third of the average person's thoughts are about tacos. Well, it's about food anyway. So this is there are studies of this.
So if you have a mean voice in your head going, I can't believe that person said that mean thing about me, and they cut me off in traffic on what's for lunch. How are you supposed to lead? You can't, you have to figure out a turn it off. And what they teach you in your therapist's office in psychology, or even in a Buddhist monastery where I've spent a lot of time. Sit in the lotus position.
Notice the feelings flowing over you. Gently set them aside. And I'm like, screw that noise. I don't want to spend the energy on these feelings that do not reflect reality. They are not helpful. So step one to be a good leader is learn how to set them aside so you don't punch people. That would be helpful. That's what all adults learn how to do if we don't go to jail.
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Chapter 4: What was Dave Asprey's journey before biohacking?
Yeah. I know you're busy. I know you have a lot going on. If there's one thing you want the listeners, the viewers to know about the book, about Dave Asprey and all the things you have going on, what's the one or two things you want them to know now?
Well, let's talk about the book. I am absolutely certain that my name will be lost in history at some point in the future, and I'm okay with that. So don't worry about my name, but pay attention to the book. When you read Heavily Meditated, it is the laundry list of everything that we know about that you can do to be in charge of your state.
you are not meant to do everything in this book because it's going to take a long time. And I've spent a lot of time on doing all the things in the book. So I want you to read it with your intuition.
And one part of the book is going to stand out and you're going to feel the hairs on the back of your neck go up or you'll feel like a sense of like energy flowing over your body or it'll just catch your attention in the way things catch your attention. We just know that's interesting. That's the one. Go do that. There's a chapter on psychedelics.
There's a chapter on this little unknown way of entering altered states. 20% of people report meeting God during orgasm, at least once in their life. So maybe when you read the book, you go, oh, my God, the thing that actually regulates my nervous system the best is really being great with my partner. So, like, let's go take a class. Let's read a book. Let's work on that. Great.
You found the thing in the book that was for you. And maybe it's the chapter on psychedelics. I'm going to tell you how to not do the ones that are likely to wreck your business. Right? And maybe it's, oh, I was trying to meditate. It never worked for me. Great news. You're an entrepreneur. You probably don't have a normal nervous system. There's...
98% of us, well, we worked in agriculture and farming to feed humans. 98% of people are farmers. And we selected ourselves that way over thousands and thousands of years.
Wow.
Most meditations are meant for farmers. And if you're the kind of person who runs towards an emergency to go fix it, instead of the kind of person who runs away from it, like most people... The meditation meant for someone who pushes a plow or plants rice every day may not be the meditation for you. And that's okay. So choose the type of meditation or breath work or other things.
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