You may not be sinking, but you could be exhausting yourself trying to bail out all the water in that leaky boat you call life.

The rise of MUS (Medically Unexplained Symptoms) is a real thing, and I used to see it all the time in my acupuncture clinics.

In fact, every other client in a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) clinic has already exhausted every other avenue before taking their ‘weird’ mix of symptoms to someone most of their friends will refer to as a ‘quack’.

In Western primary care, 13–45% of consultations involve symptoms that are at least partly unexplained, and 20–50% of reasons for GP visits can fall under this umbrella, depending on definitions.

The worst thing (for me) is that I’ve helped many patients with this while obviously suffering from it myself.

The good news is that for many of these ‘subclinical’ symptoms, all that’s needed is a sober life-review.

If you feel tired all the time and your doctors have ruled out all the red flags and can’t offer any advice, there may not be a single cause.

It’s not your addiction to coffee that’s doing it. It’s not your slight sleep deficit either. It’s not even your reliance on doom-scrolling in the bathroom to self-medicate boredom, and definitely not that extra bit of cheese you like to snack on before hopping into bed at night.

While it’s not any one of them, the reality is that it’s likely all of them together that’s making you feel dumber, slower, and older than you care to remember.

Once the doc has ruled out the big things, you need to make that review.

Get my handy version here.

Track your habits for a week.

Write down every little thing that you know in your heart of hearts is an extra straw on the camel’s back.

This is your ‘plug’ list. It’s every little leak in your boat that you’re going to plug this year.

Next, plan your ‘habit stack’ because you’re crazy if you think you can do all of these at once.

Add them to your calendar of improvements.

Then go at them one at a time, one week at a time.

Personally, I think good sleeping habits are the cornerstone of everything else.

And science backs me up.

When sleep is consistently short or poor, these systems shift into a chronic low‑grade stress and inflammatory state that accelerates aging, weight gain, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegeneration.

Forget fasting, cold plunges, breathing techniques, allergy tests, and all the rest of it.

If you’re male, over 50, and your sleeping sucks, then probably everything else does too.

And if this resonates, read on, because this is the week I’m tackling my own dreadful sleep habits and I hope you’ll join me (see below).

Here’s my goal planner: Plan 50X Goal Setter

Here’s my 12-month plan for 2026: The Year of Small Changes

I sometimes get a cold feeling across my lower back. Then I need to pee a lot, and my energy levels drop like a bowling ball into the side channel.

But it’s OK because I slam in a large coffee (or two) and then I’m good to go, teaching classes, driving all over the place, ferrying the kids here, there, and everywhere.

Except it’s not OK.

In fact, it’s terrible.

The problem? As health-oriented as I am (Yoga, Pilates, meditation, etc), I’m an early riser and a night owl.

Not a good combination, and it’s the reason I crash and burn with an almost boring regularity.

The stats on sleep debt in men over 50 are horrible, and I guess I’m one of them.

While I did compile a list of terrifying stats for sleeping habits in men over 50 in the US, UK, and Ireland, and I also put together the medical horror show of what this does to our health (dementia, heart attacks, death, etc), we aren’t here to dwell on any of that.

Trust me, we are rubbish when it comes to sleeping well, and hence the ugly reality of the ‘grumpy old man’.

Now for the (easy) 2-step solution you’ve probably never heard before.

1. Don’t stress about your crappy sleeping quality or habits.

A good friend once got me over the hump starting a running schedule with this very same advice.

I kept getting injured and exhausted after minutes out on the road.

He told me to plan on being outside for 20 minutes, regardless of whether I’m running or not.

Stop when you get tired. Run, however briefly, when you can.

It changed my running life.

How does this apply to sleeping?

If you sleep badly, half or more of the stress comes from the tossing and turning lying in bed trying to sleep - as if that’s ever worked 🤦🏻‍♂️

But have you ever asked yourself where and when the idea of 8 hours of sleep between 11 pm and 7 am came from?

We didn’t always do it that way.

In fact, in the Middle Ages in Europe, there’s evidence of what was called the ‘2nd’ sleep. Particularly during the long winter evenings.

Before blue-lit screens, 24-hour entertainment, and electric lights, folks went to bed earlier in the wintertime.

So early that they would wake up around midnight, and calmly go about their business, reading, cleaning, preparing for the following day, or just chilling out for an hour or two, and then go back to bed.

No stress, no worry about insomnia.

Now, it’s exactly what I do if my sinus condition is bothering me or if I’m stressed about something.

I wake up, zero stress, and I read something until I nod off. I never worry about the time. I just read until I can’t follow the words anymore, and I conk out.

It works for me every time, and most of all, it takes all that insomnia stress away.

2. Consider the traditions of Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine.

Both recommend going to bed before 10 pm.

You can mock and jibe at this all you want, but if you have the discipline to do it, this proverbial m*&^£rf&^%£r will change your life.

Apologies for the expletive, but I’m a night owl by nature, and every time I have the discipline to shift the window forward an hour or two, my life changes.

So the first few nights you’ll wake up at midnight bright and bushy-tailed.

That used to stress me, but not anymore.

I read, I chill. Then I take my medieval style ‘2nd Sleep’ and wake up like a champion the next day.

Want to give it a try?

Use a copy of my Energy Leak ‘Plug List’.

Then slot the results into your small changes calendar (download a copy here) and follow along as we stack habits throughout the year.

Curious about the idea of the 2nd sleep?

You can learn more about it in historian Roger Ekirch’s book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past.

If you’re planning on buying it, you can support the newsletter by getting it here through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4plMUf6

It’s quiz time.

Three quotes and you have to guess who the speaker is - no Googling allowed:

I know what you’re thinking.

Older 50X followers will be thinking Zig Ziglar or Brian Tracy

Slightly younger will go for Anthony Robbins or Robin Sharma

Younger again (whippersnappers in their 40s) will be thinking Gary Vaynerchuk or even Steven Bartlett.

The correct answer 🥁🥁🥁🥁 (drum roll please)…

The late, great George Foreman.

We’ve all seen Rumble in the Jungle, and we all root for Mohammed Ali every time.

But in terms of comeback kings, honestly, I’ve a lot of love and respect for the oldest heavyweight champ of all time.

The big man was 46 years old when he reclaimed the title.

Just imagine what he would have done to Jake Paul at that advanced age 😵😵

But that was only one of his comebacks.

In 1977, three years after the Rumble, he lost to another, lesser fighter than the great Ali and had what many describe as a near-death experience.

"I was gone out of this life. Above me, under me, all around me was nothing... I was in a dump yard of nothing and sorrowfulness."

He went from boxer to Christian minister in a heartbeat and started a new life of preaching and community work in Houston, TX.

But it wasn’t the end of his boxing career.

He was only 28 at the time, but a full 17 years later, he was on top of the heavyweight division again and became the (still) oldest heavyweight champion of all time.

But that STILL wasn’t the end.

The list of champion boxers who ended up penniless, homeless, or who died young from bad life choices is tragically long.

Instead, George put into action his greatest asset: that crazy never-say-die attitude we all saw in the ring with Ali.

His business ventures after his comeback at 46 years old netted him more money than everything he had earned before that through his boxing fame.

Don’t get me wrong. Ali is still the greatest, and his comeback stories are equally incredible, but also far more widely known.

If you’re looking for proof that you still have it in you to reach new levels of health, happiness, and success in your life, George Foreman has one of the greatest stories out there.

I’ve been cheating a little.

But only in the most virtuous way. I’m happy with the goals I set, and now I’m ready to start sleeping better as the key foundation to this whole Year of Small Changes plan.

I know what makes my bad sleeping tick, and I know how to fix it.

If you want to try the same, you can follow it here.

The cheat is that I already started doing some of it.

I haven’t been getting the early nights yet, and although 10 pm is optimal, I can’t commit to that yet.

11 pm is already great for me, but get this, even hitting the sack at 1 am worked for me, and I was a shocked as anyone would be.

My only goal was to not scroll, not even one second, not one crappy YouTube short once I crossed the bedroom threshold.

Only book-reading until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I was disgusted when I glanced at my watch and saw it was 1 am as I turned out the light.

But somehow, I woke up feeling weirdly refreshed.

Could blue light be the key factor?

1 am + blue light is not the same as 1 am + physical book?

I’m going along with that premise.

But from now on, it’s 11 am bedtime. Then read until my eyes droop. No phone.

Easy right? It is, after all, the Year of Small Changes, so every tweak should be simple and set you up for success one small step at a time.

Follow along here, and let me know how it goes.

Let me know how it was for you all.

Anything at all - from colour scheme (or lack of it), to content, length, format, etc.

If you liked it and found it useful, don’t forget to pass it on.

Liam KB.

PS Watch out for posts on social media if you’re that way inclined.

You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and even (God forgive me) on TikTok