Personal · Biohacking · Long-form

How to stay cognitively sharp at a 24/7 pace.

Alexander Anglichaninov — Co-founder S.V.I. ~ 5 min read

This isn't a 'productivity in 5 minutes a day' piece, and it's not an ad for capsules. It's a short, concrete breakdown of how I keep a high cognitive tempo without burning out. Based on personal experience and a talk with a practising nutrition researcher.

I've lived under heavy intellectual load for years: building S.V.I., learning languages, reading research papers, running product and architecture in parallel. Without liters of coffee and without nootropics. Here's what works.

01.Sleep is archiving, not rest

The big illusion is that a sleepless night is just 'minus 8 hours of rest'. It's actually more interesting than that.

When you work through the night, your brain and body don't pull energy from nowhere. You're literally borrowing from your future health. Before 25 the debt is almost invisible. After 25-27, once the prefrontal cortex finishes forming, that loan comes due. — nutrition researcher

Deep sleep is archiving: moving information from the hippocampus into the cortex. The more you learn, the more time the brain needs for that operation. Without it, new information overwrites the old, and your speed at hard decisions quietly drops. In your 20s you can hold a dense tempo - but only if every sleep cycle is complete.

02.Circadian rhythm and breakfast as a ritual

I'm a classic night owl: I go to bed at 2-3, get up at 10-11. That's a chronotype, not a disorder. For an entrepreneur not tied to a 9-to-5, it's perfectly functional.

If falling asleep at 2-3 a.m. and waking at 10-11 feels comfortable, and the business doesn't suffer - stop forcing your schedule. You're spending mental energy redoing something that already works. — from the conversation

Key points: 30 minutes of natural light right after waking - it triggers the cortisol pulse and sets the sleep timer. Breakfast is a ritual, not 'wasted time'. I cook something involved and eat it watching anime. It's a legal dopamine buffer: the brain relaxes, processes the night's information, charges up for the day. In terms of content - quality fats and proteins: eggs (choline for memory), oily fish (omega-3), nuts (tyrosine for dopamine). Raw material for neurotransmitters all day.

03.Dopamine and short videos: a quiet catastrophe

I cut short videos to zero. TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts - all of it. The effect is stronger than it looks.

A couple of hours of short videos a day is a legal drug for the prefrontal cortex. The brain gets cheap, fast dopamine every 15-30 seconds. After quitting - a couple of weeks in a 'dopamine pit', and then your thinking becomes cleaner and deeper. — from the conversation

Key point

Quitting shorts isn't about 'discipline'. It's a reset of your baseline dopamine level, where hard tasks become interesting again instead of 'I have to force myself'.

04.The '10-minute vacuum' method

The most underrated technique. I use it after hard study sessions - especially with languages and research papers.

Right after a block of Japanese characters or a hard paper - sit or lie down for 10 minutes. Do nothing. No phone, no water, no thoughts about work. Just silence with your eyes closed.

These 10-minute 'quiet wakefulness' pauses with no incoming stimuli raise retention of what you just learned by 30-40%. In that moment the brain copies the data into long-term memory. — from the conversation

05.Intermittent fasting and water

I'm not a strict IF evangelist, but a 14-16 hour window between dinner and a late breakfast works.

When you pause eating, the level of BDNF - brain-derived neurotrophic factor - rises in the body. BDNF stimulates the growth of new neurons and speeds up synapse formation. Memory gets stickier, the 'fog' lifts. — from the conversation

This isn't a weight-loss diet, it's a concrete biochemical tool for neuroplasticity. If your metabolism is wild (like mine) - you can't fast for long, the body switches to saving mode. A 14-15 hour window is optimal.

On water specifically: I drink a lot, three glasses at a time. The brain is 75% water. Even 1-2% dehydration is minus 10-15% to the speed of cognitive operations. Most afternoon 'freezes' are plain lack of water, not 'being tired'.

06.What doesn't work (for me)

Nootropics (modafinil, racetams, high-dose L-theanine). A short-term boost, then debt with interest. Basic physiology is more reliable.
Cold showers. For some - yes; for me it's only stress. I don't force it.
Long meditation, 30+ minutes. Not for me. I replace it with the 10-minute 'vacuum' - same effect for memory archiving, three times less time.
Morning runs. Night owl + intense sport right after waking = catabolism and bad mood. I moved activity to the daytime.
'Weekends' as a full detox. If you cut the load abruptly, the brain slips into apathy. You need to lower the load smoothly, not zero it out.

07.The main takeaway

Biohacking isn't pills and it isn't magic. It's understanding that the brain is a physical organ, running on specific neurotransmitters from specific raw materials under specific conditions. If you plan to hold the tempo for 10-15 years - the brain needs servicing like any other infrastructure.

I'm building a mega-corporation. It's a marathon, not a sprint. If I'd burned out at 25, there would be no S.V.I.

In short

Don't fight your circadian rhythm. Protect breakfast as a ritual. Quit short videos. A 10-minute vacuum after studying. Quality fats and proteins. More water than you think you need.