Terry Crews burned himself out sleeping 3 hours a night to be productive. A 5-step bedtime routine changed his life.

• Terry Crews exhausted himself by doing too much and sleeping as little as three hours a night.
• He changed his life by developing a bedtime routine and sleeping up to nine hours a night.

Terry Crews seems like a man who can do it all. The American football player-turned-actor, TV host, author, activist, and illustrator is also a father of five, and appears to juggle everything with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

But a decade ago, Crews' schedule had left him burned out and feeling ill, he told Business Insider.

"I do a lot," Crews said. "I had TV shows going, I'm doing movies at the same time, commercial campaigns I'm running, it's literally 24 hours, I'm going nonstop."

At the time, the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor was only getting three to four hours of sleep each night, but his body ultimately forced him to slow down.

Crews, 55, now believes that people, especially those who are into fitness and high-achievers, don't talk about sleep enough.

"As a fitness person, as a guy who's all about fitness, doing a lot of things, goal-oriented, we don't talk about it enough," he said. "The pressure on us is to do more. Everyone tells you, 'You can get three workouts in, you can do all this stuff,' but no one ever stresses the importance of sleep."

Now, Crews sleeps eight to nine hours a night but is able to achieve more in all aspects of his life in less time, he said.

'My body just stopped'

In the noughties, Crews felt like he never wanted to miss an opportunity.

"I was going a million miles an hour, and all of a sudden it's like, my whole life hit the brakes, my body just stopped," Crews said. "It was like I had the flu, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't focus. My sinuses were messed up and I had headaches."

Crews's doctor thoroughly examined him and concluded there was nothing diagnosable wrong with him — he was simply exhausted.

The doctor told Crews to take three days off work and just go to bed.

It was, ironically, a wake-up call.

Crews had heard his friend, the entrepreneur Tim Ferris, talking about how beneficial ample sleep is, but now he was ready to listen, he said.

As someone who already had routines in his life — before going to the gym or hosting a TV show, for example — Crews realized he needed a pre-bed routine. He's been following the same one for over 10 years.

Terry Crews' bedtime routine

• Turning the thermostat down to keep his bedroom cool

• Shutting the windows and curtains

• Taking a melatonin supplement

• Stopping looking at his phone screen half an hour before bed

• Brushing his teeth and flossing

Lowering body temperature and limiting light have been shown to increase levels of melatonin, a hormone that regulates our sleep-wake cycle, in the body. Research suggests that supplements containing the hormone can help people fall asleep faster, and Crews is an ambassador for Natrol melatonin.

Crews goes to bed at about 8:30 p.m. and gets up at around 4.30 or 5 a.m. At weekends, he might sleep in until 6 a.m., he said.

"When I get up, I'm ready for my day, I can attack my day," he said.

Now that streaming services are so popular, Crews doesn't have to stay up late to catch his favorite TV shows, and he prefers watching highlights of sporting events to save time anyway, he said.

"By shutting things off and having a designated time to rest, now I get more power," Crews said.

Sleeping made Crews more efficient

When he used to sleep for only a few hours a night, Crews found he was doing a lot, but not achieving that much.

"I realized that what is more important is not how many things you do. What is important is the efficiency of how you do each thing," Crews said. He said he used to do 20 things but none well, whereas now he focuses on doing three or four things "efficiently and amazingly."

"By just concentrating on that, I got tons more done," Crews said. "It was way more effective. My performances were better. All of my things were better."

Crews framed this as the difference between action and motion.

"Doing more just made you move a lot," he said. "But when you're really taking action on your goals, on your resolutions, on everything you're trying to do, things start to change in your life very quickly for the better."