How three athletes became sleep experts.
Todd Anderson may have started his career as a pro football player, but he’s more interested in what happens off the field now. In fact, he would rather talk about what happens when athletes kick back for the night.
Anderson, along with his two cofounders (and fellow athletes), Jake and Cole Kissick, are the performance-obsessed brains behind Dream Recovery, a company on a mission to improve recovery through the science of sleep. The duo started with an eye mask, which they created specifically for people who make fitness a top priority in their lives. We talked to Anderson about how Dream Recovery is disrupting an industry and reclaiming REM cycles, one night at a time.
You became focused on sleep and recovery in an interesting roundabout way. Tell us a little about where you come from.
So I started as an athlete. I played football for Michigan State — and I walked on, meaning I didn’t have a scholarship or anything, which is tough. To do that, I had to kind of obsessively focus on human performance in general — to squeeze every ounce of ability out of myself. I had to constantly research: how can I perform better, play better, get stronger, and recover? So that’s when I started getting passionate about [those topics]. I wound up playing for The Rams for a year. And then after that, I changed paths quickly to the performance world.
And where did sleep become an interest for you?
So [after playing football], I actually went to work for Equinox — I was a Tier 1 coach and then managed the north part of Manhattan. That exposed me to many high-level experts from all over the world who specialized in performance. The more I learned, the more I was like “sleep is the thing.” That’s what really sparked my interest. It affects every area of health, wellness, longevity, and performance. It’s like the tide that raises all ships as far as health and wellness go.
But this was like 2013, right? So no one was talking about or focusing on [sleep]. There were some masks on the market, but there just wasn’t a brand with the athletic mindset. You know, when you look at Equinox members, they’re people crushing it in the business world or whatever they're doing and then turning around and taking care of themselves. I wanted to focus on sleep with that same intent.
Can you talk a little more about that — about how sleep specifically affects athletes and people committed to fitness?
So I speak on sleep to sports teams, and [before launching Dream Recovery], I was at Michigan State where I went to school. I was talking to their freshman athletes and giving them tips on "controlling the controllables.” On the road, you don't really know what you're walking into as far as the hotel room goes, the lighting situation, or maybe a different time zone. A sleep mask is such an easy tool to tack back something that used to be uncontrollable. It brings sleep into the controllable column.
Some other examples — a lot of athletes, especially football players, have over a 17-inch neck. When you’re that big, your chances of sleep apnea go off the charts — much higher. And there’s a direct correlation between snoring and marital trouble. Our latest product is mouth tape, which helps keep your mouth and jaw in the correct position, so you breathe through your nose. The more we learn, the more we realize that breathing through your nose during the resting state is ideal for optimal health.
Very few of my athlete friends automatically think, “Oh, I want to try a sleep mask,” because they’re just not positioned in a way that connects them to performance. But the number of messages I’ve received from people who are like, “I would never have tried this, but now I can’t go anywhere without it.” It’s a game-changer. We’re exposing a whole new demographic of athletes to something powerful.
How do your products differ from the competition?
So after I connected with Jake and Cole Kissick [Dream Recovery’s other two co-founders], we first bought every mask on Amazon we could find.
That sounds exhausting. Sleep pun intended.
It was, it really was. In the end, we had like 20, and we tried every one. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about materials, about design, what works, what doesn’t. The hardest thing about a sleep mask is the sliding scale of comfort and security. You’re trying to find the balance. Someone might want more blackout, people’s faces are different shapes and sizes. So you’re trying to find the middle ground. We decided the answer was to keep it simple. But great. We always compare it to Away luggage, where, you know, everything about the design is purposeful.
The biggest thing we did [with our masks] was use 30 momme silk, which is a measure of the density of the silk, meaning its quality. Some of our competitors are at eight and, at most, 22. 30 is topped-out luxury, and it also absorbs the least amount of moisture from your skin. That keeps your skin hydrated, but it also keeps your skin cooler. And we know that proper temperature is a big part of good sleep.
With sleep tape, it’s the adhesive that’s most important. So we found medical-grade adhesive that’s not irritating to the skin. It’s made from this silk bamboo blend, which is like an anti-microbial ninja. It's stretchy. It's super comfortable. We tried to make it the best in class — and for everybody.
As someone who’s made his life’s work improving people’s sleep, do you have any advice for Equinox members about sleep that they may not have heard? (Besides getting an eye mask, of course.)
The worst thing you can do is overthink it. There’s a ton of data, tech, and wearables out there, and suddenly everyone’s talking about sleep. But when you start worrying too much about not sleeping enough, how many times you wake up and your sleep cycles…things tend to go in the negative direction. You want a positive, healthy relationship with sleep — that is the most important thing, not the metrics. So my best advice: focus on going to bed when you're tired and having a good routine, but don’t beat yourself up about it. It's not the end of the world if you can't sleep. You've survived all these years with having some bad nights. Just move on and have a good night the next night.