Sleep Optimization Protocol

You are exhausted by 2pm and you don't know why. You fell asleep fine last night — or you thought you did. You've tried melatonin, you've tried blue-light glasses, you've tried going to bed earlier. You still wake up groggy, still hit the afternoon wall, still reach for a third coffee that you know will wreck tomorrow's sleep. The problem isn't willpower. It's that you have no system. The Sleep Optimization Protocol is a structured six-component SKILL.md that turns sleep from a vague intention into a trackable daily protocol. Built from evidence-based sleep science and field-tested across real production schedules, every component solves a specific failure mode: the bedroom that isn't actually dark enough, the wind-down routine that starts too late, the espresso at 3pm that pushes your sleep window past midnight without you connecting the two dots. Unlike generic sleep advice, this skill refuses to give you a fixed bedtime — because your schedule isn't fixed, and rigid targets create guilt loops that make sleep worse. Instead, the caffeine cutoff calculator anchors to your actual target wake time and works backward. The consistency tracker measures your sleep window stability, not just duration, because regularity predicts next-day energy better than raw hours. That distinction exists because optimizing for eight hours while shifting your schedule two hours nightly produces worse outcomes than seven consistent hours at the same window. What you get: SKILL.md — the complete six-component protocol document. SLEEP_AUDIT.md — a room-by-room environment checklist covering light, temperature, sound, and device placement. WIND_DOWN_BUILDER.md — a configurable 45-minute pre-sleep routine template with cognitive dump prompts. CAFFEINE_CALCULATOR.md — a wake-time-anchored cutoff reference with half-life tables. MORNING_ENERGY_LOG.md — a seven-day assessment template for tracking protocol effectiveness. No API key required. Compatible with any Claude-based agent or used as a standalone reference.