Questions, answered.

44 ingredients delivered in 3 timed doses across your day. The 3 is not a product count. It is 3 points where your body can use different things. REFUEL at the start of your day, RECHARGE at Midday, RECOVER Before Sleep. REPEAT is the 4th step: taking them every day, because the biology compounds.

A supplement routine designed around what has to happen after you swallow something, rather than what goes on the label. It is defined by clearing all 8 Gates, not some of them. The 3 you would notice first: every nutrient arrives in a form your body can use directly, every nutrient is paired with the partner compound its reaction requires, and every nutrient is delivered at the point in the day when your body's demand for it is highest. The other 5 are bioavailability, dose, gut health, the blood-brain barrier and consistency. A supplement that misses any of the 8 is not a Cofactored Routine.

A multivitamin is a list. A Cofactored Routine is a sequence. Most multivitamins use the cheapest usable form of each nutrient, include no partner compounds, and are taken once daily with no logic about when your body can use them. They clear 2 or 3 of the 8 Gates. This is built to clear all 8.

The 8 places between the package and your cells where a nutrient can fail: Bioavailability, Bioactive Forms, Cofactors, Dose, Gut Health, Blood-Brain Barrier, Circadian Timing and Consistency. Every one is a point where most supplements fall down.

44 ingredients across 3 formulas. Every active named at its dose and published in full, with no proprietary blends.

Because your body does not need the same things at the same time. Cortisol should peak at the start of your day and fall at the end of it. The brain chemicals that drive focus deplete across a rotation and need replacing midway. Tissue repair happens during deep sleep. A single daily pill has to compromise on all 3.

REFUEL at the start of your day, before the work cycle begins. RECHARGE at Midday, when the cycle enters its second half. RECOVER before you sleep.

The routine follows your biological windows, not the clock. Start of Day means the start of your active period, whatever time that is. Midday means the middle of your rotation. Before Sleep means before your sleep window. If your day starts at 6pm, that is when you take REFUEL.

REFUEL is best taken with food. It contains fat-soluble vitamins, including D3, K2, A and E, which absorb better alongside a meal. RECHARGE and RECOVER can be taken with or without.

Take the next one at its normal time. Do not double up. The routine works through consistency across weeks, not through any single dose, so one missed step changes very little. A pattern of missed steps changes a lot, which is why REPEAT is the 4th step rather than an afterthought.

You can, but the routine produces different results than the individual formulas. REFUEL sets up what RECHARGE needs. RECHARGE sets up what RECOVER needs. The cofactor relationships were designed with all 3 in mind. Taking one formula from a cofactored routine is like running a circuit with a section removed.

You do not count capsules. You tear 3 sachets: one at the start of your day, one at midday, one before sleep. Inside them are 10 capsules in total, 4 with REFUEL, 3 with RECHARGE and 3 with RECOVER. It is more than one pill, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It is 44 ingredients at doses that do something, and no single capsule holds that.

Yes. REFUEL contains 13mg of caffeine and RECHARGE contains 110mg, both from organic green coffee and both paired with L-Theanine. For reference, a standard cup of coffee is roughly 95mg. If you drink coffee as well, account for that, particularly later in the day.

Most members report the clearest change in weeks 3 and 4. The magnesium your cells actually hold takes weeks to build. Your body's ability to regulate its own cortisol steadies over cycles, not nights. Sleep quality does not fully rebuild in a week after months of disruption.

Because the changes it is built to produce are not acute. A supplement that produces a noticeable effect in the first 20 minutes is doing it through stimulants, not through the biology this is built around.

Most people report sleep before anything else, usually in the second week. Cognitive steadiness through the back half of a rotation tends to follow. Physical recovery between work cycles is usually the slowest to show and the most durable once it does.

Tell us. There are usually practical reasons: timing that does not match your actual work cycle, taking REFUEL without food, or a stretch where the routine slipped. We would rather work through it with you than refund you. If we cannot make it work, the 365-day guarantee is there and you have a full year to use it.

Speak to your clinician before starting. We do not recommend it during pregnancy or breastfeeding without that conversation.

RECOVER contains 5-HTP and melatonin. Both can interact with SSRIs, SNRIs and other serotonergic medication. If you take any antidepressant, speak to your clinician or pharmacist before starting. REFUEL and RECHARGE both contain caffeine and other stimulant compounds, so if you take a prescribed stimulant, raise it with your clinician before you start and do not change your prescribed dose without speaking to them. REFUEL contains vitamin K2, which affects clotting, so if you take blood thinners raise that too. If you are on any prescription medication, the safest step is to show the full ingredient list to your pharmacist. It is published in full for exactly that reason.

Yes, and we would rather say so plainly. REFUEL contains 13mg and RECHARGE contains 110mg, both from organic green coffee, both paired with L-Theanine. There is none in RECOVER. If you are coming off energy drinks or a heavy coffee habit, the first few days can feel like an adjustment.

Our advice is to run The Essential Routine on its own. It was built as a complete routine, and most of what people take alongside it is already covered: the full B-complex, D3 with K2, magnesium and vitamin C. RECOVER already contains melatonin, so do not add more. If you want to layer something on top, take the ingredient list to your doctor or pharmacist first and check it against what you are already taking. Doubling up is the most common way people end up over the recommended amount without realising.

Every batch is BSCG Certified Drug Free, which means it is tested against a list of more than 500 banned substances covering workplace, military and sport testing panels. The certification mark is on the pack and the certificate is published with the Certificate of Analysis, so you can hand both to a medical review officer or a union rep without having to ask us for anything.

If your department or employer keeps its own prohibited substance list, the full label lets you check it line by line before you start.

No. This is formulated for adults.

Every batch, by Light Labs. We test for potency against label claims, purity, heavy metals and microbial limits. The Certificate of Analysis is published for every production run.

A subscription to The Essential Routine is $174.98 a month for a 30-day supply. A one-time purchase is $500. Founding members keep the $174.98 rate for as long as they stay a member.

Because the routine is built to work over months and the subscription is what makes that possible. $500 is also close to the honest comparison: rebuilding this formula yourself from the shelf costs about $1,600 a month across 34 separate products.

Yes. The routine qualifies for HSA and FSA reimbursement under eligible nutritional supplement guidelines. Pay with your HSA or FSA card at checkout.

All major credit and debit cards, plus HSA and FSA cards.

We will email you when your order is on its way.

Yes, any time before your order is dispatched, at no cost.

Founding members get the $174.98 rate locked for as long as they stay a member. That rate is not coming back once we open to the public.

$174.98 a month, held for as long as your subscription stays active. If you cancel and rejoin later, you rejoin at the price current then.

From My Account, at any time, without contacting anyone. Pause holds your rate. Cancelling releases it.

Yes, from My Account.

We retry, and email you. Your rate is held while we sort it out.

If you are somewhere we do not reach yet, join the founding roster and we will tell you when that changes.

You get a tracking number when it ships, not when you order, so the link works the first time you click it.

Shipping is FREE in all US States, no surprises at checkout.

Yes, for a full year, whether the box is sealed or nearly empty. We give you 365 days because that is how long it takes to know. The biology moves over weeks and months, and life gets in the way of a clean trial. A 30 to 90 day window would force you to judge it before there is much to judge.

Tell us and we replace it. No photograph required, no investigation, no claim form.

We use it to run your account, send what you asked for, and personalise what you see on the site. We do not sell it. The Privacy Policy sets out the detail.

Email us and we will action it. You do not need to give a reason.

Yes, so you can manage your subscription without going through us.

If you took the Biological Overdraft Score and asked for it, your personalised report and 3 follow-up emails. If you subscribed to The Essential Brief, one email at whatever cadence we publish. If you are a member, order and subscription notices. Nothing else.

From the preference centre, linked at the bottom of every email.

Unsubscribe from any email, or reply STOP to any text.

A 10-question assessment that measures where your work is drawing your body down hardest, across 7 dimensions: energy, clarity, recovery, structural load, stress, absorption, and the demands specific to your occupation.

No. Your score and your dimension breakdown appear on screen. The email is only if you want the full report.

What each dimension means for your work, the reaction behind it, and what responds to what. It is written to your score and your occupation, not to a generic template.

It is a self-reported assessment, not a diagnostic test. It measures how your work is affecting you against patterns we see across essential work. It does not diagnose anything, and it is not a substitute for talking to a clinician.

Yes. Most people find it useful after 30 or 60 days on the routine, because the dimensions move at different rates.

365 days. If the routine does not work for you in your first year, we refund it.

Tell us. We will ask what happened and try to fix it first, because there are usually practical reasons and we would rather you had a routine that works than a refund. If we cannot fix it, we process the refund. No form, no argument.

Usually not. We may ask, and if we do, we email you a prepaid label.

Because the biology takes weeks and life takes longer. We would rather you had time to try it properly through a bad month than feel rushed by a 30-day window.