In the early 1980s, Roberts suffered from insomnia. Through self-experimentation, he set out to solve this problem by varying aspects of his lifestyle, like exercise and calcium intake. After many failures to see an improvement in his sleep, he eventually discovered that delaying breakfast, seeing faces in the morning, morning light, and standing solved this problem. When Roberts discovered a trend or solution, he typically looked backwards evolutionarily for an explanation. Roberts would later apply this method to solving problems in health, sleep, and mood, among other things.