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  • - Welcome to The Huberman Lab Podcast,

  • where we discuss science and science-based tools

  • for everyday life.

  • [bright music]

  • I'm Andrew Huberman

  • and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology

  • at Stanford School of Medicine.

  • Today we're talking all about sleep

  • and how to optimize your sleep.

  • This is a topic we've covered previously on this podcast

  • in the episode called "Master Your Sleep."

  • However, since the airing of that episode,

  • there's been some terrific new science to come out.

  • I've also received thousands,

  • yes, literally thousands of questions

  • related to the specific protocols covered in that episode

  • as well as in the episode on jet lag and shift work.

  • And while today's episode

  • is not specifically about jet lag and shift work,

  • we are going to cover tools

  • that will allow you to shift your schedule

  • if you need to for work or travel,

  • and we will also cover tools

  • that will allow you to fall back asleep

  • if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night

  • or if you get a poor night's sleep,

  • how to actually recover

  • from that poor night's sleep more quickly,

  • and yes, indeed, even replace sleep that you've lost.

  • So today's episode is going to be filled

  • with practical tools.

  • We will touch on some of the underlying science,

  • but it's really designed to be a practical toolkit

  • for optimizing your sleep

  • depending on your specific sleep needs.

  • Various times throughout today's episode,

  • I will refer to studies that form the backbone of the tools

  • that I'll be describing.

  • But whereas most of the podcast episodes here

  • tend to be deep scientific mechanism and then tools,

  • scientific mechanism, then tools,

  • today I'm mainly going to focus on the practical tools

  • that anyone, indeed, all people, I believe, should use

  • in order to optimize their sleep.

  • Why should everybody want to optimize their sleep

  • and put considerable effort into optimizing their sleep?

  • Well, put simply, sleep is the foundation

  • of mental health, physical health,

  • and performance of all kinds,

  • cognitive performance, physical performance, et cetera.

  • It also controls things like our immune system,

  • wound healing, our skin health and our appearance,

  • whether or not we can think clearly or not,

  • whether or not we will live as long

  • as we possibly can or not,

  • whether or not we suffer

  • from dramatic age-related cognitive decline or not.

  • In other words, whether or not we keep our memory as we age.

  • I could go on and on

  • about all the terrible things that can happen to somebody

  • if they don't sleep well.

  • Thanks to the great work of Professor Matt Walker

  • at University of California, Berkeley,

  • and the wonderful book that he wrote, "Why We Sleep,"

  • I think the world is largely onboard now

  • that sleep is critical to our health,

  • our mental health, our physical health, and our performance,

  • but what's not often discussed is how great life is,

  • that is, how much more focused and energetic

  • and how positive our mood gets,

  • when we are sleeping for the appropriate amount of time

  • at the appropriate depth

  • and when we are doing that regularly.

  • Basically everything in life gets better

  • when we're sleeping well.

  • So today I'm going to teach you the tools

  • that will allow you to optimize your sleep.

  • That is, get to sleep and stay asleep,

  • fall back asleep if you wake up in the middle of the night,

  • and adjust your sleep

  • given the various life demands you may be experiencing.

  • I'm pleased to announce that The Huberman Lab Podcast

  • is now partnered with Momentous supplements.

  • We partnered with Momentous for several important reasons.

  • First of all, they ship internationally,

  • because we know that many of you are located

  • outside of the United States.

  • That's valuable.

  • Second of all, and perhaps most important,

  • the quality of their supplements is second to none,

  • both in terms of purity

  • and precision of the amounts of the ingredients.

  • Third, we've really emphasized supplements

  • that are single-ingredient supplements

  • and that are supplied in dosages

  • that allow you to build a supplementation protocol

  • that's optimized for cost,

  • that's optimized for effectiveness,

  • and that you can add things

  • and remove things from your protocol

  • in a way that's really systematic and scientific.

  • This is really hard to do

  • if you're taking blends of different supplements

  • or if the dosages are such that you can't titrate,

  • or that is, adjust the dosages of a given supplement.

  • So by using single-ingredient supplements,

  • you can really build out the supplement kit

  • that's ideal for you and your specific needs.

  • If you'd like to see the supplements

  • that we partner with Momentous on,

  • you can go to livemomentous.com/huberman.

  • There you'll see those supplements.

  • And just keep in mind that we are constantly expanding

  • the library of supplements available through Momentous

  • on a regular basis.

  • Again, that's livemomentous.com/huberman.

  • Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize

  • that this podcast is separate

  • from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.

  • It is, however, part of my desire and effort

  • to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information

  • about science and science-related tools

  • to the general public.

  • In keeping with that theme,

  • I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.

  • Our first sponsor is InsideTracker.

  • InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform

  • that analyzes data from your blood and DNA

  • to help you better meet your health goals.

  • I've long been a believer in getting regular blood work done

  • for the simple reason that many of the factors

  • that impact your immediate and long-term health

  • can only be analyzed from a quality blood test.

  • And nowadays, with the advent of modern DNA test,

  • you can also get insight

  • into, for instance, what your biological age is

  • and compare that to your chronological age.

  • And, of course, your biological age

  • is really the age that counts.

  • The problem with a lot of blood tests

  • and DNA tests out there, however,

  • is that you get information back

  • about the levels of metabolic factors,

  • lipids, hormones, et cetera,

  • but you don't know what to do with that information.

  • InsideTracker makes that all very easy to navigate.

  • They have a personalized platform.

  • So this is a web portal where you can go,

  • you'll see the numbers from your blood tests and DNA tests,

  • and then it will tell you, for instance,

  • how you could adjust various aspects of your nutrition

  • or your exercise or supplementation

  • in order to bring those numbers

  • into the ranges that are best for you.

  • If you'd like to try InsideTracker,

  • you can go to insidetracker.com/huberman

  • to get 20% off any of InsideTracker's plans.

  • That's insidetracker.com/huberman to get 20% off.

  • Today's episode is also brought to us by Eight Sleep.

  • Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers

  • with cooling, heating, and sleep tracking capabilities.

  • It turns out that your body temperature

  • and your ability to fall and stay asleep

  • are very closely related.

  • If your body does not drop by one to three degrees,

  • you are simply not going to get into deep sleep

  • or stay in deep sleep.

  • And waking up, it also turns out,

  • is related to body temperature.

  • Every time you wake up in the morning,

  • your body is warming up in order to wake you up,

  • and this has an enormous number of hormonal and metabolic

  • and other cascades that are vitally important,

  • not just to what happens while you sleep,

  • but your health and your energy

  • and focus throughout the day.

  • Eight Sleep is an incredible device.

  • It's one that I've been using for six months or so,

  • and it's completely transformed my sleep.

  • And I already thought I was sleeping pretty well.

  • The way it works is that you can cool or heat your mattress

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  • So for instance, you can cool your mattress

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  • you can have the mattress programmed

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  • so that you warm up your sleeping environment

  • and you wake up when you want to wake up.

  • If you've been sleeping pretty well

  • but waking up in the middle of the night,

  • you might also find

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  • well, you'll stay in deep sleep much longer.

  • If you'd like to try Eight Sleep,

  • you can go to eightsleep.com/huberman

  • to check out the Pod Pro Cover

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  • Eight Sleep currently ships

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  • Today's episode is also brought to us by LMNT.

  • LMNT is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need

  • in order to get your brain and body to function at its best,

  • but none of the things you don't,

  • in particular, sugar.

  • Electrolytes are vitally important

  • to the way that your neurons, your nerve cells, work

  • and, indeed, to the way

  • that all the cells of your body work.

  • But your nervous system and your neurons

  • particularly depend on electrolytes

  • because you need the electrolytes,

  • sodium, magnesium, and potassium,

  • in the proper ratios,

  • in order for those nerve cells

  • to fire what are called action potentials,

  • which are the electrical signals

  • that allow your neurons to work

  • and to allow you to do everything

  • from remembering information

  • to moving your muscles deliberately.

  • When you exercise, or even if you don't,

  • you can get quite low on electrolytes,

  • especially on a hot day.

  • You can get dehydrated.

  • There are lot of different ways

  • to replenish your fluids and electrolytes

  • and there are a lot of different

  • electrolyte drinks out there,

  • but many of them contain a lot of sugar.

  • And some of those that don't contain a lot of sugar

  • don't have the proper ratios

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  • If you'd like to try LMNT,

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  • to claim a free LMNT Sample Pack

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  • Let's talk about sleep and tools to optimize your sleep.

  • I want you to conceptualize yourself

  • as contained within a room

  • that has only very few windows or very few entry points.

  • What do I mean by this?

  • Well, your brain and your nervous system control

  • whether or not you move or don't move.

  • They control whether or not you're digesting food

  • or you're not digesting food.

  • They control whether or not you're stressed or not stressed,

  • happy or sad, et cetera.

  • All of that stuff that controls all that stuff

  • is housed inside your skin and skull, et cetera.

  • That might seem pretty obvious,

  • but what that means is that for your brain and body

  • to feel alert and focused,

  • ready to move and exercise or do some work,

  • or if your brain body are going to lie down and go to sleep,

  • well, that brain and body needs cues, it needs inputs,

  • to determine when to do those different things.

  • And those cues and inputs arrive

  • through a defined set of what I'll call stimuli,

  • but you can also think of these as levers or tools.

  • The main levers and tools that are going to allow you

  • to control when you are awake and when you are asleep

  • and to get better sleep every single night

  • are light, literally photons, light energy,

  • could be from sunlight, could be from artificial light,

  • we will discuss those particulars in a moment,

  • as well as darkness.

  • That is the absence of light.

  • So we've got light and dark.

  • Those are two very powerful tools

  • to encourage your nervous system

  • to be in one state or another,

  • meaning awake or asleep.

  • Temperature is another tool or lever.

  • Turns out that when your body is cooling down,

  • you have a greater tendency to fall and stay asleep.

  • In fact, every night when you actually sleep,

  • your body is dropping by one to three degrees

  • and that drop in temperature is required.

  • It's like a gate that your body has to go through

  • in order for you to get into sleep.

  • And in fact, the converse is also true.

  • If your body heats up by one to three degrees or so,

  • you will wake up.

  • So you've got light, dark, temperature, food.

  • And when we say food,

  • we mean what we eat, when we eat,

  • and the amount that we eat.

  • Okay, so light, dark, temperature, food, exercise.

  • And of course, exercise comes in different forms.

  • We can do cardiovascular exercise

  • that can be low-intensity, long-distance exercise.

  • It can be high intensity,

  • so-called high intensity interval training.

  • It could be weight training. It could be yoga.

  • It could be swimming, any number of different activities.

  • But exercise, in general, causes

  • an increase in body temperature

  • and tends to make us more alert,

  • not just during the exercise,

  • but in the immediate hours after that exercise.

  • Exercise does some other things

  • that relate to our sleep as well

  • and we'll talk about those today

  • and how you can leverage them.

  • Another potent lever

  • for adjusting your sleepiness and wakefulness is caffeine.

  • This, of course, comes as no surprise to people,

  • but why and how caffeine works might come as a surprise.

  • Very briefly, we have a molecule

  • in our body called adenosine

  • and the longer we have been awake,

  • the more adenosine builds up in our brain and body

  • and adenosine is part of the reason why we get sleepy.

  • Caffeine effectively operates as a adenosine antagonist.

  • It works by basically occupying the receptor for adenosine.

  • So it's a little bit of a convoluted mechanism.

  • But basically all you need to know

  • is that caffeine prevents the actions of adenosine.

  • That's one of the reasons why caffeine makes us feel alert.

  • But how much caffeine we drink

  • and when we drink caffeine turns out to be vitally important

  • for adjusting our wakefulness

  • and for optimizing our sleep.

  • So we'll talk about that as well.

  • The other category of lever or tools

  • which are immensely powerful for optimizing sleep

  • are supplements.

  • There now exist as many as eight different supplements

  • that can powerfully modulate sleep in healthy ways

  • and that have huge margins for safety.

  • So we're going to talk about what those supplements are.

  • In previous episodes of this podcast

  • and as a guest on other podcasts,

  • I've talked about three particular supplements,

  • magnesium threonate, apigenin, and theanine,

  • which together can really enhance

  • the speed at which one falls asleep

  • and people's ability to stay asleep

  • and to really get into those deep stages of sleep

  • that are particularly restorative.

  • Today we're going to talk a little bit more

  • about each of those three

  • and how they can best be used in combination,

  • but we are also going to touch on some other supplements

  • that I have not talked about much before, if at all.

  • Things like glycine and GABA, as well as inositol.

  • Many people are going to find inositol interesting

  • and of particular use to them,

  • especially if they're following a low-carbohydrate diet

  • or if they are fasting before sleep

  • or just trying to avoid eating too close to bedtime

  • and yet they're having a hard time falling asleep.

  • Inositol also turns out to be especially useful

  • for people who have a tendency

  • to wake up in the middle of the night

  • and have a hard time falling back asleep.

  • It also has some interesting and potent effects

  • on anxiety throughout the day.

  • So we're going to talk about inositol as a tool as well.

  • And then last in our list of general categories

  • of levers and tools for optimizing sleep

  • are digital tools.

  • Now, when we say digital tools,

  • I don't necessarily mean devices.

  • What I mean are things like non-sleep deep rest scripts.

  • These are zero-cost scripts that you listen to

  • that take your body through some deep relaxation

  • and that can help people both fall asleep, stay asleep,

  • fall back asleep, and get better at sleeping.

  • And also going to talk about digital tools

  • related to self-hypnosis.

  • This is distinctly different from stage hypnosis.

  • So I know some of you hear hypnosis and you think,

  • oh, you know, people clucking like chickens

  • and doing things that are outside their control.

  • That's not at all what I'm referring to here.

  • I'm talking about clinically and research-supported tools

  • that have been shown to enhance people's ability

  • to fall and stay asleep

  • and that can get you far better at sleeping.

  • So again, to recap the list of levers and tools,

  • we've got light and dark,

  • and that includes the intensity of light,

  • the timing of light, et cetera.

  • We've got temperature.

  • We have food.

  • We have exercise, caffeine, supplements, and digital tools,

  • not just limited to devices,

  • but zero-cost tools that you can access on YouTube

  • and elsewhere in various apps

  • that can really help you optimize your sleep.

  • So today we're going to talk about all of these.

  • I really want to provide you as many tools as possible,

  • give you the logic behind each of those tools

  • and when and how best to apply them

  • so that you can develop the sleep toolkit

  • that's ideal for your sleep needs.

  • As we head into our description

  • of tools for optimizing sleep,

  • let's consider what the perfect 24-hour cycle

  • would look like.

  • Let's start this 24-hour cycle

  • with when you wake up in the morning.

  • So for some of you, that will be 5:00 a.m.

  • For others of you, that will be 10:00 a.m.

  • Most people, I believe, wake up

  • sometime between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.

  • But regardless of when you wake up in the morning,

  • one of the first things that happens

  • is that your body temperature is increasing

  • and that's just going to happen naturally.

  • Some of it is going to be the consequence

  • of your moving around a bit,

  • but really the increase in body temperature

  • is one of the main triggers

  • for why you woke up in the first place.

  • That increase in body temperature in turn causes an increase

  • in the release of a hormone called cortisol.

  • Cortisol is often discussed as a stress hormone,

  • but it's not just associated with stress.

  • It also enhances your immune system

  • provided cortisol is elevated at the right times,

  • and the right time for cortisol to be elevated

  • is when you first wake up in the morning.

  • That increase in cortisol

  • is also going to increase metabolism.

  • It's also going to increase your ability to focus mentally

  • and for you to move your body.

  • So again, cortisol is often demonized

  • and consider this bad thing.

  • And indeed, you don't want cortisol

  • to be chronically or consistently elevated

  • throughout the day or night.

  • But you do want cortisol to reach its peak early in the day

  • right about the time you wake up.

  • One way that you can ensure

  • that that cortisol peak occurs early in the day

  • right about the time that you wake up

  • is to view bright light, ideally from sunlight,

  • within the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking.

  • That's right, view bright sunlight

  • within the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking.

  • I'll get into all the caveats

  • about what happens if you wake up before the sun is out,

  • what if you live in the UK where there is no sun,

  • or people claim there is no sun.

  • Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is sun in the UK.

  • We'll talk about all that.

  • But everybody, whether or not you live in a cloudy place

  • or a sunny place,

  • whether or not there's cloud cover or not that day,

  • should really strive to get bright light in your eyes,

  • ideally from sunlight,

  • within the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking.

  • The reason for that is very simple.

  • You want to trigger that cortisol increase

  • to occur very early in your day,

  • and you don't want that cortisol peak to happen later,

  • which is what will happen

  • if you wait to get outside and see sunlight.

  • The reason for this

  • is that you have a set of neurons, nerve cells, in your eye.

  • They're called intrinsically photosensitive

  • melanopsin cells,

  • but you do not need to know that name.

  • Those neurons respond best to bright light,

  • and especially right after waking early in the day,

  • they are best able to signal to a set of neurons

  • that reside over the roof of your mouth

  • called the suprachiasmatic nucleus,

  • which is a cluster of neurons

  • that then sends a huge number of other signals,

  • electrical and chemical,

  • out to your entire body

  • that triggers that cortisol increase,

  • provides a wake-up signal for your brain and body,

  • and sets in motion a timer

  • for you to fall asleep later that night.

  • So again, we're not trying to go into

  • too much mechanism today.

  • We are trying to really hammer on tools

  • and I'll substantiate those tools

  • just a bit with some mechanism.

  • But here's what you do, or at least here's what I do.

  • I wake up in the morning and I want to reach for my phone,

  • but I know that even if I were to crank up the brightness

  • on that phone screen,

  • it's not bright enough to trigger that cortisol spike

  • and for me to be at my most alert and focused

  • throughout the day

  • and to optimize my sleep at night.

  • So what I do is I get out of bed and I go outside.

  • And if it's a bright, clear day

  • and the sun is low in the sky

  • or the sun is, you know, starting to get overhead,

  • what we call low solar angle,

  • then I know I'm getting outside at the right time.

  • If there's cloud cover and I can't see the sun,

  • I also know I'm doing a good thing

  • because it turns out, especially on cloudy days,

  • you want to get outside

  • and get as much light energy or photons in your eyes.

  • But let's say it's a very clear day

  • and I can see where the sun is.

  • I do not need to stare directly into the sun.

  • If it's very low in the sky, I might do that

  • because it's not going to be very painful to my eyes.

  • However, if the sun is a little bit brighter

  • and a little bit higher in the sky,

  • sometimes it could be painful to look at.

  • So the way to get this sunlight viewing early in the day

  • is to look toward the sun.

  • If it's too bright to look at directly,

  • well, then don't do that.

  • You just look toward it, but not directly at it.

  • It's absolutely fine to blink.

  • In fact, I encourage you to blink

  • whenever you feel the impulse to blink.

  • Never look at any light, sunlight or otherwise,

  • that's so bright that it's painful to look at

  • 'cause you can damage your eyes.

  • But for this morning sunlight viewing,

  • it's best to not wear sunglasses,

  • that's right, to not wear sunglasses,

  • at least for this morning sunlight viewing.

  • It is absolutely fine to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses,

  • so-called corrective lenses.

  • In fact, those will serve you well

  • in this practice or this tool

  • because they will focus the light onto your neural retina

  • and onto those melanopsin

  • intrinsically photosensitive ganglion cells.

  • If your eyeglasses or contact lenses

  • have UV protection, that's okay.

  • There's so many different wavelengths of light

  • coming from the sun

  • and they are bright enough

  • that they will trigger the mechanisms

  • that you want triggered at this early time of day.

  • So try and get outside,

  • ideally within the first five minutes of waking

  • or maybe it's 15 minutes,

  • but certainly within the first hour after waking.

  • I want to share with you three critical things

  • about this tool of morning sunlight viewing.

  • First of all, this is not some woo biology thing.

  • This is grounded in the core of our physiology.

  • There are literally hundreds, if not thousands,

  • of quality peer-reviewed papers

  • showing that light viewing early in the day

  • is the most powerful stimulus

  • for wakefulness throughout the day

  • and it has a powerful, positive impact

  • on your ability to fall and stay asleep at night.

  • So this is really the foundational power tool

  • for ensuring a great night's sleep

  • and for feeling more awake during the day.

  • Second of all, if you wake up before the sun is out,

  • you can, and probably should, flip on artificial lights

  • in your internal home environment or apartment

  • or wherever you happen to live

  • if your goal is to be awake, right?

  • If you wake up at four in the morning

  • and you need to be awake,

  • well, then turn on artificial lights.

  • Once the sun is out, however,

  • once the sun has risen,

  • then you still want to get outside and view sunlight.

  • Some of you will wake up before the sun comes out.

  • And if you're asking whether or not

  • turning on artificial lights

  • can replace sunlight at those hours,

  • unfortunately, the answer is no.

  • Unless you have a very special light,

  • and we'll talk about what kind of light,

  • the bright artificial lights in your home environment

  • are not, I repeat, are not going to be sufficiently bright

  • to turn on the cortisol mechanism

  • and the other wake-up mechanisms

  • that you need early in the day.

  • The diabolical twist, however,

  • is that those lights in your home or apartment

  • or even on your phone

  • are bright enough to disrupt your sleep

  • if you look at them too late at night

  • or in the middle of the night.

  • So there's this asymmetry in our retinal, our eye biology,

  • and in our brain's biology,

  • whereby early in the day, right around waking,

  • you need a lot of light, a lot of photons,

  • a lot of light energy,

  • and artificial lights generally just won't accomplish

  • what you need them to accomplish.

  • But at night, even a little bit of artificial light

  • can really mess up your so-called circadian,

  • your 24-hour clocks,

  • and all these mechanisms that we're talking about.

  • So if you wake up before the sun is out and it's still dark,

  • please turn on as many bright artificial lights

  • as you possibly can or need,

  • but then get outside once the sun is out.

  • On cloudy days, you especially need to get outside.

  • I repeat, on cloudy days, overcast days,

  • you especially need to get outside and get sunlight.

  • You just need to get more of it.

  • Now, how much light and how much light viewing do you need?

  • This is going to vary depending on person and place,

  • literally where you live on earth,

  • whether or not there's a lot of tree cover,

  • whether or not you're somebody who has sensitive eyes

  • or less sensitive eyes.

  • It's really impossible for me

  • to give an absolute prescriptive,

  • but we can give some general guidelines.

  • In general, on a clear day,

  • meaning no cloud cover or minimal cloud cover,

  • you want to get this sunlight exposure to your eyes

  • for about five minutes or so.

  • Could be three minutes one day,

  • could be seven minutes the next day,

  • about five minutes.

  • On a day where there's cloud cover,

  • so the sun is just peeking through the clouds

  • or it's more dense cloud cover,

  • you want to get about 10 minutes of sunlight exposure

  • to your eyes early in the day.

  • And on days that are really densely overcast

  • or maybe even are rainy,

  • you're going to want to get as much as 20 or 30 minutes

  • of sunlight exposure.

  • Another key thing is do not, forget about,

  • just don't try and get this sunlight exposure

  • through a windshield of a car or a window,

  • whether or not it's tinted or otherwise.

  • It takes far too long.

  • It's simply not going to trigger the relevant mechanisms.

  • You would be standing there all day

  • trying to get enough light into your eyes

  • from the morning sunlight

  • and by then the sun will have already moved

  • from low solar angle to overhead

  • and it simply won't work for all sorts of mechanisms

  • related to your circadian rhythm functions.

  • So just don't try and do it

  • through a windshield, sunglasses, or a window.

  • It's just not going to work.

  • Get outside.

  • If the weather is really bad

  • or for whatever reason, safety reasons,

  • you cannot get outside,

  • well, then I suppose try and get near a window.

  • That would be the last, last resort.

  • But you really want to get outside

  • to get this sunlight exposure.

  • Now, if you live in a part of the world

  • where it's extremely dark and overcast

  • or the weather won't let you outside

  • or you live in a cave or some other small box

  • that does not allow any natural light into it

  • for whatever reason,

  • well, then you're going to need a replacement

  • for that sunlight.

  • And there are sunlight simulators or daylight simulators

  • that you can purchase.

  • Those are quite expensive in general

  • and therefore I suggest cheaper options

  • that work just as well

  • because they get just as bright.

  • Things like ring lights that are sold

  • in order for people to take selfies and this kind of thing.

  • A drawing LED tablet will work pretty well.

  • I actually have one of those

  • and I put it on my desk all morning

  • even though I still get outside and look at sunlight

  • first thing in the morning,

  • again, also, especially, I should say, on cloudy days.

  • We do not have any affiliation

  • to any ring lights or LED lights or these panels.

  • So we will provide a link to a couple of different options

  • if you want to explore the various options.

  • I don't know what people's different budgets are.

  • I don't know where people live.

  • I just know that many of our listeners live

  • in locations throughout the world

  • where, for instance, during the winter,

  • it gets very, very dark,

  • so they can't get sufficient sunlight.

  • But get that morning light, ideally from sunlight,

  • and take into account all the specific points

  • that I've given you here.

  • And, I should say, enjoy this practice.

  • It's really nice to get outside first thing in the morning

  • and get this sunlight.

  • In fact, when you start doing this,

  • you'll notice that your body

  • will start to feel more energized

  • and it will feel more energized more quickly.

  • You'll actually start

  • to notice this mechanism kicking in each day,

  • especially if you're paying attention to your physiology.

  • So enjoy this practice of getting outside.

  • Yes, you can take your morning beverage outside.

  • Yes, you can take your dog with you.

  • In fact, animals intuitively know

  • to get this morning sunlight.

  • They actually seek it out at the right times of days.

  • We human beings need to be told

  • by podcasters and other people

  • about the science that supports these kinds of practices.

  • Our pets apparently do not.

  • But get outside alone or with somebody,

  • with your kids, with your dog.

  • However you go about this practice,

  • make sure you do this practice

  • at least 80% of the days of your life.

  • That's right.

  • If you miss a day,

  • for instance, you're bedridden for a day,

  • try and get next to a window.

  • Let's say you are traveling,

  • or for whatever reason,

  • you are not able to get outside first thing in the morning,

  • well, then try to get twice as much sunlight in your eyes,

  • or I should say extend the duration

  • of sunlight viewing in the morning

  • for twice as long the following day.

  • This is a slow, integrative mechanism

  • that underlies this whole thing

  • of wakefulness during the day

  • and sleep at night due to sunlight viewing

  • and if you miss a day, you can make up for it the next day,

  • but you have to get twice as much light

  • or twice as much duration of light.

  • If you really want to get technical

  • and you really want to measure

  • how much light is in your environment,

  • you can download a free app, something like Light Meter,

  • and that will allow your phone

  • to act as a bit of a light meter.

  • It'll give you a pretty accurate measurement

  • of how many lux, which is a measure of brightness,

  • are in your environment in the morning.

  • And in general, that's just going to be a good tool

  • for evaluating your environments.

  • Here's what I suggest you do.

  • Wake up in the morning, take Light Meter,

  • point it at the brightest light in your home,

  • and take a measurement,

  • and what you'll probably find is it's about a thousand lux.

  • Now go outside and if there's some sunlight out

  • and there's cloud cover,

  • point it at the sky and press that button.

  • You can actually hold it down

  • and it'll give you a dynamically updated lux measurement.

  • And what you'll find is like 5,000, 10,000,

  • sometimes even 90,000 lux,

  • even though you don't experience it as so much brighter,

  • and that's because an indoor artificial light

  • is very concentrated over a small spatial area

  • whereas the sunlight is very diffuse.

  • But it's that diffuse, very bright sunlight,

  • that photon energy,

  • that you really want

  • that's going to set all the rhythms of your brain and body

  • in the proper way.

  • Not just that cortisol peak,

  • but it's going to trigger proper metabolism,

  • it's going to set a timer for you

  • to be able to fall asleep about 16 hours later,

  • and on and on and on.

  • And I should mention within the on and on and on,

  • it's also going to suppress any melatonin,

  • a hormone that makes you sleepy

  • that happens to be swimming around in your bloodstream

  • at the time you wake up.

  • It does a number of other things too,

  • including interact with the adenosine system

  • and kind of wash out some of the adenosine

  • that might still be residual if you didn't sleep enough.

  • Fundamentally speaking, get that morning sunlight viewing.

  • I promise you will be grateful that you did.

  • It makes everybody feel better, feel more alert,

  • and it will greatly assist with your ability

  • to fall and stay asleep later that night.

  • Before we continue with today's discussion,

  • we're going to take a brief pause

  • to acknowledge our sponsor,

  • Athletic Greens, also called AG1.

  • I started taking Athletic Greens way back in 2012.

  • So I'm delighted

  • that they've been a sponsor of this podcast.

  • Athletic Greens contains vitamins, minerals, probiotics,

  • digestive enzymes, and adaptogens.

  • So it's got a lot of things in there.

  • That's actually the reason I started taking it

  • and the reason I still take it once or twice a day.

  • It essentially covers all of my nutritional bases.

  • And the probiotics in particular are important to me

  • because of the critical importance

  • of what's called the gut-brain axis,

  • that is neurons and other cell types in the gut,

  • in the digestive tract,

  • that communicate with the brain

  • and the brain back to the digestive tract

  • in order to control things like mood,

  • immune function, hormone function, and on and on.

  • Whenever somebody has asked me

  • what's the one supplement they should take,

  • I always answer Athletic Greens.

  • I gave that answer long before I ever had this podcast

  • and it's the answer I still give now

  • for all the reasons that I detailed just a moment ago.

  • If you'd like to try Athletic Greens,

  • you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman

  • to claim a special offer.

  • They'll give you five free travel packs

  • that make it really easy to mix up Athletic Greens

  • while you're on the road,

  • plus a year's supply of vitamin D3K2,

  • which are also very important

  • for a huge number of bodily factors and brain factors

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  • Again, that's athleticgreens.com/huberman

  • to claim that special offer.

  • Okay, so now we're still focusing

  • on this early part of the day when you've woken up,

  • the first hour or so after waking.

  • And we can go to our list of other levers and tools, right?

  • We have light and dark.

  • We already talked about light and sunlight in particular.

  • We've got temperature, food, exercise,

  • caffeine, supplements, and digital tools.

  • Now, once you've woken up and you want to be awake, okay?

  • So this is likely to be early in the day

  • if you're following a more standard schedule.

  • You will also want to leverage not just light,

  • but temperature as a tool.

  • If you are inclined, it would be wise

  • to try and increase your core body temperature

  • a bit more quickly than it would otherwise

  • if you were to just, you know, shuffle around outside,

  • get your sunlight,

  • maybe read a little bit, et cetera,

  • and there are two main ways you can do that.

  • The first way is to get into cold water of some sort.

  • So this could be a cold shower

  • of anywhere from one to three minutes.

  • This could be an ice bath if that's your thing.

  • It could be a cold tub,

  • or if you own a cold tub

  • that's specifically designed for deliberate cold exposure.

  • Get under some cold water.

  • That will certainly wake you up.

  • And if you've ever jumped into cold water

  • or had a cold shower,

  • you know it really wakes you up

  • because you release adrenaline, epinephrine,

  • from both your brain and body,

  • the body from your adrenals

  • and your brain from a little cluster of neurons

  • called locus coeruleus.

  • Again, the names don't matter.

  • One to three minutes of cold water exposure will wake you up

  • because of that adrenaline release

  • and, and I want to highlight the and,

  • it will serve to increase your core body temperature.

  • That's right, your body and brain interact

  • as a bit of a thermostat system

  • where if you put something cold on the surface of your body,

  • your brain, a little cluster of neurons

  • in the so-called medial preoptic area,

  • act as a thermostat and say,

  • "Ah, the external of my body is cold

  • and therefore I'm going to heat up

  • my core body temperature."

  • So it's a little bit paradoxical.

  • People think, oh, if you get into cold water or an ice bath,

  • your body temperature is going to drop.

  • And indeed, that's true if you stay in for a while,

  • but if you just get in for about one to three minutes,

  • or under the cold shower for one to three minutes,

  • your core body temperature will increase.

  • So then when you get out of that cold water,

  • your body temperature is increasing at a rate, at a slope,

  • that's steeper than it would otherwise

  • and you're going to feel more alert.

  • It also has the advantage

  • of increasing not just adrenaline,

  • but dopamine, which is a molecule involved

  • in motivation, focus, et cetera.

  • So this is great for waking up.

  • So we've got sunlight,

  • we've got temperature triggered by cold water,

  • and we have exercise.

  • One of the best ways

  • to increase your core body temperature early in the day

  • is to do exercise.

  • Now, some of you might choose

  • to do your full-blown workout for the day

  • first thing when you wake up in the morning,

  • I would say the best time to exercise,

  • at least what the research points to,

  • is immediately when you wake up in the morning

  • or three hours after waking or 11 hours after waking.

  • But that's really getting down into optimization

  • for sake of muscular strength and grip strength

  • and it's very hard to give a strict prescriptive.

  • Here's what I suggest.

  • If you want to be alert early in the day

  • and you want to sleep great at night,

  • get that bright sunlight, get into some cold water,

  • and if you don't want to get into some cold water,

  • try and get some movement.

  • It could be a walk.

  • So you can get your sunlight exposure

  • while you're taking a walk first thing in the morning.

  • It could be a light jog.

  • It could be skipping rope.

  • These days, I skip rope for about 10 minutes or 20 minutes

  • while looking at the sun.

  • So I'm trying to layer in these different things

  • for waking up.

  • And then I take a cold shower afterwards.

  • This is what I've been doing as of lately,

  • but I don't do that all year long necessarily.

  • Or some of you are going to be working out mid-morning.

  • I sometimes do that.

  • But try and get your core body temperature increased

  • first thing in the morning,

  • and a great way to do that is with the cold water

  • and/or with exercise.

  • And again, it doesn't have to be your full-blown workout

  • for the day

  • if you're doing workouts consistently,

  • which I hope everybody is

  • because everybody really should exercise

  • at least, I believe, five or six,

  • or maybe even seven days a week.

  • For me, it's six days a week, sometimes five,

  • rarely is it seven.

  • So get that exercise

  • or even just a modest amount of movement,

  • walking, jogging, skipping rope,

  • some light calisthenics.

  • That will further increase your core body temperature

  • and help you feel more awake.

  • Then we have the category of caffeine.

  • And again, we're just talking

  • about this early part of the day,

  • and you might be saying, "Wait a second,

  • I thought this was an episode about tools for sleep."

  • Well, everything that we're talking about doing

  • in these first 60 to 90 minutes of the day

  • really set in motion a wave of biological cascades

  • that carry through the entire day

  • and into the evening and into the night

  • and really do serve to optimize sleep.

  • So just hang in there with me.

  • And for those of you that are interested

  • in focus and attention, your ability to learn,

  • all of these tools and practices

  • are going to greatly enhance those as well.

  • So the next category of tool

  • for use early in the day is caffeine.

  • Caffeine is a very important compound to think about.

  • I do realize that some people who are prone to anxiety,

  • especially panic attacks, anxiety attacks,

  • might avoid caffeine entirely.

  • That's absolutely fine.

  • You do not have to drink caffeine.

  • So what I'm about to describe

  • are ways to leverage caffeine use

  • to optimize sleep and wakefulness

  • if you are comfortable with caffeine, if you like caffeine,

  • I happen to love caffeine.

  • I like it in the form of coffee or espresso

  • or yerba mate tea,

  • in particular non-smoked varieties of yerba mate tea.

  • Non-smoked because the smoked varieties seem to carry

  • some carcinogenics, some cancer causing risk.

  • There's increasing data on that.

  • So non-smoked varieties of yerba mate.

  • So caffeine is something

  • that a lot of people consume early in the day.

  • How much depends on your tolerance,

  • and there's a lot of individual variability here.

  • Again, caffeine is an adenosine antagonist,

  • or effectively works as an adenosine antagonist

  • and limits sleepiness.

  • I highly recommend

  • that everybody delay their caffeine intake

  • for 90 to 120 minutes after waking.

  • However painful it may be to eventually arrive

  • at that 90 to 120 minutes after waking,

  • you want, and I encourage you,

  • to clear out whatever residual adenosine

  • is circulating in your system

  • in that first 90 to 120 minutes of the day.

  • Get that sunlight exposure,

  • get some movement to wake up,

  • and then, and only then, start to ingest caffeine

  • because what you'll do if you delay caffeine intake

  • until 90 to 120 minutes after waking

  • is you will avoid the so-called afternoon crash.

  • And you may still get a little bit of dip in energy

  • in the afternoon,

  • but it's not going to be that massive crash.

  • I've talked about the reasons for that crash

  • on previous episodes.

  • But if you delay your caffeine intake

  • 90 to 120 minutes after waking,

  • you are doing yourself a great service towards wakefulness

  • and to avoid the crash.

  • And the afternoon crash has another liability to it,

  • which is typically people will emerge

  • from that afternoon crash either grumpy or groggy

  • and then they'll lean into drinking more caffeine,

  • which can then disrupt their sleep.

  • So wait 90 to 120 minutes after waking in the morning

  • to drink caffeine.

  • And if you drink caffeine at any point throughout the day,

  • really try and avoid any caffeine,

  • certainly avoid drinking

  • more than a hundred milligrams of caffeine after 4:00 p.m.

  • and probably even better to limit your last caffeine intake

  • to 3:00 p.m. or even 2:00 p.m.

  • And for many people, shifting that caffeine intake

  • from immediately after waking in the morning

  • to 90 to 120 minutes

  • gives them a much longer arc of energy throughout the day

  • and they don't feel the need

  • to drink more caffeine later in the afternoon.

  • If you do drink caffeine later in the afternoon,

  • really try and limit the total amount or drink decaf.

  • Certainly keep the total amount

  • to less than a hundred milligrams

  • if you are interested

  • in getting into the best possible sleep.

  • And I say this knowing that many people, including myself,

  • can drink a double espresso

  • with 200 milligrams of caffeine or more

  • at 5:00 p.m. or even 6:00 p.m. or after dinner

  • and still, quote, unquote, fall asleep fine

  • or still sleep fine.

  • However, there are terrific data,

  • Matt Walker and I talked about this,

  • and there are more and more papers all the time

  • that point to the fact that caffeine intake late in the day,

  • after 4:00 p.m. that is,

  • can really disrupt the architecture of your sleep.

  • So you might think you're sleeping well,

  • but you're not sleeping nearly as well as you could

  • if you avoided caffeine in those afternoon hours.

  • Now, some of you might be doing your main about of exercise

  • first thing in the morning

  • and you want your caffeine before that about of exercise.

  • In that case, I say, go for it.

  • Drink your caffeine,

  • do your workout right after waking up.

  • I don't have a problem with that.

  • You will find, however,

  • that you're going to get an early afternoon dip in energy

  • and that dip in energy is going to be substantial

  • because it's going to be a dip in energy

  • that naturally follows that workout from the morning.

  • So it's dependent on temperature,

  • and it's going to be related

  • to the elimination of that adenosine blockade by caffeine.

  • So you're getting a kind of a one-two punch

  • on your energy levels

  • by taking a lot of caffeine and exercising early in the day.

  • You can sort of expect

  • that you're going to get a drop in energy

  • in the early afternoon.

  • That's okay if that works for you,

  • but just know that delaying that caffeine

  • 90 to 120 minutes after waking

  • would be the ideal scenario most days and most scenarios.

  • All that said, I absolutely respect the fact

  • that people have different work schedules,

  • kid schedules, et cetera.

  • So if you want to do some or none or all these tools,

  • that's really up to you.

  • I'm just providing them to you

  • in the simplest form that I can possibly provide them.

  • Now, the other lever or tool

  • that you have available to you is food.

  • Not just what you eat, but when you eat.

  • And it turns out that if you eat early in the day,

  • you support a biological clock mechanism

  • that will make you more alert early in the day.

  • That said, many people choose to fast

  • in the early morning hours of the day

  • or in the first part of the day.

  • I'm one such person.

  • I generally don't ingest any food

  • until about 11:00 a.m. or 12 noon.

  • Sometimes I'll have a protein shake.

  • Sometimes I'll have some almonds.

  • Sometimes I'll have breakfast.

  • If people are meeting for brunch or breakfast,

  • I will have breakfast for social reasons

  • every once in a while.

  • But most of the time I don't eat until about lunch time.

  • However, some people are really hungry

  • when they wake up in the morning.

  • Just know that if you eat early in the day,

  • you are further triggering an increase in metabolism

  • and in temperature that will make you more alert.

  • So you don't have to eat early in the day,

  • but you can start to see

  • how these different tools layer together.

  • Sunlight viewing, exercise, cold water, eating.

  • Many of them are converging on the same mechanisms.

  • In fact, when you drink caffeine,

  • there's also a small increase in body temperature

  • due to the adrenaline increase that it stimulates.

  • So all of these things can be layered on top of one another

  • or you can use them individually

  • or think about them individually.

  • Now, food is an interesting lever or tool

  • because it's not just about when you eat,

  • but it's also about what you eat.

  • And I've talked a lot about eating for energy

  • and what that means in terms of caloric energy

  • versus neural energy, et cetera,

  • in previous podcast episodes.

  • We're not going to focus on that now

  • because, frankly, to get into a description

  • of whether or not somebody should eat fruits or vegetables

  • or animal proteins or dairy, et cetera, early in the day,

  • that's very nuanced.

  • What you eat for your breakfast,

  • or if you choose to not eat breakfast,

  • is really up to you.

  • All that said, if you eat a very large meal,

  • it doesn't matter if you slept terrifically well

  • 10 hours the night before

  • or if you are about to go to sleep

  • or if it's the middle of the afternoon,

  • if your gut is full of food,

  • there's just a large volume of food in your gut,

  • it's going to divert a lot of blood

  • and other critical resources

  • away from other organs of your body,

  • in particular, your brain,

  • and you're going to be sleepy after eating a big meal.

  • So this is sort of a duh,

  • but I think oftentimes in the discussions

  • about what to eat for energy,

  • people neglect to consider food volume

  • as a strong parameter or variable in that discussion.

  • So if you eat a huge breakfast,

  • it's likely that you are going to be tired

  • immediately after eating that breakfast

  • unless of course you exercise very hard prior to that

  • and you metabolize all that food very quickly.

  • So it's up to you whether or not to eat

  • first thing in the morning or not.

  • But if you do eat in the first few hours of the morning,

  • just understand that you are setting

  • or you are helping to set

  • a food entrained, as it's called, circadian clock.

  • Light, temperature, timing of food intake,

  • movement and exercise,

  • all of these things literally funnel in in a neural sense,

  • they funnel into this thing that we call the circadian clock

  • and they let that clock, that set of neurons,

  • predict when you are likely to be eating and active

  • and viewing sunlight

  • the next day and the next day and the next day.

  • I say all this because there are some beautiful studies,

  • and I'll highlight one, again, in the show note captions,

  • that show that if people are having a hard time

  • waking up in the morning,

  • one of the things they can do

  • is maximize sunlight viewing, exercise in the morning,

  • drink caffeine.

  • Although, again, I support the idea

  • that that would best be done

  • about 90 to 120 minutes after waking.

  • Eating some food in those early morning hours,

  • et cetera, et cetera.

  • You can layer in multiple levers or tools

  • in order to be more alert.

  • And that's what these levers and tools are really there for

  • in this sense of what we're talking about today,

  • which is optimizing sleep.

  • Yes, they will make you more alert.

  • Yes, they will provide some adrenaline and dopamine,

  • for instance, the cold water, et cetera, et cetera.

  • But the reason we're talking about these things

  • in the context of sleep

  • is that they start to give your body

  • some predictable autonomic timing.

  • What is predictable autonomic timing?

  • Well, your autonomic nervous system

  • is the components of your brain and body

  • that cause wakefulness and sleepiness

  • and you can start to create some predictability

  • in that autonomic timing.

  • You can start to do things that really make it such

  • that you naturally wake up at six in the morning

  • or five in the morning.

  • That's right, if you're somebody

  • who naturally is a night owl,

  • who likes to stay up until two in the morning

  • and sleep until 10:00 a.m.,

  • and you now have a job or you have to go to school

  • or you have a partner that likes to get up early

  • and go to sleep early,

  • well, you can make that happen

  • and you can make that happen pretty painlessly

  • if you take a week or so

  • and go to sleep 30 minutes or an hour earlier each night,

  • set an alarm

  • and wake up 30 minutes or an hour earlier each morning

  • until, of course, you're waking up

  • at the time you want to wake up,

  • and then even in that groggy state,

  • get some exercise, get some sunlight viewing.

  • If the sun's not out,

  • turn on those bright artificial lights.

  • Have some breakfast, even if you're not hungry.

  • In fact, for those of you that engage in shift work

  • because you have to,

  • or travel and you're jet lagged,

  • one of the quickest ways to shift your circadian clock

  • and get onto the local schedule

  • is to eat on the local schedule.

  • So what all these tools do is they really set up a cascade.

  • Think of it as kind of a wavefront of wakefulness and focus

  • throughout the day.

  • It'll take you through the middle of the day

  • and the afternoon stage we'll talk about in a few minutes,

  • but really they take you to this period

  • that is about 5:00 p.m. until your bedtime.

  • I realize some people are going to bed very early,

  • like 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m., which to me seems very early,

  • but very few people go to sleep at 5:00 p.m. right?

  • Unless you're doing that for shift work or other reasons.

  • But from 5:00 p.m. until bedtime is really a critical period

  • in which you need to leverage particular tools

  • in order to get and stay asleep optimally

  • and to be able to sleep through the night.

  • So really there are three critical periods

  • throughout each 24-hour cycle.

  • And during each of those critical periods,

  • you're going to want to do

  • as many specific things as you can

  • to optimize your wakefulness

  • and focus and mood throughout the day

  • and your sleep at night.

  • The first critical period

  • is the one that we've been talking about up until now.

  • Things like morning sunlight viewing,

  • caffeine 90 to 120 minutes after waking,

  • exercise, and so on.

  • We can call that critical period one

  • and it really encompasses the time from which you wake up

  • until about three hours after waking.

  • Although, I should just mention

  • 'cause there are always those people that say,

  • "Wait, I wake up at 4:00 a.m.

  • and the sun isn't out until 8:00 a.m.,"

  • okay, so it might be four hours.

  • But really it's those early morning hours of your day

  • once you're awake.

  • The second critical period

  • is the time throughout the day and afternoon

  • leading into evening.

  • So you may ask what are the things that you can do

  • throughout the day,

  • the middle of your day

  • and into the afternoon and evening hours,

  • that are really going to set you up

  • for the best possible sleep later that night.

  • Well, there are a few dos and there are a few don'ts.

  • First of all,

  • be careful about ingesting too much caffeine

  • throughout the middle of the day.

  • That's kind of an obvious one

  • for the reasons that we talked about earlier.

  • Second of all, if you are a napper,

  • and I raise my hand now,

  • for those of you listening,

  • I'm raising my right hand because I love naps.

  • I've always loved naps.

  • Nowadays I do NSDR or a Reveri sleep hypnosis

  • almost every day.

  • And I tend to do that, as I mentioned,

  • in the early afternoon hours

  • if I'm feeling kind of sleepy,

  • because even though I optimize

  • my caffeine intake timing, et cetera,

  • I tend to get a little sleepy in the afternoon.

  • Most people get a little sleepy in the afternoon.

  • Some of that is related

  • to hitting that peak of body temperature.

  • And you might think, wait, I thought high body temperature

  • is associated with alertness,

  • and it is,

  • but right as you crest that high body temperature

  • and your body temperature starts to drop,

  • there's a tendency to be a little bit sleepy.

  • So some of you might opt to take a nap in the afternoon.

  • Should you nap, should you not nap?

  • That's a question that I get asked a lot

  • and that I asked Dr. Matthew Walker

  • when he was a guest on this podcast.

  • Here was his answer and here's what the data support.

  • It is fine to nap in the afternoon,

  • but don't nap so late in the day or for so long

  • that it disrupts your ability

  • to fall and stay asleep at night

  • for your major sleep about, okay?

  • So naps are fine,

  • but don't sleep so long during the day

  • or too late in the day

  • that it disrupts your ability to fall and stay asleep.

  • I should also say you do not have to nap.

  • It's kind of an interesting phenomenon

  • that happens on these podcasts and on social media

  • where we'll talk about naps

  • and the fact that naps are great,

  • but don't make them longer than 90 minutes,

  • but then all the non-nappers get really worried.

  • Like, wait, am I supposed to nap?

  • I don't like naps. I wake up groggy.

  • You do not have to nap.

  • In fact, if you can make it

  • through your whole day without napping,

  • great, more power to you.

  • But if you do nap and you find that naps serve you well,

  • keep those naps shorter than 90 minutes

  • for reasons related to ultradian cycles and so forth,

  • and make sure that you don't nap too late in the day

  • that you are then staying up too late at night

  • and having a hard time waking up the next morning.

  • I will say that for a lot of people who do not like naps

  • or that find they wake up really grumpy from naps

  • or groggy from naps,

  • I encourage you to try the Reveri app,

  • try an NSDR script, try yoga nidra.

  • Try something of that sort

  • for anywhere from 10 to 20 to 30 minutes.

  • I tend to do this every day now.

  • I'll just lie down, and I love yoga nidra,

  • I love NSDR scripts,

  • I love using the Reveri app.

  • In particular, the portion of the Reveri app

  • that gets you better at sleeping.

  • It really is beneficial for me

  • because it serves as very replenishing

  • while I'm doing that hypnosis,

  • but it's also gotten me much better

  • at falling and staying asleep

  • and falling back asleep in the middle of the night.

  • So this critical period throughout the day

  • is one in which most people are doing a lot of stuff.

  • They're emailing and picking up kids

  • and they're exercising and they're commuting

  • and doing all sorts of things,

  • taking phone calls and Zooms, et cetera.

  • But if you can get that period of deep relaxation

  • through a nap or NSDR,

  • that's going to serve you well.

  • Try not to drink too much caffeine,

  • certainly no more than a hundred milligrams of caffeine,

  • after 4:00 p.m

  • if your goal is to fall asleep at a reasonably normal time.

  • And for those of you that exercise in the afternoon,

  • understand that if you exercise very intensely,

  • so this might be weight training or running

  • or some other very intense exercise,

  • typically that's going to further increase

  • your body temperature.

  • Makes sense, right?

  • Based on everything we know

  • about metabolism and body temperature.

  • And it's going to so-called delay your circadian clock.

  • It's going to make it such

  • that you want to fall asleep a little bit later,

  • maybe even a lot later.

  • So if you're exercising in the afternoon or evening

  • and that's the only time you can exercise

  • or that's the time that you prefer to exercise,

  • great, but be careful about ingesting too much caffeine

  • in order to get the energy to do that exercise

  • 'cause that caffeine will disrupt your sleep

  • and just know that you are delaying your circadian clock.

  • You are making it such

  • that you will naturally want to go to sleep later

  • and wake up later.

  • Contrast that with if you exercise early in the day,

  • say, immediately after waking up

  • or in the first zero to four hours after waking,

  • in most cases, that's not going to shift

  • your circadian clock much.

  • And toward the end of the episode,

  • we'll talk a little bit about forced exercise

  • prior to wake-up times.

  • That doesn't mean doing exercise in your sleep.

  • That means deliberately setting an alarm

  • and getting out of bed much earlier

  • than you naturally would.

  • That turns out to be a very potent tool

  • to so-called advance your circadian clock.

  • So we can talk about that a little bit later in the episode.

  • But this critical period, too, in the middle of the day

  • is when you're going to want to leverage specific tools,

  • and we've talked about those:

  • limiting caffeine intake;

  • being mindful of the clock-delaying effects of exercise;

  • the fact that, also, if you're going to nap,

  • you don't want to nap too long or too late into the day

  • otherwise you'll disrupt your nighttime sleep.

  • So this critical period two,

  • or second critical period, I should say,

  • during the middle of the day

  • is a time in which you should be doing certain things

  • and avoiding doing certain things.

  • So that raises the question of whether or not

  • you should also be getting a lot of light,

  • in particular, sunlight, throughout the day.

  • Now, that's something that hasn't been explored too much

  • in the literature

  • until recently when Dr. Samer Hattar

  • who's the director of the chronobiology unit

  • at the National Institutes of Mental Health,

  • decided to do a number of experiments

  • exploring the effects of light on mood

  • and other aspects of brain function and body function

  • when that light is delivered not just in the morning,

  • which is great for us,

  • but also throughout the day.

  • So should you be looking at sunlight

  • or bright artificial lights throughout the day?

  • Now, on the face of it,

  • you might just think, yes, you know, sunlight's great.

  • Provided we're not getting a sunburn

  • and we're not staring at the sun and damaging our eyes,

  • we should get as much sunlight as we possibly can.

  • In fact, we talked about this in the episode on hormones

  • about how getting light onto as much of our skin

  • as we can throughout the day

  • can really help in the production

  • of testosterone and estrogen in both men and women

  • in healthy ways that improves mood and libido

  • and all sorts of things that are associated with wellbeing.

  • However, because light is such a powerful stimulus

  • for controlling the timing

  • of your sleepfulness, or sleepiness, I should say,

  • and wakefulness,

  • we might want to be cautious

  • about how much light we are viewing in the afternoon,

  • in particular, in the early evening hours, right?

  • Well, turns out it's not so straightforward.

  • Viewing, so sunlight to the eyes, sunlight

  • in the late afternoon and evening hours,

  • so again, depends on time of year,

  • depends on location that you happen to be in,

  • but getting some sunlight in your eyes

  • for, again, maybe five or 10, maybe 30 minutes,

  • depending on how much cloud cover there is,

  • doing that in the afternoon

  • serves an additional beneficial purpose,

  • which is you protect or you inoculate your nervous system

  • against some of the negative effects

  • of bright artificial light

  • or even dim artificial light in the nighttime hours

  • between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.,

  • which is really critical period three.

  • And we'll talk about what to do and what to not do

  • during critical period three of every 24-hour cycle.

  • But to make it very clear what I'm saying here,

  • get that morning sunlight in your eyes,

  • but also get some sunlight in your eyes

  • in the late afternoon and evening hours

  • when the sun is at so-called low solar angle,

  • when it starts to descend in the sky.

  • Again, you don't have to stare directly at the sun,

  • although if you can catch a nice, beautiful sunset,

  • go for it.

  • But as the sun starts to descend,

  • it triggers those same neurons in your eye

  • that communicate with your circadian clock,

  • but it communicates with a different component

  • or different compartment within the circadian clock.

  • That circadian clock is not just one thing.

  • It's multiple things.

  • And you have what are called morning oscillators

  • and evening oscillators.

  • And to make a long story short,

  • the tool that I'm describing of looking at the sun

  • in the late afternoon and evening,

  • again, blinking is fine,

  • don't stare at the sun,

  • but getting that sunlight in your eyes

  • in the late afternoon and evening

  • signals to that clock that it's evening time

  • and that sleep is coming.

  • It also serves as a second anchor or reference point

  • for your body and your brain to know where it is in time.

  • Remember back to the beginning of the episode

  • when I said your brain and your body and all your organs

  • are locked inside this skin and this skull

  • and they don't know what's going on in the outside world.

  • Well, that morning sunlight viewing

  • and the other things you do during critical period one,

  • those provide one strong set of signals

  • that it's wake-up time and time to be alert

  • and time to be focused.

  • And then in the evening,

  • by getting sunlight in your eyes again,

  • in particular, sunlight that comes

  • from low solar angle sunlight,

  • well, that provides a second stimulus

  • or a second reference point

  • that tells your brain and body, "Hey, it's evening.

  • The sun is descending."

  • Now, you might say,

  • "Wait, how does the brain and these neurons know

  • the difference between morning light and evening light?"

  • It turns out has to do

  • with the particular wavelengths of light

  • that are present in morning versus evening.

  • It's an incredible mechanism.

  • And you are probably familiar with the fact

  • that when the sun is directly overhead,

  • it's really bright white and yellow

  • and the sky's often blue,

  • and if there's cloud cover,

  • it just comes through as a bunch of bright light,

  • well, next time you're out in the morning,

  • take a look at what a sunrise looks like.

  • There's a lot of yellow-blue contrast,

  • and those yellow blues signal

  • important specific sets of cells in your eye and brain

  • that it's morning.

  • In the evening, you're also going to see yellow and blue,

  • but the ratio of yellows and blues has now changed

  • and you also see some oranges,

  • and in a really brilliant sunset, you'll see some reds.

  • If you haven't noticed this already,

  • you'll really want to look for this.

  • It's really kind of fun and cool to look at.

  • Well, those yellows and blues and oranges

  • that you see in the evening sunsets,

  • those signal to your brain and body that evening is there

  • and that nighttime is coming

  • and they're really establishing

  • a second reference point or wavefront of biological signals

  • that are going to optimize your nighttime hours

  • and your transition into really terrific sleep.

  • So now let's talk

  • about what I'm calling critical period three

  • of each 24-hour cycle.

  • So this would be the period of time of late evening,

  • So it might be 6:00 p.m. for some,

  • depending on when you go to sleep,

  • or 7:00 p.m.

  • extending into the hours

  • in which you decide to get into bed and go to sleep

  • and then throughout the night.

  • There are a number of things

  • that you're going to want to do

  • and there are a number of things

  • that you are going to want to avoid doing

  • in order to optimize your sleep.

  • First of all, you're going to want to avoid

  • bright artificial lights of any color.

  • Yes, of any color.

  • We haven't talked a lot about blue blockers,

  • you know, lenses that block blue wavelengths

  • or short wavelengths of light.

  • I don't have anything against blue blockers.

  • In fact, many people find that blue blockers provide them

  • some relief from headache and some eye strain

  • if they wear blue blockers

  • throughout the day and certainly at night.

  • But you don't need them,

  • and even if you do wear them,

  • you will find that if lights are very bright,

  • doesn't matter if it's a blue light,

  • a yellow light, or a red light,

  • those bright lights will wake up your brain and body.

  • They will activate the same mechanisms

  • that were activated early in the day by sunlight.

  • However, and here's the really diabolical twist,

  • I mentioned this earlier,

  • but the diabolical twist

  • in the way that your brain and body respond to light

  • is that early in the day,

  • in the morning hours, you need a lot of bright light,

  • ideally from sunlight,

  • to be very alert and to wake up,

  • but in the evening hours and nighttime hours,

  • it takes very little light, very few photons,

  • in order to wake up your brain and body

  • and to disrupt your circadian clock and disrupt your sleep.

  • So what that means is that once the sun goes down,

  • which, of course, is going to happen

  • at different times of year in different places on earth,

  • but once the sun goes down,

  • you would be wise to try and dim the lights

  • in your indoor environment most days, right?

  • I realize some nights you're going to throw a party

  • and have people over.

  • You might not want to dim the lights.

  • Some nights you're going to go out,

  • you might view a lot of bright lights.

  • But most nights of your life,

  • you're going to want to dim the lights

  • in your internal environment.

  • And ideally, the lights that you do use

  • you would place low in that physical environment.

  • So you would try and not use overhead lights,

  • but rather rely on desk lamps or lights

  • even placed low to the floor, even on the floor.

  • If you are going to use light at night,

  • and most people do,

  • I would encourage you to use as little artificial light

  • as is required to carry out the activities you need

  • to require safely.

  • That could be studying,

  • in which case you might need a little bit more light

  • in order to read or study.

  • If you're watching a television show

  • or you're watching something on your computer,

  • dim that screen way, way down,

  • as dim as possible while still, of course, being able

  • to view what you need to view.

  • Even better, I should say, ideally,

  • you would use candlelight and/or moonlight.

  • Now, some nights the moon is really bright

  • and you actually can use moonlight

  • to go about your usual activities.

  • Moonlight might seem very, very bright,

  • but, actually, moonlight is fairly low light intensity,

  • and candlelight, which can also seem very bright,

  • actually is very low light intensity.

  • If you're sitting across a table

  • with some candlelight there

  • and it's a really bright candle,

  • chances are it's only about three to 10 lux,

  • which is very, very little light energy

  • compared to, say, an artificial desk lamp

  • or an overhead light,

  • which is going to be in the area

  • of anywhere from a hundred to a thousand lux.

  • So candlelight is fine.

  • Of course, be cautious with open flame,

  • but candlelight is fine.

  • Moonlight is fine.

  • Dimming artificial lights is fine

  • provided they're dimmed way, way down.

  • And again, try and avoid using overhead artificial lights.

  • The absolute worst lights

  • are going to be overhead fluorescent lights

  • of the sort that you would have in the supermarket

  • or that you would see at a gas station

  • or something of that sort.

  • And I confess, there are times in which I'm driving home

  • and it's late at night and I want to be able to get to sleep

  • and I'll need to stop at the grocery store

  • or a gas station or something like that,

  • I've actually put on sunglasses at night

  • in order to avoid getting

  • that bright light exposure at night.

  • Although that's a little bit extreme,

  • I have done that from time to time

  • because that bright light exposure

  • will absolutely quash, it will eliminate,

  • any melatonin that happens to be circulating

  • in your brain and body.

  • Now, melatonin, a lot of people think of it as a supplement,

  • but melatonin is naturally released

  • as the evening comes about and into the nighttime hours.

  • It's the hormone that makes you feel sleepy

  • and allows you to fall asleep.

  • So viewing bright light

  • in the late evening hours and nighttime hours

  • is really not good for your sleep quality

  • and your ability to fall and stay asleep.

  • So for most people, a simple rule of thumb

  • is going to be avoid bright artificial lights of all colors,

  • and in particular, overhead bright artificial lights,

  • between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.

  • That's right, between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.,

  • avoid those bright artificial lights as much as possible.

  • Use only as much light as is absolutely necessary

  • in order to carry out the routines and activities

  • you need to carry out safely.

  • I should mention

  • that the reason overhead lights are problematic

  • is the same reason why sunlight is so great

  • early in the day,

  • which is that the cells, that is, the neurons,

  • that can wake up your brain and body

  • through activation of the circadian clock

  • reside mainly in the bottom half or 2/3

  • of your neural retina

  • and the way the optics of your eyes work

  • is that the cells on the bottom half of your eye

  • view the upper visual field.

  • So this is a beautiful adaptive mechanism

  • that allows these cells

  • to respond to overhead light from sunlight

  • in the early part of the day and throughout the day.

  • But in the evening, if you have bright artificial lights on

  • and those bright artificial lights are overhead lights,

  • it's going to more closely mimic

  • what sunlight does in the evening time,

  • and that turns out to be a bad thing

  • if your goal is to eventually go to sleep.

  • So again, do like the Scandinavians do.

  • Use lights that are set low in the room at night,

  • and if you really want to optimize your sleep-wake cycles,

  • I suppose you could also do the opposite throughout the day.

  • You could really emphasize the use

  • of bright artificial lights and sunlight

  • that comes from above.

  • And of course, sunlight always comes from above.

  • But if you're working in a given office environment

  • and, you know, it's 2:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m.

  • and you want to be as awake as possible,

  • really crank up the overhead lights.

  • And then in the evening,

  • which is this critical period three that we're referring to,

  • really try and dim those lights or have them off

  • or just rely on candlelight or moonlight

  • from the hours of about 10:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.

  • Our good friend Samer Hattar,

  • who's been on this podcast before,

  • Samer is director of the chronobiology unit

  • at the National Institutes of Mental Health,

  • well, he's absolutely obsessive about this light stuff

  • and avoiding light at night.

  • In fact, he lives in what I sort of joke

  • is like a cave at night.

  • From 9:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m.,

  • which is really his kind of sleep cycle,

  • he has his house so dark

  • that you'd be lucky to be able

  • to find a spoon in the kitchen.

  • In fact, you'd be lucky

  • to find your way down the hallway if you're me.

  • But in any case, dim the lights.

  • Turn them way, way down.

  • It will serve you well.

  • It will make it much easier for you

  • to get sleepy and stay sleepy and fall asleep

  • and stay asleep throughout the night.

  • Now, not to depart from this critical period three,

  • but if you recall, viewing that afternoon light,

  • the low solar angle light

  • as the sun is heading down in the sky,

  • so it could be sunset

  • or what I call circa sunset, around sunset,

  • well, doing that is going to slightly,

  • but not completely, offset any of the negative effects

  • of viewing artificial light at night.

  • So I don't want to give people a pass here,

  • but let's say you know

  • that you're going to watch some Netflix at night

  • or you're going to be up late studying

  • and yet you still want to be able to fall and stay asleep.

  • Definitely make sure you see that evening light.

  • There's a great study.

  • We'll provide a link to this study,

  • which showed that if people view evening sunset light

  • or evening sunsets

  • or sunlight right around the time of sunset,

  • it really serves to inoculate or offset some,

  • again, some, not all, of the negative effects

  • of artificial light

  • between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.

  • Now, that's light.

  • But as you recall,

  • we also have this tool related to temperature,

  • and you're probably not going to be surprised

  • that the way to leverage temperature in the evening

  • is the exact opposite

  • of the way that you want to leverage temperature

  • early in the day.

  • Early in the day, temperature increases

  • from cold showers or exercise, et cetera, wake you up.

  • What that means is that taking a cold shower late at night

  • is probably a bad idea.

  • Rather, taking a nice hot bath or a sauna,

  • you might think would heat up your body,

  • and indeed, that's what happens

  • if you stay in a very long time,

  • but if you do hot tub or a hot bath

  • or a sauna in the evening,

  • and you don't stay in for more than 20 or 30 minutes

  • and you get out,

  • you take maybe a cool-ish shower or a warm shower,

  • then what happens is there's a compensatory cooling off

  • of your core body temperature

  • for the reasons we discussed earlier,

  • and your body temperature will drop by one to three degrees

  • and it will make it much easier to get into sleep.

  • So if you're somebody

  • that enjoys hot baths, hot showers, or hot tubs,

  • evening and nighttime

  • is going to be the best time to do that

  • if your goal is to facilitate sleep.

  • Similarly, you should try

  • and make your sleeping environment pretty cool, if not cold.

  • Now, that doesn't mean you need to be cold

  • while you're asleep.

  • You can get under as many blankets as you need,

  • but it's a good idea to make your sleeping environment cool.

  • In fact, drop the temperature in that sleeping environment

  • by at least three degrees

  • and you'll be happy that you did.

  • Now, some people rely on things like Eight Sleep.

  • I use that.

  • One of these controllable temperature mattress covers.

  • Other people would simply do this

  • by putting a fan in the room or opening a window.

  • Again, depends on time of year,

  • depends on technology, depends on budgets, et cetera.

  • But you're going to want to sleep

  • in a relatively cool or cold sleeping environment

  • and then layer on the blankets as needed to stay asleep.

  • And I say as needed because one of the things

  • that you're going to do in your sleep,

  • or if you happen to wake up,

  • is if you're too warm, you're going to put a foot or a hand

  • out from under those blankets.

  • And the reason for doing that is very logical

  • once you understand the mechanism.

  • You have special portals,

  • you essentially have ways of passing heat,

  • excuse me, in and out of your body

  • primarily through the palms of your hands,

  • the upper half of your face,

  • and the bottoms of your feet

  • through so-called glabrous skin.

  • This was covered in the episode with Dr. Craig Heller

  • from the biology department at Stanford.

  • If you lower the temperature in your sleeping environment,

  • so lower the temperature in that room

  • or use a controllable mattress cover that can cool down

  • like Eight Sleep or something of that sort,

  • it's naturally going to make your sleep environment cooler,

  • and if you're too warm under the blankets,

  • all you have to do is extend a hand or a foot

  • out from under those blankets.

  • Whereas if the sleeping environment that you're in

  • is too warm,

  • there's very little you can do to cool off

  • besides push off those blankets.

  • So for instance, if you're too warm

  • and you're waking up in the middle of the night,

  • which is what happens if you get too warm,

  • you'll push off those blankets.

  • But if the room is too warm,

  • well, what are you going to do?

  • You'd probably have to put your hands into some cool water

  • or take a coolish shower or something

  • for a couple of seconds.

  • That's not very practical.

  • Better to just keep the sleeping environment cool.

  • I'm not a big fan of people putting socks on

  • while they sleep,

  • or I should say, I'm not a fan of putting socks on

  • while I sleep,

  • because that eliminates this glabrous skin portal

  • on the bottoms of one's feet.

  • So for those of you that have heard,

  • you know, wear socks while you sleep,

  • that works great for people

  • that tend to run too cold while they sleep

  • and wake up because their feet get cold,

  • but if you're somebody who wakes up

  • in the middle of the night,

  • chances are you're waking up

  • because you're getting too warm

  • and the best thing that you could do

  • is to cool or lower the temperature

  • in the room that you're sleeping

  • and not wear socks,

  • get under as many blankets as you need to fall asleep,

  • and then across the night,

  • you'll naturally just move a hand or a foot

  • or all hands and feet out from under those blankets

  • to cool off

  • because of the relationship between temperature and sleep.

  • That is, dropping your core body temperature

  • one to three degrees

  • gets you into sleep and helps you stay asleep.

  • So let's say you do exercise late in the day

  • and you're finding yourself very alert in the evening

  • and you need to fall asleep,

  • or let's say you've exercised

  • and you needed four cups of espresso

  • in order to do that exercise.

  • Well, there are a few things that you can do

  • to try and bring your nervous system down

  • into more state of calmness,

  • and you can do that

  • also by lowering your core body temperature.

  • One of those I already talked about before,

  • taking a nice hot shower or a hot bath

  • and then getting out and cooling off

  • will decrease your body temperature.

  • Maybe not enough to get you into sleep

  • if you have a ton of caffeine in your system.

  • But again, you can use this mechanism of temperature shifts

  • to wake up

  • or temperature shifts to fall asleep

  • in ways that really can help you overcome

  • some of the irregularities in your sleep-wake cycle

  • and exercise cycle, et cetera.

  • Because, of course, nobody's perfect.

  • Some days we end up having to workout in the afternoon

  • or we'll miss the workout entirely.

  • Other days, we end up having that cup of coffee

  • in the afternoon with a friend

  • and then we have a hard time falling asleep.

  • So you can use these tools

  • not just in their optimized form,

  • you know, being absolutely obsessive and compulsive

  • about exactly when you do each of those tools.

  • That would be wonderful, but life happens as they say

  • and some days you're going to feel too alert at night

  • and you want to fall asleep,

  • or you've got to get up especially early the next morning

  • and you're not somebody

  • who normally goes to bed at 10:00 p.m.

  • Well, that's when a something like a hot bath or a sauna

  • can really benefit you

  • because it can adjust your temperature rhythm accordingly.

  • I would be remiss if I didn't touch on alcohol

  • and CBD and THC.

  • I always get questions about these.

  • And I should say, of course,

  • many places, but not all, THC is illegal.

  • Although, there are medical uses

  • and in some places, it's decriminalized,

  • other places it's legal.

  • Alcohol, of course, is consumed

  • almost as frequently as caffeine is consumed.

  • I personally don't drink alcohol.

  • I don't have anything against it per se.

  • I just don't tend to enjoy it.

  • One of the reasons I don't enjoy it

  • is if I drink alcohol, I simply fall asleep.

  • So that doesn't really accomplish

  • any of the things that I really want to accomplish

  • because the sleep that one gets after drinking alcohol

  • is greatly disrupted sleep.

  • Hate to break it to you, but that's the truth.

  • And when Dr. Matt Walker came on this podcast,

  • he said exactly the same thing.

  • While THC and alcohol do help some people fall asleep

  • and maybe even stay asleep,

  • the architecture of that sleep is suboptimal

  • compared to the sleep they would get

  • without alcohol or THC in their system.

  • So I'm not here to tell you what to do or not to do.

  • I'm certainly not the substance police.

  • That's not my role.

  • I'm just reporting to you the biology.

  • If your sleep is not restoring you

  • to the extent that you feel it should,

  • or if you are regularly relying on a drink or two

  • in order to fall asleep,

  • or THC in order to fall asleep,

  • that is disrupting your total pattern of sleep.

  • However, I do realize

  • that nowadays a lot of people are relying on THC and/or CBD,

  • especially edible forms,

  • in order to fall and stay asleep.

  • And, you know, we can just acknowledge the data.

  • It does seem that there's an anxiety lowering effect

  • of some of those compounds

  • that do help people

  • who have a hard time falling and staying asleep

  • because of reasons related to anxiety.

  • Although, in a moment,

  • we'll talk about some supplements and supplement protocols

  • that can also assist in the ability to fall and stay asleep

  • and that can adjust anxiety

  • and that do not seem to disrupt sleep architecture

  • in negative ways

  • and, in fact, can enhance the depth and quality

  • of sleep architecture.

  • Okay, so you've done everything correctly up until now.

  • You got your morning routine from critical period one.

  • You've got your afternoon routine.

  • You saw some sunlight in the afternoon.

  • You avoided caffeine in the eight hours

  • or 10 hours before bedtime.

  • You're not drinking alcohol.

  • You've cooled down the room.

  • You're doing all these things right.

  • You've dimmed the lights, et cetera, et cetera.

  • What else can we do in order to optimize our sleep?

  • Well, I always say behavioral tools first,

  • then look to nutrition,

  • then, if necessary, look to supplementation,

  • and then, if still necessary, look to prescription drugs

  • obviously prescribed by a board certified physician.

  • Well, we've talked a lot about the behavioral tools

  • for critical period three.

  • We have not talked a lot

  • about the supplementation-based tools.

  • There are supplements that for most people

  • will greatly improve their ability to fall and stay asleep

  • and the three main supplements in that category

  • or that kit of sleep supplements,

  • and I've talked about these before,

  • are magnesium threonate, so T-H-R-E-O-N-A-T-E,

  • apigenin, A-P-I-G-E-N-I-N, apigenin,

  • and theanine, T-H-E-A-N-I-N-E, theanine.

  • Now, some important things to point out

  • about mag threonate, as it's called, apigenin, and theanine.

  • First of all,

  • you don't necessarily need to take all three,

  • although, many people get a synergistic effect

  • from taking all three.

  • In fact, you may not even need to take even one.

  • What I recommend is that if you're already doing

  • all the behavioral tools regularly

  • and you're still having trouble falling asleep

  • and staying asleep,

  • well, then you might try one of the supplements

  • within this sleep stack.

  • They do have fairly wide margins for safety.

  • Although, I should also say,

  • anytime you're going to add or remove something

  • from your supplement protocol or your nutritional program,

  • you definitely want to talk to your physician.

  • I don't just say that to protect us.

  • I say that to protect you.

  • But for most people, the margins of safety on these things

  • are going to be pretty broad.

  • A couple of notes about dosages.

  • For some people, the dosages of any one or several

  • of the supplements I mentioned will be zero.

  • That is, you won't need them

  • in order to get and stay asleep most nights of your life.

  • That's terrific if you don't need them.

  • For many people, however,

  • taking 145 milligrams of magnesium threonate

  • can be very beneficial.

  • That's the dosage that most people will benefit from.

  • Some people need to go a little higher.

  • Some people need to go a little bit lower.

  • One of the reasons that we've been pointing people

  • towards single-ingredient formulations these days

  • is because it allows people

  • to adjust the dosage of one component

  • of a so-called sleep stack

  • without having to disrupt the dosage of another component,

  • and so on.

  • It also allows people to try

  • just one element within the sleep stack

  • without having to purchase and try the others,

  • which is a problem if you're buying a blend

  • of a lot of different ingredients.

  • So 145 milligrams of magnesium threonate.

  • 50, 5-0, milligrams of apigenin.

  • And again, you could just take the apigenin on its own.

  • And 100 to 400 milligrams of theanine

  • taken, again, alone or in combination

  • with the other supplements mentioned in the stack

  • many people find allows them to get really drowsy

  • and fall asleep, sleep really deeply,

  • and they feel much more refreshed the next day

  • and they don't have a grogginess to them.

  • Now, a couple of notes about these different supplements.

  • About 5% of people report

  • that magnesium threonate really disrupts their gut.

  • It gives them diarrhea or gastric distress.

  • In which case, don't take it.

  • If magnesium threonate disrupts your gut or your digestion

  • to a point where it's uncomfortable or at all

  • and you don't like it, don't take any of it.

  • The proper dosage for you, in other words,

  • would be zero milligrams.

  • Now, in a slightly different way,

  • many people who can tolerate magnesium threonate

  • or really thrive on magnesium threonate

  • and like apigenin

  • might find that theanine,

  • even at the lowest dose of a hundred milligrams,

  • 'cause, again, the range is a hundred to 400 milligrams,

  • that theanine gives them such vivid dreams

  • that they actually find it disruptive

  • where they wake up in the middle of the night

  • or they find that the sleep that they're getting

  • is kind of anxiety ridden

  • because of the intensity of those dreams.

  • So some people might choose to leave theanine

  • out of the sleep stack

  • and just take magnesium threonate or apigenin

  • And again, some people might leave magnesium threonate

  • out of the sleep stack.

  • Again, all of this is really about finding

  • the supplementation protocol that's ideal for you.

  • I should mention that whether or not

  • you're taking one or two or three of the components

  • of the sleep stack,

  • the ideal time to take those

  • is 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime,

  • especially if you haven't had anything to eat

  • for the three hours or so before bedtime.

  • I confess that oftentimes

  • I'll have a little bit of a snack late in the evening,

  • some berries or something.

  • I try not to eat too close to bedtime,

  • but some evenings just because of work schedule,

  • I'll get home late, be 9:00 p.m.,

  • and I'll eat a big meal

  • and then I'll take the sleep stack and fall asleep.

  • Every once in a while, that just so happens.

  • Nobody's perfect. Certainly I'm not.

  • But that sleep stack can be very beneficial.

  • And I do think that it's preferable to melatonin.

  • Here's the reason.

  • First of all, melatonin is a hormone

  • that you endogenously make.

  • You now know a lot about melatonin

  • and it's controlled by light,

  • meaning light inhibits it or eliminates it,

  • darkness promotes it.

  • And melatonin indeed can help us fall asleep,

  • but the dosages of melatonin

  • that are contained in most commercial products

  • is far, far, far greater

  • than what we would make endogenously.

  • So it's really supraphysiological.

  • So that's of concern

  • because melatonin is not just responsible

  • for making us sleepy and fall asleep.

  • It also does things

  • like interacts with other hormone systems,

  • testosterone and estrogen,

  • even in the puberty system, in kids.

  • Is taking melatonin every once in a while a problem

  • for adjusting to jet lag, et cetera?

  • Probably not. I would even say no.

  • But taking it chronically over time,

  • especially kids taking it chronically over time,

  • can potentially be problematic.

  • So at least in my opinion, these other supplements

  • are going to be preferable to melatonin.

  • Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of today's episode,

  • there are some other things

  • that I certainly take every once in a while

  • and that other people might consider taking

  • in addition to the sleep stack I talked about before

  • or in place of that sleep stack

  • if that sleep stack doesn't work well for them.

  • So every third or fourth night,

  • I will take two grams of glycine

  • and a hundred milligrams of GABA

  • in addition to the standard sleep stack

  • that I talked about before.

  • So I'm taking mag threonate, apigenin, and theanine,

  • and then I will also take two grams of glycine and GABA,

  • which I find greatly enhances my ability to get into sleep.

  • But the reason I only add glycine and GABA

  • every third or fourth night

  • is that if I take it too often,

  • I find that the entire sleep stack

  • doesn't work quite as effectively.

  • I don't know exactly why this is the case,

  • but in any event, that's what I do.

  • And more recently, I've also started using inositol,

  • in particular myo-inositol.

  • Every other night, I'll take 900 milligrams of myo-inositol

  • in addition to mag threonate, apigenin, and theanine,

  • and not on the nights when I take glycine and GABA.

  • So I'm adding 900 milligrams of inositol

  • to the standard sleep stack

  • of mag threonate, theanine, and apigenin.

  • And what I find is not only does it greatly enhance

  • my ability to fall asleep quickly,

  • but if I wake up in the middle of the night,

  • which I often do to use the bathroom,

  • I find it very, very easy to fall back asleep.

  • Whereas when I don't take inositol every other night or so,

  • I find that if I wake up in the middle of the night,

  • it's a bit more of a challenge to fall back asleep.

  • So inositol has a number of different uses

  • that have been discussed in terms of mental health

  • and in terms of adjusting anxiety for its daytime use.

  • What I'm talking about

  • is taking 900 milligrams of myo-inositol

  • also 30 to 60 minutes before sleep

  • along with the standard sleep stack

  • and I found that to be immensely beneficial.

  • I also noticed that it has a pretty long tail

  • of anxiety suppression throughout the day.

  • And I'm not somebody who suffers from anxiety,

  • but I have to say it just has led me

  • to feel a bit calmer throughout the day,

  • and I don't really know how to say this

  • except in subjective terms,

  • to feel a bit more buffered against

  • or resilient against stress events.

  • And if you look at the literature on inositol

  • and its interactions

  • with the serotonin system and other systems,

  • that all makes sense as to why that would be the case.

  • So we'll provide links to our so-called sleep kit,

  • which is part of our Neural Network Newsletter.

  • It's a zero-cost newsletter

  • where you can access this information about supplements

  • and other behavioral tools for sleep in list form.

  • But that sleep kit doesn't include

  • some of the newer information

  • that I've provided this episode,

  • in particular, the information about inositol

  • and what I'm finding

  • to be the very beneficial use of inositol

  • for the ability to fall back asleep

  • after waking up in the middle of the night,

  • which is something that a lot of people struggle with.

  • Now, that's supplementation for falling and staying asleep,

  • but we can return to the behavioral tools

  • also as powerful levers and tools

  • for falling asleep and getting back to sleep.

  • And again, we look to NSDR, non-sleep deep rest,

  • or the Reveri app as a way to do that.

  • As I mentioned earlier,

  • the Reveri app has been developed on the basis

  • of really high-quality, peer-reviewed research,

  • both clinical and non-clinical,

  • by my colleague, David Spiegel,

  • who's our associate chair of psychiatry at Stanford.

  • It's a wonderful tool.

  • It does carry a cost after the initial seven-day trial.

  • I can tell you what the cost on that is

  • so you can get a sense

  • because I do realize that anything that carries a cost,

  • for some people, it won't be accessible.

  • Right now, Reveri,

  • and I should just mention,

  • they didn't pay us for an ad read.

  • I'm just telling you what they told me

  • so that I can accurately report what it costs to use Reveri.

  • They have a monthly subscription

  • to use the Reveri app at 14.99.

  • You do get the seven-day free trial.

  • They have a yearly subscription of 99.99

  • with a seven-day free trial.

  • And they have a lifetime purchase, one-time purchase,

  • of 249 with no trial.

  • It right now is only available for Apple, not for Android,

  • but they are, yes, going to have it available

  • for Android soon.

  • There's a signup list there.

  • I should mention that while the cost might seem high,

  • if you compare that cost to, say, supplements,

  • or you compare that cost to a poor night's sleep over time,

  • the cost, at least to me, seems somewhat modest,

  • certainly within range for a number of people.

  • But I acknowledge not within range for other people,

  • which is why I also want to point to zero-cost tools

  • and the zero-cost tool for getting asleep, staying asleep,

  • and falling back asleep

  • is going to be NSDR.

  • We'll put a link to a non-sleep deep rest protocol

  • that's available on YouTube,

  • so available to anybody zero cost

  • provided you have a internet connection.

  • Again, dim the screen

  • if you're going to turn that on late at night.

  • And there are a number of other yoga nidra scripts

  • and apps and sources around the internet,

  • in particular, on YouTube,

  • that are zero cost that you could use

  • if the Reveri app is outside your price range

  • or is not preferable to you, et cetera.

  • When I wake up in the middle of the night,

  • it's usually to use the restroom.

  • I'll go use the restroom.

  • I'll keep the lights as dim as possible.

  • I'll get back into bed.

  • And if I find that it's easy to fall asleep,

  • great, I'm asleep.

  • And if not, then I will generally plug in the Reveri app.

  • They have a fall back asleep hypnosis,

  • and 99 times out of a hundred,

  • I'm back asleep within minutes

  • and I don't wake up until morning.

  • Now, very briefly, I just want to touch on some tools

  • that are very commonly used by many people out there,

  • and believe it or not,

  • there is peer-reviewed science on things like eye masks.

  • Do eye masks improve your ability to stay asleep?

  • And indeed, they do,

  • provided they are not too tight

  • and provided that the room is cool enough.

  • Why?

  • Well, eye masks cover the upper half of your face,

  • which is where glabrous skin is localized.

  • Remember, palms of the hands, bottoms of the feet,

  • glabrous skin on the face.

  • So a lot of people who wear eye masks will wake up

  • because they're too warm if the room is too warm.

  • So if you're going to use an eye mask to keep light out,

  • definitely make sure the room

  • and your sleeping environment and your bed are cool enough

  • in order for you to stay asleep.

  • In addition, I get a lot of questions about earplugs.

  • Here's the deal with earplugs.

  • Some people find that earplugs are very beneficial

  • because, of course, they prevent the entrance of sound

  • into the ear that could wake us up.

  • But some people find that the sound

  • of their own beating of their own heart can be disruptive

  • and they get a sort of humming in their head

  • when they have those earplugs in.

  • I'm one such person.

  • Although, I have family members

  • that like using earplugs when they sleep.

  • So it's really up to you.

  • You have to see whether or not those earplugs help

  • or disrupt your sleep.

  • For me, they're no good.

  • For some people, they really enjoy them.

  • I don't use an eye mask

  • unless I'm sleeping in a really bright environment

  • or I need to sleep on a plane and things of that sort.

  • Other tools that I'll just mention

  • that have peer-reviewed research to support them.

  • Elevating your feet either with a pillow

  • or by elevating the end of your bed

  • by about three to five degrees

  • can be really beneficial for increasing the depth of sleep

  • because of the so-called glymphatic washout.

  • This is the movement of and circulation of fluids

  • in your brain at night

  • that lead to more wakefulness

  • and actually can improve cognitive function

  • and a number of other things related to brain health.

  • There's one caveat to that.

  • For people that suffer from acid reflux,

  • having your ankles elevated above your chest

  • or above your heart in the middle of the night

  • can actually exacerbate that acid reflux.

  • You want to do the opposite.

  • You want to actually elevate the head side of your bed

  • by about three to five degrees.

  • Now, one of the common causes of sleep disruption

  • that has tremendously detrimental effects

  • is so-called sleep apnea.

  • So this is basically bouts of suffocation

  • or lack of oxygenation during sleep.

  • This is particularly the case

  • for people that are very heavyset,

  • and that heavyset could be from obesity,

  • it could also be heavyset from having too much muscle.

  • A lot of people who are carrying too much muscle

  • will actually have sleep apnea without realizing it.

  • Sleep apnea is actually very dangerous.

  • It's associated with a number of cardiovascular issues.

  • It's associated with sexual dysfunction.

  • It's associated with issues with cognition.

  • Sleep apnea is bad.

  • A lot of people will have to use the PAP,

  • which is a, it's a device.

  • It looks like a sort of like a snorkel mask or a dive mask.

  • It's a whole apparatus that people will go to sleep with.

  • However, many people can relieve themselves of sleep apnea

  • provided it's not too serious

  • and can sleep much better,

  • in fact, I think all people can sleep much better,

  • if they train themselves

  • to be nose breathers while they sleep.

  • There are a lot of reasons to be a nose breather

  • unless you are breathing very hard due to exercise

  • or talking or eating.

  • That was all covered in James Nestor's book,

  • "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art."

  • It's been covered in a number of different podcasts.

  • We've talked about it on this podcast as well.

  • It's a good idea to be a nose breather

  • unless you need to mouth breathe.

  • And it's a great idea, it's a superb idea,

  • to be a nose breather in sleep.

  • And one way to really get good at that

  • is to take a little bit of medical tape

  • and to tape your mouth shut before going to sleep.

  • You heard me right.

  • Put some medical tape over your mouth

  • and force yourself to nose breathe during sleep.

  • It also prevents snoring in most cases.

  • Really offsets sleep apnea.

  • Sleep apnea, again, being a very serious health concern.

  • I should also mention as a tool

  • that if you have a hard time being a nose breather in sleep,

  • you can try doing your cardiovascular exercise,

  • at least the lower-intensity cardiovascular exercise,

  • through purely nasal breathing.

  • And one way to do that, again, is to tape your mouth shut

  • or put a gulp of water in your mouth,

  • but don't actually swallow that mouth full of water,

  • or to use a mouthpiece

  • or just deliberately keep your mouth closed

  • and insist on breathing through your nose.

  • Most people find

  • that when they start doing cardiovascular exercise that way,

  • it's really challenging at first,

  • but over time, they actually can feel quite calm

  • and still can generate a lot of physical effort

  • purely using nose breathing.

  • The reason that doing nose breathing

  • during cardiovascular exercise

  • translates to being a nose breather during sleep

  • is that your sinuses actually can dilate, they're plastic,

  • and over time,

  • plastic meaning they're malleable that is,

  • and they can become wider.

  • You're not going to get giant nostrils. Don't worry about it.

  • Your airways within your skull,

  • 'cause that's what the sinuses really are,

  • these little passages within the skull,

  • and, of course, within the nasal passages,

  • will dilate and will allow you

  • to breathe more easily through your nose.

  • But for those of you

  • that are waking up in the middle of the night

  • breathing on your back [breathing heavily]

  • or your partner is telling you that

  • or other people are telling you that

  • or you're that person on the plane

  • with your mouth hanging open and drooling

  • and your mouth breathing,

  • terrible, terrible, terrible for health reasons

  • and other reasons,

  • put some a medical tape over your mouth,

  • learn to be a nose breather during sleep.

  • Your sleep will improve

  • and your daytime feelings

  • of wakefulness and focus will improve,

  • your cardiovascular health will improve,

  • and on and on and on.

  • So now we've largely covered the tools that one could use

  • to get and stay asleep,

  • and we talked about exercise,

  • we talked about temperature,

  • we talked about supplements,

  • and we talked about, of course,

  • keeping the sleeping environment

  • both cool and as dark as possible.

  • I do want to mention a couple of broad contour tools

  • that will impact your ability

  • to sleep really well on a consistent basis

  • and the one that impacts the most number of people

  • is weekends.

  • Turns out that most everybody feels the impulse

  • to sleep in on the weekend,

  • especially if they've been out late the night before.

  • However, the data show

  • that keeping relatively consistent sleep and wake times

  • is really going to enhance

  • the quality and depth of your sleep.

  • So if you stay out late one night,

  • sure, you might allow yourself

  • to sleep in an extra hour or so,

  • but you should really try to avoid sleeping in longer

  • than an hour beyond your normal wake-up time.

  • That's right.

  • If you normally get eight hours of sleep

  • and you wake up at 7:00 a.m.,

  • probably okay to wake up at 8:00 a.m. on the weekend

  • or after a night out the night before,

  • but try not to sleep until 11 or noon

  • thinking that you're going to catch up on your sleep

  • or that's better than waking up at a consistent time.

  • It would be better to wake up at a consistent time

  • plus or minus an hour

  • and get a nap in the afternoon

  • provided that nap, again, isn't too long.

  • And the other tool

  • that relates to nights that you stayed out too late

  • or that you feel like you want to sleep in a bit more

  • in the morning

  • is if you are going to wake up at your consistent time.

  • So for example, normally you go to bed at 10

  • and you wake up at six.

  • Let's say that's your schedule.

  • And you end up staying up late one night

  • until midnight or one for whatever reason

  • and the next morning you wake up at seven

  • and you're still groggy.

  • In that case, you absolutely want to wait

  • to ingest caffeine 90 to 120 minutes after waking.

  • You really do because there are good data

  • to support the fact that caffeine can disrupt sleep.

  • Yes, that's obvious.

  • Caffeine especially disrupts sleep

  • if you take it too late in the day.

  • That's very obvious as to why that would be the case.

  • But caffeine especially disrupts

  • what's called compensatory sleep.

  • So if you start changing your waking time

  • and your to sleep time

  • and you start using additional caffeine

  • to offset the sleepiness that you're experiencing

  • because of those late nights out,

  • well, that's when you really start to disrupt

  • not just your nighttime sleep,

  • but your daytime compensatory sleep, so those naps.

  • You also are disrupting the total architecture of sleep

  • in the early morning hours.

  • There's a lot of great science that's been put to this,

  • or that's emerged from this, I should say.

  • So try and keep those sleep-wake times relatively constant

  • plus or minus an hour,

  • and try as much as you can to delay that caffeine intake

  • 90 to 120 minutes after waking every day,

  • but especially on days where you wake up

  • and you feel you haven't gotten enough sleep.

  • In that case, I highly recommend

  • you just use NSDR or the Reveri app

  • or some other form of deep relaxation

  • to try and compensate for the lack of sleep,

  • knowing, of course, that there's no complete compensation

  • for lack of sleep.

  • There are just things that we can do

  • to partially offset lack of sleep.

  • Now, a couple of final points and additional tools

  • that I think are going to be useful to everybody,

  • in particular, people who have young children

  • or are following a shift work schedule

  • or who are experiencing jet lag.

  • Keep in mind, jet lag can be due to travel,

  • which is obvious,

  • but jet lag can also be due

  • to getting woken up in the middle of the night, right?

  • Your body doesn't know the difference

  • between flying to a new time zone

  • and getting woken up in the middle of the night.

  • The tool that I'd like to offer you

  • is an understanding of something called temperature minimum.

  • And I'm going to make this as simple as possible

  • and I'm confident that everyone can understand this

  • even if you don't have any science background.

  • Here's the question you need to ask yourself.

  • What is your typical wake-up time, okay?

  • What's your typical wake-up time?

  • If for you, your typical wake-up time is 7:00 a.m.

  • plus or minus half an hour,

  • and that could be 7:00 a.m.

  • because you set an alarm clock

  • or it could be 7:00 a.m.

  • because you naturally wake up at 7:00 a.m., doesn't matter,

  • if your typical wake-up time most days is 7:00 a.m.,

  • well, then your temperature minimum is 5:00 a.m.

  • That's right, your temperature minimum is not a temperature.

  • It's a time within your 24-hour cycle.

  • Approximately two hours before your typical wake-up time,

  • your body is at its lowest temperature

  • that it will ever be in the 24-hour cycle.

  • That's why it's called your temperature minimum.

  • Here's what you need to know about your temperature minimum.

  • If you view bright light, exercise, or drink caffeine

  • or all of the above

  • in the two to four hours before your temperature minimum,

  • that will delay your clock.

  • What that means when I say delay your clock

  • is it will make you want to go to sleep later

  • and wake up later the next night, okay?

  • So let's run this exercise for you,

  • the person waking up at 7:00 a.m. on a regular basis,

  • I can predict with almost certainty

  • that your body is going to be at its lowest temperature

  • at 5:00 a.m..

  • So what that means

  • is that if you get up at 3:00 a.m. or at 4:00 a.m.

  • and you flip on bright lights in your house

  • or in your bathroom

  • or you have a cup of coffee

  • or you do any kind of exercise

  • or you get up and head to the airport,

  • the mechanisms in your brain and body

  • that control timing of sleep

  • and timing of waking will shift.

  • They will delay.

  • It's as if you put your clock on hold for a little while

  • and then let it start again, okay?

  • That's the simplest way I can describe it.

  • And you will tend to want to go to sleep later

  • and wake up later the following night.

  • Now, the opposite is true

  • if you view bright light, drink caffeine,

  • or exercise or socialize, I should say,

  • in the hours immediately after your temperature minimum.

  • So for you in this example,

  • the person who's waking up at 7:00 a.m.,

  • your temperature minimum is 5:00 a.m.,

  • if you view bright light, exercise,

  • maybe have a snack, maybe not, or socialize, move about,

  • at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m.

  • That will tend to phase advance your clock.

  • It will tend to basically make you

  • want to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier

  • the following night.

  • Now, I used this example

  • of a person who wakes up typically at 7:00 a.m.

  • whose temperature minimum is 5:00 a.m.,

  • but, of course, you need to adjust that for yourself

  • if you're somebody who wakes up at 9:00 a.m.

  • or at 5:00 a.m. et cetera.

  • Why do I offer this as a tool?

  • Well, this is an immensely powerful tool

  • if, for instance, you are headed to a time zone

  • where you need to go to bed earlier

  • and wake up earlier once you arrive in that time zone.

  • What it means is in the day or two before you leave,

  • you can force yourself to exercise, drink caffeine,

  • maybe even to eat a meal early in the morning,

  • or maybe you still fast early in the morning

  • and that's really up to you,

  • but you force yourself to do the activities

  • that are going to phase advance your clock.

  • Whereas if you're traveling to a time zone

  • where you are going to need to go to sleep much later

  • and you're going to need to wake up much later

  • or even a little bit later,

  • you can do those things

  • in the hours prior to your temperature minimum.

  • Now, for those of you that work shift work,

  • this can be especially useful,

  • but I want to say a couple of things about shift work.

  • There are a lot of details about shift work and jet lag

  • in an episode that I did

  • specifically about jet lag and shift work.

  • So for the deep dive, go there,

  • but suffice to say this for now,

  • if you are going to do shift work,

  • try to stay on the same shift for two weeks at a time.

  • It's very detrimental to brain and body,

  • it can even be horrifically challenging

  • for your brain and body in a number of ways,

  • if you are switching on the so-called swing shift,

  • you know, you're working three days the night shift,

  • three days the day shift,

  • three days the night shift, three days the...

  • Try and stay on the same schedule as much as possible.

  • And I should say for everybody,

  • people who are jet lagged and engaged in shift work or not,

  • but just for everybody,

  • if you need to be awake in the middle of your sleep cycle

  • and it's not just a quick departure to the bathroom

  • and back to bed,

  • but you really need to be awake,

  • you know, you're feeding a baby

  • or you're taking care of a loved one

  • or you need to do something that's critical

  • or you need to work,

  • if possible, use red light, okay?

  • Now, for shift workers who really are trying

  • to stay awake all night and sleep all day,

  • this is not going to be ideal,

  • but for people that, for instance,

  • need to stay up really late one night

  • or wake up especially early, like 3:00 a.m.,

  • to prepare for an exam that you're just not ready for

  • or to head to the airport, et cetera,

  • using red light has been shown

  • to allow people to be awake enough

  • and obviously see what they need to see

  • in order to perform their activities safely

  • but it does not seem to disrupt the cortisol rhythm

  • that is the healthy, normal cortisol rhythm.

  • Now, I realize this is kind of an advanced tool

  • and many people won't have access to this.

  • There are a number of different sources for red lights now.

  • Companies like Joovv or KOZE light.

  • These are different brands.

  • I don't have any affiliation

  • to any of these brands, I should say.

  • There are a number of different

  • red light bulb sources out there and commercial sources

  • that you can explore if you want.

  • But understanding this temperature minimum

  • is really powerful

  • because it allows you to adjust your schedule

  • depending on travel,

  • depending on changing work schedules or school schedules.

  • And if you're not a morning person,

  • you can use the tools related to temperature minimum

  • to really become a morning person over time,

  • and it actually is pretty easy.

  • And I talked about this in a previous episode

  • but I'll just mention that there have been shown

  • to be important, positive effects on cognition,

  • on even grip strength and physical performance,

  • for people that are early morning risers,

  • and that's especially true for night owls

  • that deliberately shift themselves to become early risers.

  • Okay, so that's a lot of information and a lot of tools

  • and I suppose the one set of tools

  • that I really didn't drill into too deeply,

  • the ones related to jet lag and shift work.

  • And again, please check out the episode

  • on jet lag and shift work if that's relevant to you.

  • But I think for most people who are going to sleep at night

  • and are trying their best to sleep well at night

  • and are trying their best

  • to wake up in the morning at whatever hour

  • and stay alert and focused throughout the day,

  • maybe with a brief nap,

  • the tools that I talked about today

  • related to light, temperature, food, exercise,

  • caffeine, supplements, and digital tools,

  • I'm hoping will prove to be very useful for you.

  • They certainly are all supported

  • by excellent peer-reviewed research.

  • And I should just emphasize again

  • that most of the tools we talked about

  • are completely zero cost.

  • So while the supplements and some of the digital tools

  • do carry some cost to them,

  • I really want to encourage everybody

  • to get your behaviors right.

  • Get all of the things related to your timing of exercise

  • and type of exercise

  • in the best possible order and time of day.

  • We talked about this critical period early in the day

  • and then another critical period in the middle of the day

  • and the late afternoon

  • and then this third critical period

  • in the middle of the night.

  • Different tools for the different three critical periods.

  • I promise that if you start to implement some,

  • or ideally, all of these tools,

  • the quality of your sleep will increase tremendously.

  • And of course, in doing so,

  • the quality of your daytime alertness

  • and your ability to focus will improve tremendously.

  • Again, sleep is the absolute foundation

  • of your mental health, your physical health,

  • and your performance in all endeavors.

  • So if there's one area of your life

  • to really focus on and try and optimize,

  • if your goal is to be happier and more productive

  • and just to have a better life overall,

  • I can confidently say

  • that sleep is really the thing to optimize.

  • If you're learning from and/or enjoying this podcast,

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  • please put all that in the comment section on YouTube.

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  • In addition, please check out the sponsors mentioned

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  • That's the best way to support this podcast.

  • During today's podcast

  • and on many previous episodes of The Huberman Lab Podcast,

  • we talked about supplements.

  • While supplements aren't necessary for everybody,

  • many people derive tremendous benefit from them

  • for things like sleep and focus

  • and hormone support and so forth.

  • For reasons mentioned at the beginning of the episode,

  • we are now partnered with Momentous supplements.

  • If you go to livemomentous.com/huberman,

  • you'll see many of the supplements described on today's

  • and other episodes of The Huberman Lab Podcast.

  • Again, all as single-ingredient formulations.

  • They ship internationally,

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  • and by largely focusing on single ingredient

  • and various dosages of different supplements,

  • you can create the optimized supplement protocol for you.

  • If you're not already following us on social media,

  • we are @hubermanlab on Instagram

  • and also @hubermanlab on Twitter.

  • There, I cover science and science-related tools,

  • some of which overlaps

  • with the content of The Huberman Lab Podcast,

  • and other of which,

  • I should say much of which,

  • is distinct from the information covered on this podcast.

  • If you're interested in obtaining protocols

  • or summaries from these podcasts,

  • you can get those completely free of cost

  • by going to hubermanlab.com.

  • Go to the menu at hubermanlab.com.

  • Go to the Neural Network Newsletter.

  • You simply provide us your email

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  • for free each month.

  • You can also find previous newsletters

  • there at hubermanlab.com.

  • For instance, Toolkit for Sleep

  • or Deliberate Cold Exposure and so on and so forth.

  • Again, we don't share your email with anybody.

  • So our privacy policy is made very clear there.

  • And it's completely zero cost.

  • So thank you for joining me today for our discussion

  • about tools for optimizing sleep,

  • and in doing so, tools for optimizing not just sleep,

  • but your daytime feelings of alertness and focus

  • and your overall health.

  • And last but certainly not least,

  • thank you for your interest in science.

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