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Essentials- Maximize Productivity, Physical & Mental Health With Daily Tools

Huberman Lab

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  • Morning Wake-Up and Light Exposure
    • Write down your wake-up time to track your temperature minimum.
    • Take an outdoor walk for optic flow and get sunlight in your eyes early in the day. Transcript: Andrew Huberman I tend to wake up sometime around 6 a.m., 6.30. The first thing I do after I wake up is I take the pen that’s on my nightstand and the pad of paper on my nightstand, and I write down the time in which I woke up. The reason for writing down what time I wake up is because I want to know what’s called my temperature minimum. I don’t care what my actual temperature is. I care when my lowest temperature is, and I know that that lowest temperature is approximately two hours before my average wake-up time. The second thing I do after I wake up is to get into forward ambulation, which is just nerd speak for taking a walk. There’s a phenomenon whereby when we generate our own forward motion, forward ambulation, visual images pass by us on our eyes, so-called optic flow. Experiencing visual flow has a powerful effect on the nervous system. The effect it has is essentially to quiet or reduce the amount of neural activity in this brain structure called the amygdala. And many of you have probably heard about the amygdala for its role in anxiety and fear and threat detection. And indeed, the amygdala is part of the network in the brain that generates feelings of fear and threat and anxiety. It does a bunch of other things too, but that’s one of its primary functions. Forward ambulation, walking or biking or running, and generating optic flow in particular, has this incredible property of lowering activity in the amygdala and thereby reducing Levels of anxiety. That walk is a particularly important protocol each day because it really serves to push my neurology in the direction that I’d like it to go, which is alert, but not anxious. I want to have a high degree of focus and alertness because I’m soon going to move into a bout of work. I need to lean into the day. So in order to do that, I make sure that the walking is done outdoors. I do it outdoors because I also want sunlight in my eyes. Getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning is absolutely vital to mental and physical health. Even if there’s cloud cover, more photons, light information are coming through that cloud cover than would be coming from a very bright indoor bulb. So getting outside for a 10-minute walk or a 15-minute walk will basically ensure that you’re getting adequate stimulation of these neurons in the eye that are called the melanopsin, Intrinsically photosensitive ganglion cells. These are neurons that convey to the brain that it’s daytime and it’s time to be alert. And it sets in motion a huge number of biological cascades within every cell and organ of your body, from your liver to your gut, to your heart, to your brain. Early in the day, we experience a natural and healthy bump in a hormone called cortisol and promotes wakefulness. It actually promotes a healthy immune system. It’s very important that that pulse of cortisol arrive early in the day. That pulse of cortisol is going to happen once every 24 hours, no matter what. It’s going to happen and you get to time it. How do you time it? Primarily by when you view bright sunlight. You can combine it with the forward ambulation with the walk and the optic flow that I talked about before. And that’s what I do each morning to generate a sense of alertness in my body and brain to generate a sense of calm yet alert. So now we have our first protocol, which is to write down the time of day that you wake up. The second protocol is to take a walk first thing in the morning. And the third protocol is woven in with that walk, at least for me, which is to get that sunlight exposure. (Time 0:01:51)
  • Delay Morning Caffeine Intake
    • Delay caffeine intake 90 to 120 minutes after waking to avoid crashing later.
    • This timing balances adenosine levels and maintains consistent energy throughout the day. Transcript: Andrew Huberman How much sea salt, if you really want to get detailed, I suppose it’s about half a teaspoon, it’s not much. At that point, I start craving caffeine, but I don’t drink that caffeine yet. I purposely delay my caffeine intake to 90 minutes to 120 minutes after I wake up. The reason I delay caffeine is because one of the factors that induces a sense of sleepiness is the buildup of adenosine. The buildup of adenosine accumulates the longer we are awake. When you wake up in the morning, your adenosine levels are likely to be very low. However, caffeine is an adenosine blocker. It’s actually a competitive antagonist for you aficionados. It sort of parks in the receptor that adenosine normally would park at and prevents adenosine from acting on that receptor. That’s why you feel more alert. The reason for delaying caffeine intake 90 minutes to two hours after waking is I want to make sure that I don’t have a late afternoon or even early afternoon crash from caffeine. One of the best ways to ensure a caffeine crash is to drink a bunch of caffeine, block all those adenosine receptors, and then by early or late afternoon, when that caffeine starts to Wear off and gets dislodged from the receptors, a lower level of adenosine is able to create a greater level of sleepiness. (Time 0:05:58)
  • Optimize Workspace for Focus
    • Position your screen at or above eye level to increase alertness.
    • Use low-level white noise and switch off your phone during 90-minute focused work sessions. Transcript: Andrew Huberman A couple of things for optimizing workspace that are grounded in neuroscience and physiology. I’ve talked before about the fact that when our eyes are directed upward, it creates a state of heightened alertness. And this has a relationship to the brainstem neurons that create alertness and their control over the muscles of the eye and believe it or not, the eye lids. The point here is that you can optimize your workstation in a physical way that leverages this aspect of the visual system and your level of alertness. Try and position your screen or your tablet, whatever device you happen to be working on, at least at eye level and ideally slightly higher. Most people are looking down at their computer or tablet or are angling their eyes at their screen at about 30 degrees. When we look down, when our eyelids are slightly closed, it tends to decrease our levels of alertness and increase our levels of sleepiness. So we’re now at the description of my day and these protocols in which I would do a 90-minute bout of work. Now, why 90 minutes? Well, the brain is going through these 90 minutes, so-called ultradian cycles throughout the entire day and night. Every 90 minutes, we shift over from being very alert to being less alert and then back to alert again. Here’s how it works. At the start of one of these 90 minute ultradian cycles, my brain is not quite engaged in whatever it is I’m trying to do, but I set a timer for 90 minutes, and I try and get a strong bout of Work done inside of that 90 minutes with the full understanding that the entire 90 minutes is not going to be uniform in terms of my ability of focus. So the goal is to get into what I call the tunnel, to really get into a tunnel of quality work. The brain loves that state, but it’s very hard for many of us to access. My phone is absolutely off. It’s not on airplane mode. It’s absolutely off during this time. In addition, I use low-level white noise. White noise, which is essentially all frequencies of sound, or all frequencies of sound that we can perceive, mixed up kind of randomly, there’s no structure to it, turned on at a low Volume, puts the brain into a state that’s optimal for learning and workflow. So everything about this 90 minute block from the low levels of white noise to the position of my computer, how I’m standing, where my eyes are positioned, is geared towards putting Me in this tunnel of work. And I have to say that while it can be a challenge to try and achieve this state and this tunnel of work, some days you start to get kind of addicted to it. (Time 0:10:37)
  • Time Work to Body Temperature
    • Schedule your hardest cognitive work 4 to 6 hours after your temperature minimum.
    • This matches your body’s rising temperature phase for maximal focus and alertness. Transcript: Andrew Huberman You can be reasonably sure that your best work is going to be done anywhere from four to six hours after your temperature minimum. How do I know this? How do I know this relationship between temperature minimum and focused cognition? Well, temperature minimum defines the trough, the nadir, as they say, of your temperature across the 24-hour cycle. And immediately after that, your temperature will start to rise. That temperature rise is actually what triggers the initial cortisol release that you experience and wakes you up further. And then of course that sunlight that you’re getting is going to further enhance that healthy release of cortisol. That cortisol will then provide fuel, if you will, for that increase in temperature. And your body will continue to increase in temperature throughout the day toward the afternoon. What you’re trying to do in this idea of optimizing this 90 minute work bout to a particular time of day is catch the portion of the steepest slope of that temperature rise. So if you’re somebody who wakes up at 8 a.m. Each morning, your temperature minimum is 6 a.m., chances are you’re going to want to start this work bout somewhere around 10 a.m. Or 11 a.m. Now, some people wake up and feel very alert first thing in the morning. (Time 0:14:11)
  • Exercise for Brain and Body Health
    • Keep workouts under an hour to avoid detrimental cortisol spikes.
    • Combine strength and endurance training weekly, following an 80/20 intensity rule for optimal brain health. Transcript: Andrew Huberman Data going back to the 1990s supports the idea that physical movement of particular kinds can support brain health and brain function, both in the immediate term and in the long term. So after I’ve finished a bout of work, this 90-minute bout of work, I forced myself to do some sort of physical exercise that is going to be supportive of my brain health and brain function And organ health and bodily function in general. Now, there are various forms of physical activity or what we call exercise, but those can generally be batched into two categories. First is strength and hypertrophy work. So physical movements that are designed to make you stronger and or make your muscles larger. There’s also endurance work. Physical exercise and movements that are designed to allow you to do more work over time or to extend the amount of time that you can do work of any kind, both physical and mental. The data all point to the fact that working out hard for longer than an hour can actually be detrimental because of the way that it raises cortisol. And cortisol can be a good thing if it’s appropriately timed and in the appropriate low levels, but you don’t want to have your cortisol levels up throughout the day or have big spikes Of cortisol repeatedly. So keeping workouts relatively short can definitely help with that. Endurance work and strength training or hypertrophy training done in combination, meaning not necessarily in the same workout, but done across the (Time 0:16:02)
  • Fasting and Meal Timing for Focus
    • Fast until noon to boost adrenaline and focus, then eat a low-carb lunch with protein.
    • Add starches post-exercise; avoid large meals that cause lethargy. Transcript: Andrew Huberman One of the most common questions I get are what should I eat for my brain? Well, ironically enough, one of the best things you can do for your brain is to not eat, but of course we all have to eat sooner or later. So let’s talk about food timing first. As I mentioned, I eat my first meal sometime around noon, plus or minus an hour. The volume of food is also important. If you eat a large volume of anything, because it diverts blood to your gut, you will feel lethargic, and you will have less blood going to your brain. That seems like a simple and trivial fact, but if you want to be able to think, you can’t ingest large volumes of anything into your gut. So for lunch, I do emphasize slightly lower carbohydrate or low carbohydrate intake for the simple reason that adrenaline and dopamine and their associated neuromodulators are Going to support alertness. So for me, I fast up until about noon, then I eat a lunch that consists of some sort of protein thing, like some meat or some chicken or some salmon and some vegetables, et cetera. And if I’ve exercised previously, which I do, as I mentioned, five days a week, then I will ingest some starches. I’ll ingest some bread, excuse me, or rice, or oatmeal, and butter, and nuts, and things like that. But I will keep the total amount of carbohydrate a little bit on the low side, or if I haven’t trained, I won’t have any carbohydrate at all. (Time 0:21:01)
  • Afternoon Walks and Sunlight
    • Take a 5-30 minute walk after lunch to enhance metabolism and nutrient use.
    • Get afternoon sunlight to reduce retinal light sensitivity later and protect dopamine production. Transcript: Andrew Huberman A key aspect to the midday meal, if you want that meal to benefit you, is to take a brief walk afterwards. It turns out that brief walks of five to 30 minutes after ingesting food can accelerate metabolism and actually can accelerate and improve nutrient utilization, which is essentially The same as metabolism. But nonetheless, that’s something that I do after I finish my noon meal. I do force myself to stand up and go outside and take a brief walk. That also gets me again into optic flow. It also has another benefit, which is that I am giving my brain and thereby my body more information about light and time of day, which is always better than less information about light And time of day. A key protocol for sleep health and wakefulness and metabolism and hormone health is viewing light in the afternoon. (Time 0:23:21)
  • Dinner Carbs for Sleep Transition
    • Eat starchy carbohydrates with dinner to boost serotonin for better sleep transition.
    • Low-carb diets may impair falling and staying asleep due to reduced serotonin. Transcript: Andrew Huberman And while it feels sort of strange to talk about my dinner, the reason I want to talk about my dinner and what I eat for dinner is that for me, dinner of course is about eating, but also about Optimizing the transition to sleep. So my dinner generally is comprised of things that are going to support rest and deep sleep, and that means starchy carbohydrates. It’s absolutely clear that one of the major ways that we can increase serotonin, which helps in the transition to sleep, is by ingesting starchy carbohydrates. So my dinner is carbohydrates and some protein. So maybe some chicken or fish or something like that, maybe some eggs, or sometimes just pasta or just rice and vegetables. And that’s because I enjoy those foods, but also because I want to increase the amount of serotonin in my brain so that I can actually fall asleep that night. Many people who are on low carbohydrate diets struggle with falling and staying asleep. And that’s because it’s hard to achieve heightened levels of serotonin, which are necessary to enter sleep. I should also mention that melatonin and serotonin fall in the same pathway. They are related hormones and neuromodulators. Essentially what we’re talking about is a system that’s biasing us towards rest and relaxation as opposed to wakefulness. You might ask, well, can’t I just take serotonin? Can’t I just take 5-HTP or a precursor to serotonin or tryptophan? And indeed you can. However, many people, including myself, find that when they supplement with serotonin in the evening or at night, that can cause problems in the architecture or the structure of sleep. It can cause a lot of people, including me, to fall asleep very fast, sleep very deeply for three or four hours, and then wake up and have a terrible time falling back asleep. And that effect, at least for me, can last several days. It’s really disruptive. So I don’t like to supplement with anything that is directly dopamine or a precursor to dopamine at any time, or directly serotonin or a precursor to serotonin. Rather, there are other things that can enhance the transition to sleep safely, which we will talk about in a few minutes. But the evening meal consists largely of carbohydrates for that specific purpose of generating a sense of calm. (Time 0:26:12)
  • Temperature Regulation for Sleep
    • Use hot baths or showers before bed to accelerate your body’s temperature drop for faster sleep onset.
    • Keep your bedroom cool and dark to maintain quality sleep and aid natural cooling. Transcript: Andrew Huberman One way to do that is to leverage the drop in temperature that’s necessary to fall and stay asleep. So as I mentioned earlier, in the early parts of the day after waking, our body temperature is rising, and that continues throughout the day. And then sometime late in the afternoon, our temperature peaks, and then it starts to drop. That drop in temperature of one to three degrees is vitally important for us to be able to fall asleep easily one way that we can decrease our transition time into sleep is to accelerate That drop in temperature and one way to accelerate that drop in temperature somewhat counterintuitively is to use hot baths hot showers or if you have access to one a sauna now this is Counterintuitive but but actually, if you are to get into a sauna or a hot shower, a hot bath, and then get out, your body is going to engage particular mechanisms for cooling itself off That are going to allow you to drop your temperature more quickly and fall asleep more easily. It is absolutely true that keeping the room very dark is beneficial. The other thing is keeping the room cool. The reason keeping the room cool is useful for getting into and staying asleep is that throughout the night, there are phases of sleep where you are paralyzed, so-called REM sleep, That’s a healthy paralysis, presumably so you can’t act out your dreams, but there are portions of the night where you can move. (Time 0:30:18)
  • Supplements to Aid Sleep
    • Take magnesium threonate or biglycinate, apigenin, and theanine 30-60 minutes before sleep to promote brain relaxation.
    • These supplements increase GABA and inhibit forebrain activity for better sleep transitions. Transcript: Andrew Huberman Three compounds that can be very beneficial for aiding the transition to sleep and for which there are wide safety margins, although please do check with your physician before taking Anything, are specific forms of magnesium, something called apigenin and theanine. Magnesium comes in many forms. Magnesium threonate, that’s T-H threonate and magnesium biglycinate have transporters that allow them to cross the blood-brain barrier more readily than other forms of magnesium. And there within the brain, they promote the release of a neurotransmitter called GABA, which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which shuts off the forebrain to some extent. It doesn’t shut off completely, but it essentially shuts down thinking, rumination, planning, and what we call executive function. So for many people taking 300 to 400 milligrams of magnesium biglycinate or magnesium threonate, 30 to 60 minutes before sleep can aid them in falling asleep. When coupled with apigenin and theanine, provide a sort of synergy or a sleep cocktail that seems to be very effective in aiding the transition to sleep. So apigenin is the substance that’s found in chamomile, and 50 milligrams of apigenin taken 30 minutes before sleep can act as another way to shut off the forebrain and reduce rumination, Reduce anxiety, and allow people to fall and stay asleep. And then the third compound is theanine, T-H Theanine is a compound that can also increase GABA, but also increases activation of something called chloride channels. Chloride channels are another way in which neurons lower their levels of activity. So magnesium threonate or biglycinate, apigenin and theanine in combination can be very effective for aiding the transition to sleep. (Time 0:32:10)