Podcast notes - Sleep Toolkit (Huberman Lab Podcast)

• within the first 30-60min after wake up
• this trigger the cortisol release, you don’t want that to happen later in the day
• starts the timer to fall asleep the following night
• should do that wether there are clouds or not. Spend even more time outside if the day is cloudy
•  sunny day: at least 5min of light in the eyes
•  cloudy day: 10min minimum
• don’t look directly at the sun
• don’t wear sunglasses
• most powerful stimulus to be alert during the day and feel sleepy in the evening
• if you wake up before the sun and need to be alert, switch light on and then go out when the sun is up
• You should do that at least 80% of the days.
• If you miss a day, get double light the following day.

• Cold shower 1 to 3min
• This wakes you up: adrenaline release
• Increases body temperature (wakes you up)
• body reacts to cold water and heats up
• also increases dopamine

• increase body temperature, makes you more alert.
• exemple: skipping rope or a run outside (exercise + sun light)
• You can do cold shower and/or exercise (both increase body temperature)

Note: now the first thing I do in the morning is to go outside for a run: I get exercise and sunlight (and cold in winter)

• Recommends delaying caffeine intake 90-120min after waking up - This avoids afternoon crash (where caffeine stops its effect and you suddenly feel very sleepy)
• You want first to clear the adenosine remaining in the blood before taking some coffee (that’s why you don’t want to take it when waking up).

• Eating early in the day also increase alertness by increasing body temperature.
• Eating a lot of food is going to require a lot of energy to digest and will make you feel sleepy afterward.

• Having a nap is OK but it should not be too long to disrupt sleep.
• You do not have to nap: it’s OK to nap as long as it’s not too long (less than 90min) but having a nap doesn’t help with sleep.

• If you exercise in the afternoon or evening you raise your body temperature and this will push your circadian clock and make you feel sleepy later in the day (i.e. want to fall asleep later and wake up later)
• it’s better when possible to exercise in the morning to not disrupt that rhythm.

• Be careful with caffeine in the afternoon (not recommended)
• Do not drink coffee after 2-3pm as it will interfere with sleep. People who think they can sleep well with coffee in the afternoon should know that studies have shown that caffeine after 4pm affects sleep for everyone and results in reduced quality sleep

• It’s also very good for sleep to get some late afternoon / early evening sunlight for 10-30min.
• Note to self: given exercise is not great in the afternoon, maybe just a walk outside?
• This signals to the circadian clock that it’s evening time and that sleep is coming (when seeing the sun low / coming down).
• How does the brain makes the difference between morning and evening sunlight? It turn out wavelength are different
• We now enter critical period 3: 6-7pm to sleep time.

• Avoid bright light during period 3 (evening).
• This wake up your body.
• It actually takes little light / photons to disrupt the circadian clock so better to be careful with that.
• Once the sun goes down you should reduce the light ideally. Use as little artificial light as possible.
• Taking light at this point in the day will destroy the melatonin building in your body, which is building up to make you asleep.
• Overhead artificial light is particularly bad (the brain interprets it like morning sunlight). Avoid between 10pm and 4am.

• Hot bath / hot shower / sauna: facilitate sleep
• it’s the opposite effect of cold exposure in the morning: exposing your body to cold cause your body to warm up and make you more awake. Exposing you to hot temperature causes your body to reduce its temperature and make you feel more sleepy

• Sleeping environment should be cool / cold and put a blanket if required to sleep
• Waking up in the night can be caused by body temperature getting too high.

• Greatly reduce the quality of sleep
• Helps fall alseep but the sleep is significantly not as good

they work, provided the room is cold enough: your body is cooled through your skin: face, palm of your hands and bellow your feet - so covering your face can keep your body warmer and wake you up. Some people like face masks, some people don’t - try it.

works well with some people, really not with other - also something to try if it works for you

(with a pillow) can improve sleep. Elevate by 3-5 degrees.

It is much better to breath through the nose while sleeping. He recommends to put some medical tape on your mouth before going asleep (really). Also prevents snoring in most cases. It also resets sleep apnea. generally speaking you want to breath with your nose all the time, except when you can’t, for exemple when doing difficult cardiovascular exercise. Learning to breath with the nose can significantly improve the quality of your sleep.

Some people have different sleeping patterns during weekends compared to the rest of the week: going to bed later, waking up later. This has a negative impact on the quality of your sleep and generally speaking it is better to have consistent sleeping patterns: go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, week end of not. If you go out late you should try to not wake up more than an hour later than your normal wake up time. So if you usually wake up at 7AM and go out late, you should try to wake up no later than 8AM. If you think it’s better for your sleep to wake up at 11AM or 12AM that day, that’s wrong. If needed you can have a nap in the afternoon but keep it below 90min. The rule for caffeine is the same as before: if you wake up later than usual (for example 8AM instead of 7AM) then you should wait 90-120minutes before taking some caffeine (i.e. wait 9:30-10AM). Especially on a day were you’ve been changing your sleep pattern you need to be careful with caffeine as it can really screw your sleep pattern. To recap the advice:

•  try to always wake up at the same time every day +/- one hour.
• wait 90min before taking coffee, especially if you feel you didn’t have enough sleep.