#521: Dr. Andrew Huberman — A Neurobiologist on Optimizing Sleep, Enhancing Perf...

The Tim Ferriss Show – How to Improve Sleep and Reduce Stress with Dr. Andrew Huberman

Andrew Huberman, PhD (@hubermanlab), is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has made numerous important contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity.

Andrew is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation fellow and recipient of the 2017 Cogan Award for his discoveries in the study of vision. Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford Medicine has been consistently published in top journals including Nature, Science, and Cell.

Improving sleep

Going outside when you first wake up for about 2-10 minutes as well as in the evening for a few minutes will greatly improve sleep, mood, and energy as well as other things.

• This is because the light (or lack of it) acts as cues to your body, telling it that this is the time to be awake (achieved due to the effect of the sun), and in the evening, that this is the time to settle down
• This is also the case when inside your home.

You should be increasing your exposure to (natural) light in the morning, but in the evening you should be decreasing light exposure(including the blue light from our devices)

Reducing stress

Here are some simple (but effective) ways of reducing/ preventing feelings of stress in our daily lives.

• Expanding vison: This method can be used wherever you are and involves consciously increasing your field of vision so you are using your peripheral vision instead of being focused on a small area
• Double Breathing: Double breathing is achieved by inhaling deeply through the nose and then quickly following that with a second short and sharp inhale (without exhaling). Then a long exhale.

This alone has been proven to greatly reduce stress even after the first breath

Hydration

Hydration plays a very important role in maintaining a high-functioning brain and body.

Ensuring you are sufficiently hydrated throughout the day is the first step, however, there is a hydration strategy for performing physically or mentally taxing work at a high standard.

Here it is: Your body weight (in pounds) divided by 30 is the amount of water (in ounces) you should drink about every 20 mins when performing physical/ mental tasks.

Other tips & tricks

• Aim for some kind of social interaction when you wake up (could be with your pet)
• 50mg of Apigenin, 300-400 mg of Magnesium Threonate or Magnesium Bisglycinate, and 200 – 400 mg of theanine.

(Speak with relevant health professional before trying)