Dr. Andrew Huberman: The Science of Small Changes [The Knowledge Project Ep. #133] Notes

If you've listened to any of Huberman's own podcasts a lot of what was said in this podcast is just him reiterating. As a result these notes are not as comprehensive compared to others.

01:45 – How light exposure impacts how you sleep

• Get light expoure within first 10 minutes of waking to help set circadian rhythm which will make it significantly easier to fall asleep at night.

17:58 – Huberman’s evening routine and supplements

• Starches are known to actually reduce cortisol levels in the body. This is why why we eat comfort foods. Most comfort foods involved, eating foods that are pretty carbohydrate laden because there's a pathway involving carbohydrates and the, the amino acid tryptophan that converts to serotonin and it essentially blocks the cortisol response. A lot of people that are in very low carbohydrate diets have no problem with that if people do ketogenic diets or low carb diets, but those people often have a hard time sleeping. So in the evening I tend to eat pastas.
• So right around eight or 9 pm I start bringing the lights down. In fact I have a real sensitivity to the overhead lights because I'm so used to this pattern. So I start dimming the lights in the evening overhead and then for the transition to sleep. I do keep my phone out of the bedroom as much as possible. Sometimes I'll use it as an alarm, but I'll put it on airplane mode If I'm feeling a little too alert. I remember two things. one, The biggest peak and alertness actually occurs about 90 minutes before your natural to sleep time.
• Yoganindra is an ancient practice. There's some scripts online, many of them are very good. You go on youtube, you can find one of these scripts, they're totally cost free. Put in headphones or put your phone next to you lie down and it's a 10-30 minutes script that walks you through a progressive relaxation of your nervous system. There's some breathing. What this practice does is it teaches you to deliberately turn off your thinking and to relax your body and it makes it easier for people to access falling asleep and then more easily distressed. Now the question is when to do N. S. D. R. U. Can do en str first thing in the morning if you ever wake up and you did not get enough sleep. I often wake up and feel I didn't get enough sleep. I'll do a 30 minute nasdr and I come out of that feeling terrific as if I got a full night's sleep and I do this almost every day at some point. I might do it in the afternoon or if you wake up in the middle of the night and you're having trouble falling back asleep. I highly recommend doing this because even if it doesn't put you back to sleep.

Andrew Huberman's sleep stack (30-60 min before bed):

• 145mg Magnesium Threonate or 200mg Magnesium Bisglycinate
• 50mg Apigenin
• 100-400mg Theanine
• (3-4 nights per week I also take 2g of Glycine and 100mg GABA.)

47:44 – Huberman on reading and naps

• Interviewer: in popular books it seems like they make it easy and say, well, if you're driven by feelings, you're reactive and if you're driven by values, your proactive. But I'm curious to hear your take.
• Huberman: Yeah, I'm fascinated by this. You know, most of the disorder and dysfunction in the world um is caused by lack of impulse control right now.

51:44 – Why people wake up in the middle of the night

59:03 – How alcohol affects sleep

01:04:05 –  No-gos or mindfully stopping yourself from doing something such as drinking water when your thirsty:

• Frankly seeing my bed made at the end of the day, it doesn't do that much for me. I actually think it's a much more powerful underlying mechanism and no disrespect to him. Great admiration for McRaven and I love his work and what he's doing, but but I think that at any moment we can be back on our heels flat footed or forward, center of mass. That's the way I try and visualize the waking portions of my life sleep of course allows you to toggle between these states more easily. So get that sleep. But we're, you know, at any moment become like feeling defeated. Were flat footed or forward, center of mass and forward, center of mass takes energy, but it also has its own momentum. And so I think getting up and doing something without involving rumination or consideration or thought just getting into action sets your whole nervous system into a mode of go. And I think we then we drink caffeine, it's a ghost stimulus, then we move towards the things that are important to us. Were emailing, we're always doing go, go, go, go, go. Even if you're scrolling on your phone, it's go scrolling instagram or something. It's a go type function. We rarely rehearse are no go functions and no go functions are simply about suppressing behavior. So if you have a meditative practice, there's a little bit of that where you think I don't want to do it. But I'm gonna force myself to sit still even though I want to get up. That's a no go. But think about it. If you get better at meditating, you actually have less of an opportunity to get into this no go state.
• I introduce 20 or so no goes throughout the day that I deliberately impose on myself as I'm about to get into reflexive action and it could be delaying a bite of food for a couple of minutes. I realize it sounds almost like an eating disorder thing, but that's for people with eating disorders, probably want to stay away from that one. But there are all sorts of ways that we can do this, we find ways that we are are short, short circuiting this process and so I think we need to keep these no go circuits trained up. I think nowadays there's so much opportunity and so much stimulation.

01:12:43 – How to control your impulses

01:23:10 – How to get out of tunnel vision when you’re stressed

01:34:46 – Exercises to slow brain and aging

01:42:38 – How to use the body to control the mind

01:52:19 – What does success look like for Huberman?