#133 Andrew Huberman: The Science of Small Changes

Cortisol is a key hormone for health. Every 24 hours there is a peak cortisol release. This wakes you up in the morning and gives you focus.

If you wake up early, you will get a peak early in the day. But when cortisol arrives later in the day, people get mood issues. Late-shifted cortisol is also contributing to depression.

Your peak of alertness happens about 90 minutes before your natural sleep time. While it will pass, it can give you a useful indicator of your optimal bedtime.

Before bedtime:

• Taper off thinking and anticipation.
• Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) is a powerful tool that helps you relax, and reduce stress and anxiety. 
• Yoga Nidra and Reveri (a self-hypnosis app) can help you relax your nervous system before you go to sleep.

Behavioural tools are the foundation of sleep and wakefulness. When you learn progressive relaxation techniques, you get better at falling asleep and feeling alert when you wake up.

Supplements and prescription medication can be great, but they don’t rewire your brain as behavioural tools do.

Supplements that can help with depth and transition to sleep:

• Magnesium threonate or magnesium bis-glycinate (100 to 200 milligrams)) makes you feel drowsy.
• Apigenin (50 milligrams) is taken 30 - 60 minutes before sleep.
• Theanine (100 to 400 milligrams) has positive effects on jitteriness and anxiety.

Ideally, you should sleep in a cold room and cover yourself with warm blankets. If you get too hot, you can jump heat by extending your feet or hands.

Take a cold shower or ice bath to heat up in the morning. You will experience a dopamine increase. When you expose yourself to cold water, you build a reservoir of heat generation.

Naps should be shorter than 90 minutes.

Most of the rewiring and neuroplasticity occurs during deep sleep and also during a short nap. Short naps accelerate neuroplasticity and learning, especially if you nap after an intensive learning session.

If you have problems with the afternoon slump, delay your morning caffeine for 90 to 120 minutes after waking.

The two most common reasons for waking up at night:

• Too much or too little exercise throughout the day. Generally, 150 to 180 minutes per week of zone 2 cardio and resistance exercise 3 or 4 times a week is sufficient.
• Going to bed too late. Every hour of sleep before midnight recharges you deeper than the hours after midnight.

Caffeine creates wakefulness in the body and brain. It also increases the sensitivity of the dopamine receptors.

• It makes us more motivated to go out and pursue goals.
• It makes us focus on things outside our immediate experience.

However, try and taper off caffeine toward the afternoon for better sleep.

The Basal ganglia are important for controlling and integrating thought and action. Some of the circuitry in basal ganglia pathways are involved with the “go” action and “no-go” suppressing functions.

As children, we learn no-go behaviours (don’t interrupt, sit still). As adults, everything is “go, go, go” and we seldom rehearse the no-go functions. 

We need to continue to keep the no-goes circuits in working order., e.g. resisting the urge to pick up your phone.