GUEST SERIES | Dr. Matt Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 23.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 180 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode 1 of a 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of the book “Why We Sleep” discusses the essential role that sleep plays in our health. We cover how sleep affects our hormones, immune system, learning and memory, mood, appetite, and weight regulation. We also discuss what causes the urge to sleep, how sleep is structured throughout the night, and the biology of the different phases of sleep. We also teach you how to determine your individualized sleep needs, including your chronotype (best waking and to-bed time), tips for combat snoring and insomnia, and your QQRT (Quality, Quantity, Regularity, and Timing)—a key framework for optimizing your sleep and therefore daytime energy and focus, and overall health. The next episode in this special series explores how to improve one’s sleep. For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Importance of Sleep (00:02:24) Sponsors: Eight Sleep, BetterHelp & LMNT (00:06:00) Sleep; Non-REM & REM Sleep (00:11:40) Sleep Cycles, Individuality, Women vs. Men (00:14:49) Tool: Wakefulness in Bed, Insomnia (00:19:08) Non-REM Stages of Sleep (00:27:05) Role of Deep Sleep (00:34:02) Sponsor: AG1 (00:35:15) Light Sleep Stages, Hypnogogic Jerks (00:42:00) REM Sleep, Paralysis & Bizarre Dreams; “Falling” Asleep (00:49:09) Tools: Body Position & Sleep; Snoring & Sleep Apnea (00:57:43) Yawning & Theories, Contagion (01:04:03) Nodding Off, Afternoon & Postprandial Dip (01:08:46) Sponsor: InsideTracker (01:09:51) Sleep, Animals & Evolution (01:14:09) Poor Sleep & Health Consequences, Sleep Deprivation (01:27:13) Positive Effects of Good Sleep, Health Improvements (01:31:56) Sleep & Mood; Appetite & Weight Management (01:42:55) Sleep Deprivation & Looking Tired, “Beauty Sleep” (01:47:57) Tool: Getting Good Sleep, QQRT Macros, Quantity & Quality (01:56:45) Tool: Sleep Regularity, Mortality Risk (02:03:15) Tool: Sleep Timing, Chronotypes (02:14:21) Chronotypes & Insomnia, Circadian Rhythm, Shift Work (02:20:31) Tool: Sleep Tests, Alarm Clock, Micro-Sleeps (02:27:27) Sleep Inertia & Waking; Afternoon Dip, Optimum Performance (02:34:19) Causes of Sleep: Circadian Rhythm, Sleep Pressure (02:43:02) Adenosine & Sleepiness (02:46:13) Tool: Growth Hormone & Deep Sleep (02:50:47) Cortisol & Circadian Rhythm, “Tired But Wired” (02:57:24) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab guest series where I and an expert guest discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.0	I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:14.5	Today's episode marks the first in our six episode series all about sleep.
0:19.1	Our expert guest for this series is Dr Matthew Walker,
0:21.9	professor of neuroscience and psychology,
0:24.3	and the director of the Center for Sleep Science at the University of California Berkeley.
0:28.8	He is also the author of the best-selling book, Why We Sleep.
0:32.6	During the course of the six episode series for which we release one episode per week,
0:36.9	starting with this episode one, we cover essentially all aspects of sleep and provide
0:42.4	numerous practical tools to improve your sleep.
0:45.6	For instance, we discuss the biology of sleep, including the different sleep stages, as well as
0:50.4	why sleep is so important for our mental and physical health.
0:54.0	We also talk about how sleep regulates things like
0:56.6	emotionality and learning and neuroplasticity,
0:59.3	that is your brain's ability to change in response to experience. and we discuss the various things that you
1:04.8	can do to improve your sleep everything from how to time lighting, temperature, exercise,
1:10.6	eating and the various things that can impact sleep both positively and
1:14.0	negatively such as alcohol, cannabis, and various supplements and drugs that have
1:18.4	been shown to improve sleep. We also talk about naps, dreaming, and the role of dreams, and lucid dreaming, which is when you dream and you are aware that you are dreaming.
1:27.2	In today's episode one, we specifically focus on why sleep is so important and what happens when we do not get enough
1:34.0	sleep or enough quality sleep. We also talk about the various sleep stages and we
1:39.2	also talk about a very specific formula that everyone should know for themselves called
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