Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Protocols to Improve Your Sleep

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 23.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 163 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is episode 2 of a 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. We discuss basic and advanced tools for improving sleep and explain how sleep quality is affected by temperature, light and dark, caffeine, alcohol, cannabis, nutrition, meal timing, and different medications. Dr. Walker also provides strategies for coping with a poor night of sleep, wind-down routines, technology in the bedroom, insomnia, visualizations, and building sleep “confidence.” We also discuss the current status of sleep research for developing advanced techniques to optimize sleep. This episode provides numerous zero-cost behavioral protocols for improving sleep quality and restorative power, which can benefit daytime mood, energy, performance, and overall health. The next episode in this special series explores napping, caffeine, and additional protocols to improve sleep. For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman WHOOP: https://join.whoop.com/huberman Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Improving Sleep (00:01:16) Sponsors: Helix Sleep, WHOOP & Waking Up (00:05:30) Basics of Sleep Hygiene, Regularity, Dark & Light (00:12:05) Light, Day & Night; Cortisol, Insomnia (00:18:45) Temperature; “Walk It Out”; Alcohol & Caffeine (00:26:05) Sleep Association, Bed vs. Sofa (00:29:43) Tool: Falling Asleep; Meditation, Breathing (00:35:23) Sponsor: AG1 (00:36:37) Alcohol & Sleep Disruption (00:40:01) Food & Sleep, Carbs, Melatonin (00:49:25) Caffeine; Afternoon Coffee, Nighttime Waking (00:55:52) Caffeine Metabolism & Sleep, Individual Variation (01:01:19) Sponsor: InsideTracker (01:02:04) Cannabis: THC vs. CBD, REM Sleep, Withdrawal (01:12:03) Sleep Hygiene Basics (01:16:08) Tool: Poor Sleep Compensation, “Do Nothing” (01:20:23) Tool: Sleep Deprivation & Exercise (01:24:11) Insomnia Intervention & Bedtime Rescheduling, Sleep Confidence (01:32:58) Wind-Down Routine; Mental Walk; Clocks & Phones (01:41:29) Advanced Sleep Optimization, Electric Manipulation (01:50:07) Temperature Manipulation, Elderly, Insomnia (01:58:57) Tool: Warm Bath Effect & Sleep, Sauna (02:04:36) Acoustic Stimulation, White Noise, Pink Noise (02:13:30) Rocking & Sleep, Body Position (02:24:17) Enhance REM Sleep & Temperature; Sleep Medications (02:28:35) Pharmacology, DORAs & REM Sleep; Narcolepsy & Insomnia (02:34:12) Acetylcholine, Serotonin, Peptides; Balance (02:40:45) 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.
0:14.0	Today marks the second episode in our six episode series all about sleep with our
0:18.9	expert guest Dr Matthew Walker. During today's episode we discuss the do's and the do-nots of sleep.
0:25.0	Focusing, for instance, on how to use light and absence of light, as well as temperature,
0:30.0	both of your sleep environment, specifically the room you're in, your body temperature,
0:34.2	and much more in order to regulate the timing and quality of your sleep.
0:38.5	And we discuss how things like alcohol, caffeine, and cannabis impact sleep and the various stages of sleep. And we discuss the various stages of sleep
0:44.0	and we discuss the various tools that exist now
0:47.0	and that are rapidly becoming available
0:49.0	to improve your sleep.
0:50.0	This episode is essential for anyone
0:52.0	trying to optimize their sleep. And when I say optimize your sleep I mean trying to optimize the formula that was addressed in the first episode of the series which is the QQRT formula the the quality, quantity, regularity, and timing of your sleep.
1:05.8	Four variables that combine to determine whether or not your sleep is optimized for you and thereby
1:11.0	providing the most restoration and improvement to your mental health, physical health and performance.
1:16.0	Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.
1:21.0	It is, however, part of my desire and effort to
1:23.8	bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related
1:27.0	tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the
1:30.9	sponsors of today's podcast.
1:33.0	Our first sponsor is Helix Sleep.
1:35.2	Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows
	...

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