How to Control Your Cortisol & Overcome Burnout

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 136 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I explain cortisol and science-based protocols for properly setting your cortisol rhythm, which can significantly increase your daytime energy, focus, mood, and stress resilience, while also improving your sleep quality. Most people mistakenly think cortisol is bad, and many assume their levels are too high, when in fact many health and performance challenges simply stem from a disrupted cortisol rhythm. Getting your cortisol rhythm right can be transformative for your health and performance. I outline behavioral, nutritional, and supplement-based strategies to raise or lower your cortisol levels at the appropriate times of day and night. I also provide specific protocols for overcoming burnout. If you’re dealing with stress, low energy, hormone or sleep challenges—or simply want to optimize these for the sake of your physical and mental health and performance—this episode offers science-backed protocols to help. Read the the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Carbon: https://joincarbon.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman David: https://davidprotein.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00) Cortisol (1:29) Stress, Tool: Daily Cortisol Rhythm (3:16) Cortisol & Directing Energy, Glucose, Adrenals (6:39) Sponsors: Carbon & BetterHelp (10:14) Daily Cortisol Phases & Rhythm, Waking Up & Cortisol (17:55) Cortisol Release & Regulation, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis (24:57) Rapid & Delayed Stress Response, HPA Axis (28:42) Bright Light & Cortisol Release, Tool: Increase Morning Cortisol & Sunlight (36:58) Sponsors: AG1 & David (39:48) Viewing Bright Light & Mood, Depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) (41:44) Increase Morning Cortisol, Tools: Hydration, Delaying Caffeine Intake (49:30) Exercise, Entrainment Cues & Cortisol Rhythm, Tool: Boost Energy & Exercise Schedule (57:52) Does Deliberate Cold Exposure Increase Cortisol?, Energy & Mood (1:01:19) Sponsor: LMNT (1:02:51) Increase Morning Cortisol & Nutrition, Grapefruit, Black Licorice (1:11:34) Afternoon & Evening Cortisol Rhythms, Sunlight, Screens (1:14:30) Lower Evening Cortisol, Tools: Dim Lights, Light Color (1:20:54) Lower Evening Cortisol, Tools: Caffeine Timing; Stress Response & Exhales; Starchy Carbohydrates (1:30:42) Low-Carb Diets & Cortisol, Metabolic Syndrome (1:35:30) Evening Exercise & Cortisol, Tool: Spike Your Morning Cortisol (1:44:32) Supplements to Reduce Cortisol, Ashwagandha, Apigenin, Magnesium (1:50:57) Burnout, Cushing's & Addison's, 2 Burnout Patterns (1:55:23) Early-Phase Burnout, Tools: NSDR/Yoga Nidra, Boost Morning Cortisol, Caffeine (2:01:35) Late-Phase Burnout, Tools: Reduce Evening Cortisol (2:08:02) Age, Male vs Females, Lifespan, Cancer; Menopause; Brain Health (2:13:41) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:09.0	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:15.5	Today we're discussing cortisol, in particular how to control your cortisol in order to avoid burnout.
0:22.2	Or should you already be feeling burnt out, how to overcome burnout.
0:27.2	Now it's hard for me to over emphasize just how important cortisol is.
0:31.1	In fact, in the late stages of preparing for this episode, it dawned on me that if ever there
0:35.6	were an episode of the Huberman Lab podcast that people could
0:38.1	benefit from in terms of their health and well-being, this would be that episode. And I say that
0:43.8	because as you'll soon learn, cortisol, the biology of it, how it impacts your mood, your sleep,
0:49.8	your immune system, your overall feelings of well-being, not just in the moment, but over the long term,
0:55.8	and your ability to control cortisol
0:57.9	at different portions of the day and night
1:00.3	makes it one of the most, if not the most powerful levers
1:04.2	for your health and well-being.
1:05.8	So I'm very excited to get into the material
1:07.5	for today's discussion about cortisol,
1:09.7	how to control it, and how to
1:11.2	avoid and overcome burnout. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate
1:16.3	from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort
1:20.4	to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general
1:25.0	public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode
1:27.7	does include sponsors.
	...

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