Thanks. I wanted to summarize it for myself as well and you both saved me the work and wrote a fuller summary than I would have written :)
Though I noticed the advice in the podcast could fit neatly in a table format (with critical periods and tools as the rows and columns), which I think would make the summary even more effective. I'll probably create that table myself at some point unless someone beats me to it (I encourage anyone to do so).
Make the sleeping environment cool: ~3 degrees less than during the day
assuming Celcius in the absence of units. but even so, this is a smaller delta than i expected. i prefer about 10 C below “room temperature” when sleeping (living in the PNW: i just open the window to varying angle to approximate this throughout the year), with 3-4 blankets, layered. 3 C below room temperature doesn’t really let me layer blankets (or maybe i can get two blankets) and a common problem i have when sleeping as a guest somewhere that keeps temperature this high is waking up in the night, sweaty.
but how large is this temperature range? am i possibly disrupting other parts of the cycle by sleeping at relatively low ambient temperatures? for example, re-heating the room when i get out of bed takes some time so i sit 10 minutes right by the heater: it sounds like that might be bad in the same way that a morning hot shower is bad.
i have some questions around clothes still (i sleep in the nude), as well as body hair/shaving, but they may be too niche for this setting. thanks for the post! Huberman gets cited to me frequently and to good effect so i’m glad to learn about his online resources/presence.
Body temperature needs to drop by 1°C (2-3°F) degrees during sleep. Dr. Huberman recommends to drop sleeping room temperature by at least 3°. Recommended room temperature for sleep is between 16 to 18°C (or 60-65°F). Source - Dr. Matt Walker Podcast #14
From "Do the opposite if you have problems with acid reflux.", I would say the post is referring to the foot of the bed, because elevating that side would cause stomach acid to flow into the throat more easily. I'm curious about the reasoning behind elevating that side, though.
Has anyone experimented with keeping consistent wakeup time on weekends at the expense of more sleep, and have anecdotes to share on the impact it made for them?
Edit: I am not as confident anymore as I have been in Andrew Huberman's general epistemics, so take this post with a grain of salt.
In this post, I list all the advice from Andrew Huberman's podcast Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & sleep and Sleep-Wake Timing. A large subset of that advice can also be found on his website, so feel free to read there and ignore this post.
I did not do any research to check whether the advice is actually correct and comprehensive. If you know of any important missing tools or wrong advice in the list below, please let me know. I think the main tools for improving sleep that are missing from this podcast episode are:
If you know of other important factors, please let me know in the comments.
In summary, the advice is centered around using 8 "tools" in such a way as to obtain a stable, healthy circadian rhythm:
Below, I mostly focus on the advice and less on the reasoning behind that advice. My impression is that you can probably ignore much of the advice if you feel like your sleep is already great, though especially light exposure in the morning and dim light in the evenings seem like clearly useful for almost everyone.
Huberman names three "critical periods": the morning, throughout the day, and the evening. He emphasizes the importance of one's behavior in the morning the most, as he claims it has a crucial effect on the circadian rhythm.
Early in the morning, Huberman recommends getting natural light exposure for setting the circadian rhythm, and to exercise, getting a short cold shower, and having breakfast for activating the body and increasing the core body temperature. While all of this "wakes up the body", Huberman indicates that it is also useful for getting better sleep later on.
Finally, Huberman lists some advice on how to responsibly use caffeine. I am not sure if he claims that caffeine can help with sleep (e.g., since it increases the core body temperature and thus might help for setting the circadian rhythm) or if his advice is mainly meant to reduce the damage to sleep caused by caffeine.
Light Exposure
Exercise
Cold Shower
Breakfast
Caffeine
Do's:
Further Comments:
Light:
Temperature (the opposite advice from the morning)
Alcohol/CBD/THC
Main Supplement Stack
Use up to all three or none of the following. There is a wide margin for safety. Use them 30-60 minutes before bedtime. Warning: Huberman has a contract with a company selling these supplements and thus a conflict of interest.
GABA, Glycine, Myo-Inositol
Huberman also uses the following supplements in addition to the others. If the others don't work for you, you could also replace those with the options here.
A note on melatonin:
The following tools were mentioned above as tools for replacing naps. They can also be used for falling (back) asleep. He especially recommends the hypnosis in the reveri app.
Eye masks
Earplugs
Bed Angle
Sleep apnea is very bad. I don't remember much of what Huberman recommends, but the main recommendation seems to be to learn techniques for breathing through one's nose instead of mouth.
Keep sleep time relatively consistent on the weekend.
Two hours before waking up, people have their daily temperature minimum. Huberman claims that being very active shortly before this minimum can delay it and thus delay the whole circadian rhythm, and the opposite is the case when being very active shortly after the minimum. For more details on this topic, see his podcast which specifically focuses on shift work and jetlag.