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:
General CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia);
General stress reduction;
Any other psychological improvement strategies (e.g., therapy against depression and anxiety);
Choice of clothes, pillow, mattress, and blanket for sleeping;
bedtime routines;
Nutrition (except for some short advice on breakfast);
Prescription Drugs.
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:
Light
Darkness
Temperature
Food
Exercise
Caffeine
Supplements
Digital Tools
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.
The Three "Critical Periods"
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.
Period 1: Morning (until ~3 hours after waking)
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
Timing: immediately after waking or at least within the first 60 minutes
Look into the general direction of the sun at a low solar angle
Don't look at it, especially if it's painful.
Don't wear sunglasses.
Eyeglasses or contact lenses are good, but windows are not.
UV protection is okay
Duration:
Clear day: ~5 minutes
Cloud cover: ~10 minutes
Very overcast/rainy: ~20-30 minutes
If this is not possible: use sunlight simulators/daylight simulators.
Exercise will delay the circadian clock, especially later in the day.
This doesn't mean you have to avoid it, but it is worth taking into account for some people.
Period 3: Evening (from 6 or 7 pm until bedtime)
Light:
Place lights low, e.g. on the floor
Have as little light as required to do what you want to do.
Avoid bright artificial lights of any color
You may put on sunglasses when in a bright light environment (e.g. supermarket)
Also dim screens
Candlelight or moonlight have a low light intensity
Blue blockers can help some people
Temperature (the opposite advice from the morning)
Take a hot bath/sauna/shower, for a short time (not longer than 20-30 minutes)
This leads to a compensatory dip in temperature
Avoid (especially heavy) exercise
Make the sleeping environment cool
~3 degrees less than during the day
Layer blankets as needed.
If it turns out too warm under the blankets, the body will automatically put feet/hands out of the blanket, so layering blankets gives more flexibility in temperature regulation than having a warmer room
Put out socks unless you tend to wake up from cold feet.
Alcohol/CBD/THC
Alcohol greatly disrupts sleep
THC/CBD
The anxiety-reducing effect can help with falling asleep.
He does mention that THC disrupts the quality of sleep.
It seems like Huberman's assessment of these substances is mixed and he does slightly advise against using them, especially before trying other supplements (see below).
Further Advice
Supplementation
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.
Magnesium threonate: ~145mg
For ~5% of people: this disrupts the gut. If so, don't take it.
Apigenin: 50 mg
I heard somewhere else that this can have an effect on estrogen, so use it with caution.
Theanine: 100-400 mg
This may make dreams more vivid in an uncomfortable way. If so, leave it out.
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.
Every 3rd or 4th night:
2 grams Glycine
100mg GABA
Myo-Inositol: every other night, 900mg
Not on nights when also using Glycine and GABA
Makes it easier to fall back asleep after waking up
Can reduce anxiety
A note on melatonin:
Huberman claims it's less preferable than the others
if you use it, use it in a 300-microgram dosage
His opinion is to not use it
He mentions that melatonin can be hard to find in the right dosage and that the dosage is often not correctly stated. I am not sure if he would still generally recommend against using melatonin in cases when the dosage is correct.
He also mentions that melatonin can delay the onset of puberty.
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.
If the room is too warm, then the eye mask will increase the face temperature too much, which can lead to waking up.
Earplugs
Some find them beneficial.
The sound of the beating of one's own heart can be non-beneficial for some people.
Bed Angle
Elevate the end of the bed by 3-5 degrees
Do the opposite if you have problems with acid reflux.
Sleep Apnea
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.
Weekends
Keep sleep time relatively consistent on the weekend.
Don't sleep in more than one hour past your normal wake-up time
Use naps if you did not sleep enough.
Caffeine disrupts compensatory sleep more than normal sleep. Huberman especially advises against using it in the first 90 minutes of groggy days.
Jetlag/Shiftwork
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.
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
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.
Introduction
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.
The Three "Critical Periods"
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.
Period 1: Morning (until ~3 hours after waking)
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
Period 2: Late morning to Late afternoon (until ~5 pm)
Do's:
Further Comments:
Period 3: Evening (from 6 or 7 pm until bedtime)
Light:
Temperature (the opposite advice from the morning)
Alcohol/CBD/THC
Further Advice
Supplementation
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:
Digital Tools
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
Eye masks
Earplugs
Bed Angle
Sleep Apnea
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.
Weekends
Keep sleep time relatively consistent on the weekend.
Jetlag/Shiftwork
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.