How To Rewire Your Brain To Wake Up Early - Dr Andrew Huberman
Summary
TLDRThe transcript discusses strategies to become a morning person by aligning one's circadian rhythm with natural and social cues. It highlights the importance of exposure to sunlight, exercise, caffeine, and social interactions to shift the body's internal clock. The speaker emphasizes the genetic factors that determine one's natural sleep tendencies and offers practical tips for those aiming to rise early, including the potential benefits of viewing sunlight in the afternoon to mitigate the impact of evening screen time on sleep.
Takeaways
- 🌞 It takes about three days to shift one's biological mechanisms to become a morning person.
- 🧬 Genetic mutations, known as polymorphisms, can make some individuals naturally inclined to be night owls or morning people.
- 🌡 Most people naturally feel best going to sleep between 10:00 PM and midnight, and waking up between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM.
- 🌅 The primary way to shift the circadian clock is by viewing bright light, such as sunlight, in the morning.
- 🏃♂️ Exercise or movement, combined with sunlight exposure, can further help in adjusting one's sleep-wake cycle.
- ☕ Caffeine can be used to entrain the circadian clock to be more alert at a specific time, but it should be managed carefully to avoid delaying sleep.
- 🍽 Eating in the morning can also be a zeitgeber, helping to entrain the body's clock to wake up earlier.
- 🤝 Social interactions can contribute to circadian entrainment, influencing the body's natural rhythm.
- 🌆 Viewing sunlight in the afternoon can help adjust the sensitivity of the retina, reducing the melatonin suppressive effects of bright light at night.
- 🐕 Social interactions with pets, like dogs, can also play a role in circadian entrainment due to their natural inclination to orient towards sunlight.
Q & A
How long does it typically take to shift one's biological mechanisms to become a morning person?
-It takes about three days to shift the biological mechanisms to make you a morning person.
What is the role of genetic factors in determining if someone is a night owl or a morning person?
-Genetic mutations, specifically polymorphisms, can determine if someone is a night owl, feeling best when going to sleep late and waking up late.
What are the four primary zeitgebers that can help someone become an early riser?
-The four primary zeitgebers are sunlight, exercise or movement, caffeine, and social interactions.
Why is viewing bright light in the morning important for shifting one's circadian clock?
-Viewing bright light in the morning is crucial for shifting the circadian clock because it's the number one way to phase advance your clock, making you feel awake and alert in the morning.
How does exercise or movement contribute to becoming a morning person?
-Exercise or movement is the second most powerful zeitgeber, helping to stack different timekeepers and entrain the circadian clock to be more alert in the morning.
What is the effect of caffeine on the circadian clock, and when should it be consumed for optimal results?
-Caffeine can help entrain the circadian clock to be alert at the time of consumption. It's often recommended to consume it 30 minutes after waking or three hours after waking for optimal energy levels.
How does eating in the morning affect the circadian clock, and should everyone eat early?
-Eating in the morning can entrain the circadian clock to wake up earlier. However, not everyone needs to eat early; some people naturally feel hungry later in the day.
What is the significance of social rhythms in circadian entrainment?
-Social rhythms, such as interacting with other people, can also entrain the circadian clock, contributing to the overall alignment of one's sleep-wake cycle.
How can viewing sunlight in the afternoon help mitigate the effects of bright light exposure at night?
-Viewing sunlight in the afternoon, even for a short period, can adjust the sensitivity of the retina, reducing the melatonin suppressive effects of bright light at night by about 50%.
What is the role of pets, like dogs, in aiding the process of becoming a morning person?
-Pets, including dogs, can serve as a form of social interaction and movement, naturally orienting towards sunlight and encouraging morning walks, which can help in becoming a morning person.
Outlines
🌞 Becoming a Morning Person: Strategies and Biological Insights
The paragraph discusses the process of becoming a morning person, which involves shifting one's biological clock. It takes about three days of discomfort to adjust, but after that, it becomes easier. The speaker explains that there are genetic factors that make some people naturally night owls or morning people, but for most, a typical sleep schedule is preferred. To shift one's clock, one should expose themselves to bright light in the morning, engage in physical activity, consider caffeine intake, and possibly eat food. These actions are known as 'zeit gebers' or timekeepers, which help align the circadian rhythm with the desired wake-up time. The speaker also mentions that social interactions can contribute to this process. The importance of sunlight is emphasized, as it directly influences the circadian clock, and the speaker suggests looking towards the sun without damaging the eyes. Exercise is recommended, possibly combined with caffeine, to enhance the effect. The speaker also touches on the idea that eating and social rhythms can influence the body's internal clock.
🌙 Overcoming Nighttime Light Exposure for Better Sleep
This paragraph delves into the challenges of adjusting to an earlier sleep schedule when exposed to bright lights at night, which can suppress melatonin and disrupt sleep. The speaker suggests viewing sunlight in the afternoon to adjust the sensitivity of the retina, reducing the melatonin-suppressing effects of evening light. This practice is likened to an 'inoculation' against the disruptive effects of screen time at night. The speaker also discusses the broader implications of circadian rhythm adjustments, including the impact of viewing bright light in the evening for those who wish to delay their sleep schedule. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on the universality of these biological mechanisms across mammalian species, including dogs, and the importance of respecting our natural circadian rhythms for optimal health and cognitive function.
🧳 Embracing Rest and the Benefits of Quality Travel Gear
The final paragraph shifts focus to the importance of rest and the role of sleep in cognitive function and neuroplasticity. The speaker expresses gratitude for the natural sleep cycle and its benefits, including the unconscious mind's ability to process thoughts and information. They also touch on the value of dreams, despite the current lack of understanding of their symbolic meanings. The paragraph concludes with a product endorsement for a travel backpack, emphasizing its organizational features, durability, and the company's commitment to customer satisfaction. A discount code is provided for listeners, highlighting the product's practicality for travel and the speaker's personal endorsement.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Morning Person
💡Biological Clock
💡Zeitgebers
💡Circadian Rhythm
💡Night Owl
💡Caffeine
💡Exercise
💡Melatonin
💡Phase Shift
💡Social Rhythm
Highlights
It takes about three days to shift one's biological mechanisms to become a morning person.
Genetic polymorphisms can determine if someone is a night owl or a morning person.
Most people naturally feel best sleeping between 10:00 PM and midnight, and waking up between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM.
The primary way to shift the circadian clock is by viewing bright light in the morning.
Exercise or movement is the second most powerful zeitgeber for aligning the body's clock.
Caffeine can help entrain the circadian clock to be alert at a specific time.
Eating in the morning can also help train the body to wake up earlier.
Social interactions can entrain the circadian clock, contributing to becoming a morning person.
The circadian clock generates an intrinsic 24-hour rhythm, which can be adjusted with the right cues.
Viewing sunlight in the afternoon can reduce the melatonin suppressive effects of bright light at night.
Dogs and other mammals have similar circadian biology and can benefit from morning routines.
Circadian biology is a fundamental aspect of life that cannot be completely biohacked away.
Sleep is essential for neuroplasticity and cognitive function.
Dreams may contain valuable information, although the symbols are not yet fully understood.
Prioritizing sleep is crucial for peak performance and cognitive health.
Nomatic backpacks are recommended for their organization, durability, and lifetime guarantee.
Using the code 'mw20' at checkout provides a 20% discount on Nomatic backpacks.
Transcripts
how can people become a morning person
or learn to get up early more easily and
more regularly yeah um three days of
pain the rest is easy so it takes about
three days to shift the biological
mechanisms to uh make you a morning
person now if you are a very strongly
genetically determined Night Owl that's
a thing that's a thing so there are
genetic mutations they call them
polymorphisms that make some people
night owls they feel best
psychologically and physically going to
sleep at about 1: 2 or 3:00 a.m. and
waking up somewhere around you know 10
11 am or noon that exists not just
during development or teen years but
that exists not just for social reasons
other people are true morning people
they feel absolutely best going to sleep
around 8:00 p.m. or 900 p.m. 10: p.m.
would be late for them and they feel
great waking up at 4:00 5 or 6:00 a.m.
okay most people feel best going to
sleep somewhere between 10: and midnight
and waking up somewhere between 6:00
a.m. and 8:00 a.m. or so maybe 5:30 to
8:00 a.m. okay so those are three bins
of the Night Owl the morning person and
then the more typical schedule but it's
heavily weighted toward that typical
schedule if you look at the general
population so if somebody wants to get
up earlier you need to stack the four
primary what are called zeit gers or
timekeepers so named because some of the
early chronobiologists that discovered
this this stuff and the underlying
mechanisms were German as it were so the
number one zeit Gaber the number one way
to shift your circadian clock which is
this cluster of neurons that sits a few
centimeters above the roof of your mouth
is to view bright light at a time when
you want to be awake aka the morning
okay so that's why I say get outside
look at the sun toward the sun don't
force yourself to stare at it don't
damage your eyes blink as needed no
sunglasses eye glasses corrective lenses
contacts are absolutely fine even if
they have UV protection
okay however if you combine that with
another zeit Gaber the second most
powerful zeit Gaber is exercise or
movement so if you do some jumping jacks
you skip some rope or even just take a
walk while facing the sun now you're
starting to stack different zeit gers
and I'll explain the mechanisms in a
moment if you then also add caffeine now
this spits in the face a little bit of
what I said a few minutes ago but if you
were to add caffeine you can entrain as
it's called the circadian clock to be
alert at that time a bit more and I'll
be honest if I'm going to exercise first
thing in the morning I need caffeine I
can't wait that 60 to 90 minutes if I
need to jump right into exercise I find
it's easiest for me to do 30 minutes
after waking three hours after waking or
11 hours after waking and a lot of
people find that the same but of course
exercise when you can because it's that
important but if you want to quot and
optimize your energy levels for exercise
typically people will notice that has to
do with your temperature Rhythm Okay so
we've got sunlight we've got exercise or
movement of any kind it could be jumping
jacks could be walking you don't have to
do a full workout and then caffeine and
in some cases food I'm not big on eating
first thing in the morning I don't like
to eat until 11: a.m. or noon that's
when my first meal arrives for me just
naturally that's when I get hungry it's
all caffeine and hydration prior to that
but if you were to eat something first
thing in the morning you that's part of
the way you entrain your circadian clock
to wake up to essentially wake you up
earlier and then the fourth one is a
social Rhythm if you're interacting with
other people you're going to entrain
your clock to that as well way yes so
there's a socially there's a social
component to circadian entrainment now
the pathways for these are from the eye
in the case of viewing light to the
circadian clock the supermatic nucleus
in the case of caffeine it's more
General in the case of exercise there's
literally a brain stem to circadian
clock connection a big super highway of
neuronal connections that then So-Cal
entrains your circadian clock remember
your circadian clock generates an
intrinsic 24-hour Rhythm such that if we
put you into constant dark or constant
light you would still sleep for a given
bout and then be alert for a given bout
with a little bit of a nap it just is
what would call free run it would drift
a little later each day this is what
happens when you go to Vegas this is
what happens when you're in an
environment without a lot of cues about
the day uh the sunlight uh rising and
setting
cycle
sunlight exercise caffeine and eating
and social interactions bring your
circadian clock into alignment with all
of those zit gers so when I said it
takes three days if tomorrow you want to
start beginning the process of becoming
an early riser you'd set your alarm for
5:00 a.m. no matter what time you went
to sleep the night before you're going
to get up and you're going to do the
four things that I described maybe leave
out food if you don't want to eat maybe
leave out caffeine if you want to delay
by 90 minutes it's going to hurt and
then by the early afternoon you'll be
dragging a bit and you just have to be
careful to not overindulge in caffeine
which will then cause you to fall asleep
later then you want to go to sleep at
your now naturally slightly earlier
sleep time the next day you'll notice
you'll it'll be a little bit easier to
do the morning routine I just described
and by the third day you ought to be
waking up with or before the Alarm by a
few minutes or moments because your
circadian clock has phase shifted okay
it's phase Advanced as we say your
circadian clock intrinsic to you
generates a
24.2 or a 24.3 hour Rhythm it's not
perfectly 24 hours and that we believe
we don't know but the just so story is
that it's that it's such that that
you're able to then shift that clock in
in one or the other direction you can
phase advance so you wake up earlier and
go to sleep earlier you can phase delay
how do you phase delay well you're
probably doing this already everyone
nowadays pretty much qualifies as a
shift worker by the strict and not so
strict criteria of shift work which is
are you doing any kind of cognitive
activity after 9:00 p.m. are you viewing
any kind of bright lights after 9:30
p.m. most people would say yes so the
the Diabolical thing about the Circadian
Timing System is that it requires a lot
of bright light ideally from sunlight
but a lot of bright light early in the
day to make you a morning and daytime
person but it requires just a little bit
of bright light even from an artificial
Source after the hours of about 9:30
p.m. till 4:00 a.m. to quash your Mel
tonin make it difficult to sleep or if
you sleep to make that sleep not as
effective there's a simple remedy
however which is and this is a beautiful
study publishing science reports in
2022 if you view sunlight in the
afternoon even for five minutes or so
could be late afternoon could be sunset
take off your sunglasses look in the
direction of the Sun so now looking West
you adjust the sensitivity of your
retina the neurons in the back of your
eye such that bright light later at
night doesn't have quite as much effect
to suppress melatonin and it reduces the
Melatonin suppressive Effects by about
50% or offsets those so I think of this
afternoon viewing as well first of all
it's nice to look at a sunset if you're
indoors in environment like this even if
there are bright lights on get outside
for a few minutes before the sun sets
this is especially important in Winter
even if you can't see the Sun as an
object get some sun light in your eyes
and that will at least partially offset
the effects of bright light light in
your eyes at night partially and I refer
to this more or less as your Netflix
inoculation so that that night you can
be on your phone or watch Netflix and
it's not going to disrupt your sleep as
much but it will still disrupt your
sleep somewhat but let's you know unless
like Rick rubin's very diligent about
wearing the red lens classes I've
started doing that as well um but if you
don't do that you I'm guessing he also
sees the sunset in the evening um he's
very attached for good scientific
reasons uh to the sunlight thing but
these are little things that take just
moments right they're essentially zero
cost that can really improve your sleep
but that's how you become a morning
person if you want to become a night
person you do the opposite you view
bright light between the hours of 400
p.m. and 10 p.m. and there then you will
phase delay or phase shift in a delayed
way your circadian clock making you want
to wake up later the next morning I
wonder if dogs count as uh social
interaction absolutely and they have all
of the same mechanisms we just described
so I just thinking how can we stack that
everything first thing in the morning
morning walk you if you're in a place
that's not Iceland or somewhere that's
super high North dog social interaction
moving around and then caffeine if you
do or if you don't if you don't want it
but uh if you have a dog that likes to
run you're even better off CU it'll
force you to run if you have if you have
an English bulldog like I did you'd be
lucky if you get out of bed by
their eyes are droopy they don't and um
uh they don't like to move but it is the
case that dogs will naturally Orient
toward the sun you know and people
always ask you know do dogs have the
same mechanisms absolutely intrinsically
photosensitive retinal gangling cells
the one that project to the clock and
carry all of this um thing about
circadian entrainment to sunlight are
present as far as we know in every
extent Mamon species every Mamon species
that's that's alive today um and you
know this is a system that evolved from
bacteria that's very similar to the
opsin the light absorbing molecules that
are in the insect eye it's a very
primordial system it's organized very
differently anatomically in the retina
and to me it's actually one of the more
beautiful systems in in all of us in
fact the one thing that no one can seem
to defeat you're never going to biohack
away is circadian biology this this you
know fluctu 24-hour fluctuation in
energy and focus you know some people
require less sleep but we we're all um
more or less a slave to these mechanisms
and you know it's a good thing that we
are because it forces us to rest
neuroplasticity occurs during sleep it
push down adenosine you know it takes us
through these natural es and cycles of
cognition I'm obsessed by the idea that
in sleep you know the conscious mind
obviously is not in control the
unconscious mind can geyser up thoughts
the brain is organizing things more in
terms of symbols time and space are very
uh very organized very differently in
dreams and there's a lot of information
to be gleaned from dreams it's just that
we don't yet understand what the symbols
mean the kind of classic Freudian yian
um interpretations are certainly not
going to be complete but you know I I'm
so grateful that we get this thing
called sleep and I think thanks to the
great Matt Walker We Now understand that
the whole thing of all sleep would I'm
dead is a really dumb mindset and you
know my team at The hubman Lab podcast
we sometimes joke that we win by
sleeping you know when we're in the peak
of things we all encourage each other to
like get rest you know get rest like we
really prioritize sleep traveling should
be about the journey not the chaos of
packing which is why I have been using
nomatic backpack and carryon Pro for
over a year now this thing is the best
backpack on the planet I did an entire
month on tour on just hand luggage alone
it's like the Swiss army knife of travel
pack they've got pockets for your laptop
your clothes your snacks it is so well
organized that even your toothbrush
feels important and the amount of
thought that they've put into every
pouch and zipper is is incredible it's
beautifully designed it's not over
engineered and it will literally last
you a lifetime with that lifetime
guarantee so this is the final backpack
that you will ever buy plus they also
offer international shipping free
shipping on orders over $49 in the
United States and if you don't like it
for any reason you can return or
exchange it within 30 days so you can
buy it completely risk-free fill it with
all of your possessions and if you don't
like it they'll give you your money back
right now you can get a 20% discount by
going to the link in the description
below or heading to Nom matic.com wisdom
using the code mw20 a checkout that's
Nom matic.com wisdom and mw20 a checkout
thank you very much for tuning in if you
enjoyed that clip you will love the full
length episode with Dr hubman right
there
Посмотреть больше похожих видео
Andrew Huberman reveals ways to optimize energy levels throughout the day.
How To Fix Your Sleep Schedule - Reset Your Sleep Pattern (animated)
How To Sleep...Better
How To Boost Testosterone - Explained By Top Urologist Dr. Rajesh Taneja
Why do you feel TIRED and LAZY all the time? The Circadian Code //Satchin Panda(PhD)
I Did Andrew Huberman’s Routine For 14 Days (Brain hacking without nootropics)
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)