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Feeling Lazy or Stuck? Andrew Huberman’s Wake-Up Call · Motivation Mindset Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: How to fall asleep easily, and how to make sure
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that the sleep we have is of sufficient duration and quality.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Now, what if you wake up in the middle of
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the night.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This is a very common occurrence, and there are two
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: general themes around waking up in the middle of the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: night that one can use tools to counteract. The first
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: theme is if you're somebody who is tired in the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: evenings and you're kind of pushing yourself to stay awake,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: so you're going to the party or you're pushing yourself
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to study your work, when in fact, you'd like to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: get into bed at eight thirty or nine, and then
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you're falling asleep round ten thirty eleven and waking up
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: at two thirty or three in the morning.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: You can't fall back asleep.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Chances are that your melatonin pulse was initiated early in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the night, so that a melatonin pulse started probably around
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: eight thirty or nine, but you're staying up, you're battling
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that meloin and then sometime around two thirty or three
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: in the morning, that melatonin is no longer present at
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: sufficiently high levels in your bloodstream.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: And you're waking up.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: You're getting your morning cortisol pulse shifted into those.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Wee hours of the morning.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: You may not like this advice, but one of the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: things that you can do to offset that is to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: simply go to bed earlier. By going to bed earlier,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you're going to get the longer duration of sleep. But
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I realize that there are social reasons and work relaid
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: reasons why going to bed at eight thirty or nine
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: is not necessarily beneficial to your life.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So in that case, you might.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Be one of the rare individuals for whom getting a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: little bit more bright light in the evening could be
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a good thing. So this would be around the hours
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of seven or eight PM and in that way causing
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that pulse in melatonin to be delayed, because again light
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: inhibits melatonin. Now, the other thing is many people wake
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night because of anxiety
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: or because they have to use the restroom. It's perfectly
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: fine to flip on the lights, but keep the lights dim.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: But if you flip on those lights, try and flip
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: them off as soon as possible and try and get
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: back into bed. And if you have trouble falling asleep
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: again and you absolutely need to sleep, that's where these NSDR,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: these non sleep deep rest protocols can really be beneficial,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: even though the ns the non sleep part, might make
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you think that they will prevent you from falling asleep.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Rather than trying to fight your mind trying to fight anxiety,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: which is always a terrible thing to do. I would
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: say it's very hard to control the mind. With the mind,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: look to the body, and that's what NSDR scripts do.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Things like yoga, nidra, even the sleep hypnosis done in
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night, if you wake up and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: want to fall back asleep, oftentimes will help you fall
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: back asleep immediately, and if they don't, they will at
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: least put your brain and body into a state of
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: deep relaxation that more closely mimics the sleep state that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you ought to be in than the awake, ruminating, stressing
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: about the fact that you're not sleeping state. So if
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you wake up in the middle of the night, really
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: try and get back to sleep. And if you can't
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: do that by doing, for instance, long exhale breathing, which
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: can work, use some other tool of the body to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: shift the mind. And the tools that I'm recommending are
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of the non sleep deep rest variety. If you happen
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to stay up late, it's still best to get up
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: at your regular wake up time. It's a very simple
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: solution to a problem that a lot of people have,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: which is they stay up till two or three in
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the morning, and then they tend to sleep late, and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: then it tends to disrupt their rhythm. Try on most
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: days and most nights to wake up at more or
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: less the same time, and try to go to sleep
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: at more or less the same time. If you get
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a poor night's sleep, or if you're up late the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: previous night for good reasons, many people feel like they
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: just want to go to bed early the next night,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but it turns out that's not the best thing to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: do for your immediate and long term health. Try and
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: stay up to the point where you would normally stay
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: up and then get to sleep. If you go to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: bed a couple hours earlier, it's probably not going to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: kill you. But try to not go to bed, for instance,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: at six pm, because you were up the entire night before.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: That can really be disruptive. How to fall asleep easily
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and how to make sure that the sleep we have
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: is of sufficient duration and quality. One way to do
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that is to leverage the drop in temperature that's necessary
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to fall and stay asleep. So I mentioned earlier, in
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the early parts of the day after waking, our body
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: temperature is rising, and that continues throughout the day, and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: then sometime late in the afternoon, our temperature peaks and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: then it starts to drop. That drop in temperature of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: one to three degrees is vitally important for us to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: be able to fall asleep easily. One way that we
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: can decrease our transition time into sleep is to accelerate
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: that drop in temperature. And one way to accelerate that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: drop in temperature, somewhat counterintuitively, is to use hot baths,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: hot showers, or if you have access to one, asauna.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: If you are to get to a sauna or a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: hot shower or a hot bath and then get out, your
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: body is going to engage particular mechanisms for cooling itself
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: off that are going to allow you to drop your
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: temperature more quickly and fall asleep more easily. And this
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is why many people find that falling asleep after a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: nice hot shower, bath, or sauna is really really easy
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and really terrific. It's sort of a natural state that
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: follows hot baths, saunas, and showers. You will experience a
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: growth hormone release from sauna, hot bath, and hot shower,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: provided they are done for sufficient duration and sufficiently high temperature.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: It is absolutely true that keeping the room very dark
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: is beneficial. Some people, including myself, have thin eyelids and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: it doesn't take much light to wake up the brain
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and body, so keeping a room very dark is essential.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: The other thing is keeping the room cool. You've probably
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: heard this before keep the room cool, get under warm blankets,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: but rarely as it discussed why keeping the room cool
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: is useful. Reason and keeping the room cool is useful
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: for getting into and staying asleep is that throughout the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: night there are phases of sleep where you are paralyzed,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: so called rem sleep. That's a healthy paralysis, so you
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: can presumably so you can't act out your.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Dreams, but there are portions of the night where you
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: can move.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And one of the more important movements that you do
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night is put your hand
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: out or your foot out, or you take your face
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: out from under the covers as a means to cool yourself,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and you.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Do this while you are asleep.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: If you are in a cool room, you can put
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: yourself under the blankets to stay warm, and then if
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you want to cool off, you can simply remove a limb,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: or you can toss the covers off entirely. However, if
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you are in a room that's too warm, it's very
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: hard to cool off. You would need a bucket of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: ice water, or to get up and turn on the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: air conditioning or something of that sort, or turn on
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the fan. So it's a simple but non trivial way
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: in which we can improve our entrance to sleep and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: staying asleep the room cool or cold, and get under
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: warm blankets. I do enjoy food very very much, and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: so my dinner is carbohydrates and some protein, so maybe
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: some chicken or fish or something like that, maybe some eggs,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: or sometimes just pasta or just rice and vegetables. And
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that's because I enjoy those foods, but also because I
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: want to increase the amount of serotonin in my brain
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: so that I can actually fall asleep that night. Many
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: people who are on low carbohydrate diets struggle with falling
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and staying asleep, and that's because it's hard to achieve
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: heightened levels of serotonin, which are necessary to enter sleep.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I should also mention that melatonin and serotonin fall in
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the same pathway. They are related hormones and neuromodulators. Who
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: won't go into their biosynthesis now. But essentially what we're
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: talking about is a system that's biasing us towards rest
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and relaxation as opposed to wakefulness. You might ask, well,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: can't I just take serotonin? Can't I just take five
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: HTP or a precursor to serotonin or tripp to, And
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: indeed you can. However, many people, including myself, find that
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: when they supplement with serotonin in the evening or at night,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that can cause problems in the architecture or the structure
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of sleep. Can cause a lot of people, including me,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep very fast, sleep very deeply for three
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: or four hours, and then wake up and have a
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: terrible time falling back asleep. And that effect, at least
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: for me, can last several days. It's really disruptive. So
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I don't like to supplement with anything that is directly
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: dopamine or a precursor to dopamine at any time, or
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: directly serotonin or a precursor to serotonin. Rather, there are
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: other things that can enhance the transition to sleep safely.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: But the evening meal consists largely of carbohydrates for that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: specific purpose of generating a sense of calm, And of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: course carbohydrates are delicious, and because I'm doing some physical
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: training and presumably you are as well, I hope you are,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: because it's so beneficial to one's health. That's also going
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to replenish my glycogen stores, which is one of the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: primary fuel sources for moving one's muscles and moving around
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and doing exercise, as well as for the brain and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: for cognitive function. So low carbohydrates throughout the twenty four
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: hour period are not something that are attractive to me.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I realize that some people will do much better on
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a low carbohydrate or even ketogenic diet, but for me,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and I do believe for most people, creating a situation
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of maybe fasting and then low carb or no carb
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: diets for states of alertness and focus.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: At one portion of the day and then.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Ingesting starts to carbohydrates for sake of inducing rest and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: relaxation is a at least scientifically rationally based protocol. It's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: grounded in real neurochemistry, It's grounded in things that we
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: can point to and say, ah, this food substance, this thing.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Can support my brain.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Not directly because it's some magic substance that's gonna make
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: all my neurons, you know, extremely robust, but rather it's
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: going to support sleep, which is perhaps the foundation of
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: all mental and physical health. In fact, we can point
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to sleep as the primary way in which we can
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: ensure our overall health, including our brain health.