Andrew Huberman – The Optimal Morning Routine

All about sleeping and waking up.

Sleep is important

• You should try and get really good sleep 80% of the time (80% of the nights  of your life)
• Sleep is the fundamental practice or part of our 24-hour cycle; if you don’t get it on a consistent basis, you are down-regulating your ability to do everything: metabolism is screwed up, the immune system is screwed up, etc.

The main role of dopamine

Dopamine’s main role in the brain and body is to drive motivation, craving, and pursuit.

It is not the molecule of pleasure; it is the molecule of drive. It is the life force.

Caffeine and exercise

They both clear out the adenosine from our bodies.

Delay the intake of caffeine by 60 to 90 minutes after waking and allow the adenosine to be cleared out of your system (it’s not only cleared out in sleep; it’s also cleared out in that kind of sleepy state in the early morning). The other thing that clears it out is exercise.

The longer we are awake, the longer the buildup of something called adenosine in the brain and body; adenosine turns on the parasympathetic nervous system and suppresses the sympathetic nervous system. When we sleep, adenosine is pushed back down. Caffeine effectively, through some chemical steps, blocks the effects of adenosine.

Natural light exposure

Try and get some natural light in your eyes within an hour of waking up.

If you wake up before the sun, turn on bright lights and then get sunlight in your eyes once it comes out.

If there are clouds, there are still more photons of light energy coming through them than there are coming from artificial lights, so try and get five to ten minutes without sunglasses outside in the morning once the sun is out.

Effect of natural light early in the day

• It modulates the timing of the cortisol pulse: once every 24 hours, you’re going to get a boost in cortisol. It’s a healthy boost; it sets your temperature rhythm in motion, and it sets your level of alertness, focus, and mood.
• You want that cortisol pulse to happen as early in the day as possible. When this pulse comes in the afternoon, your temperature rhythm is going to be shifted late, and that’s actually a signature of depression, anxiety, and difficulty falling asleep.
• When you don’t get that light until a few hours later, everything is shifted, and you will find it difficult to fall asleep at night.

Source