AMA #14: 2023 Philanthropy, Evening Routine, Light Therapy, Health Metrics & More
This Huberman Lab AMA features Dr. Andrew Huberman, Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford, discussing science-based tools. Topics include enhancing willpower, optimizing sleep routines with light, fitness metrics, strategies for midnight wakefulness, and strength training without hypertrophy.
Deep Dive Analysis
9 Topic Outline
Introduction & 2023 Research Funding Overview
Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex and Willpower
Optimizing Evening Light Exposure for Sleep
Morning Light Strategies for Dark Northern Climates
Recommended Annual Health and Fitness Metrics
Strategies for Falling Back Asleep After Waking
Strength Training Without Hypertrophy for Women
Benefits and Considerations of Full Body Scan MRIs
Future Content on Dog Wellness and Children's Development
6 Key Concepts
Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (AMCC)
This brain region is involved in leaning into difficult challenges and grows when individuals embrace effort that feels uncomfortable but is safe and adaptive. It gets smaller when challenging endeavors are avoided, and its size correlates with willpower and tenacity, particularly in 'super-agers' who maintain healthy cognitive function.
Afternoon/Evening Sunlight Exposure
Getting a brief splash of sunlight in the eyes in the late afternoon or early evening helps adjust the sensitivity of neurons in the retina and brain. This adjustment protects against the melatonin-suppressing effects of brighter artificial lights encountered later in the evening.
Red Light for Evening
Using red light bulbs in the evening helps eliminate stimulating blue wavelengths, which typically activate the noradrenergic system (adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol). This reduction in blue light exposure can lead to increased sleepiness and reduced cortisol levels, making it easier to fall asleep.
Red Light Therapy
This involves using red light panels that emit specific wavelengths (e.g., 650-800 nanometers) and often near-infrared light. When viewed at a distance of about 18 inches in the morning, particularly for individuals over 40, it can help offset age-related reductions in mitochondrial function and vision loss, but it does not provide the same waking stimulus as sunlight.
Hypnosis for Sleep
Hypnosis, in this context, refers to self-directed relaxation, which is a learnable skill that can be enhanced through practice. It is not stage hypnosis, but a medically approved technique used to facilitate relaxation and aid in falling or returning to sleep.
Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) / Yoga Nidra
These are practices of self-directed relaxation that can be used during the day to improve relaxation skills or at night to help fall back asleep. Many people find they fall asleep during these practices, which are available in various forms, including free online resources.
6 Questions Answered
Subjective metrics include consistent sleep and appetite, general well-being, and energy levels for workouts. Objective metrics include monitoring your morning resting pulse rate, getting regular blood work every six months, and having an annual eye exam that includes a glaucoma test.
Utilize long exhale breathing, relax your face and jaw, and perform a progressive body relaxation. Consider using a hypnosis app like Reverie for falling back asleep (practiced during the day), or engage in non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) or yoga nidra. It's also advised to avoid looking at the time or scrolling on your phone.
Studies show that people given a 'poor' sleep score often perform worse cognitively and physically, even if they slept well, while those given a 'great' score perform better, even if they slept poorly. This highlights that perception can significantly influence performance, so it's important not to let biometric scores overly dictate your self-perception of capability.
They can be informative, potentially identifying issues like disc bulges or tumors that might otherwise go unnoticed. However, they are expensive and can cause anxiety if benign growths are found, leading to further medical investigation. The decision often depends on personal finances, curiosity, and whether one is prepared for potential findings and subsequent actions.
Yes, a child development series is planned, which will extend into adolescence and young adulthood, featuring expert guests and solo episodes. The goal is to provide succinct and digestible, yet thorough, content and protocols on this topic.
Allan Schore's books are recommended for their detailed, technical insights into topics like right brain/left brain function, attachment, emotional regulation, and early childhood development. Additionally, future podcast guests like Dr. Linda Wilbrecht, who studies adolescent development, will be featured.
35 Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Safe, Difficult Challenges
Engage in activities you’d prefer not to do, even for 5 minutes daily or weekly, to grow your anterior mid-cingulate cortex, which is linked to willpower, tenacity, and sustained cognitive function.
2. Focus on Foundational Health Pillars
Prioritize the six fundamental pillars of health: sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress management, sunlight exposure, and social connection, as these are the most important for overall wellbeing.
3. Implement Diverse Cardiovascular Training
Engage in three distinct cardio sessions weekly: one long (1-1.5 hr, slow), one medium (35 min, fast-paced), and one short (12 min, high-intensity interval) to build comprehensive readiness for various physical demands.
4. Structure Weekly Resistance Training
Dedicate three weekly sessions to resistance training, focusing on legs one day, torso and neck another, and smaller body parts (including calves, biceps, triceps) on a third day, ensuring all muscle groups are hit directly or indirectly twice a week.
5. Prioritize Rest When Sick
If feeling unwell, skip workouts and prioritize rest, hot showers, and early sleep to allow your body to recover and prevent spreading illness.
6. View Afternoon/Evening Sunlight
Get 5-10 minutes of afternoon or early evening sunlight in your eyes to adjust retinal sensitivity, which can reduce the suppressive effect of artificial lights on melatonin by 50%.
7. Dim Evening Lights, Use Red
Dim all lights in the evening and consider using red light bulbs in areas where you spend time before sleep, as this eliminates stimulating blue wavelengths and can promote sleepiness by reducing cortisol.
8. Position Lights Low in Evening
Place evening lights low in your room rather than overhead, as overhead lights direct more photons into your eyes, activating alertness systems more strongly.
9. Use Phone’s Red-Only Filter
Activate your phone’s accessibility function to create a triple-click shortcut that switches the display to red-only, eliminating stimulating blue light in the evening for free.
10. Practice Daytime NSDR/Yoga Nidra
Regularly practice Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) or Yoga Nidra during the day to develop self-directed relaxation skills, which can then be used to fall back asleep if you wake up at night.
11. Practice Long Exhale Breathing
If you wake up and can’t sleep, use long exhale breathing to calm yourself and facilitate falling back asleep.
12. Relax Your Face and Jaw
When struggling to fall back asleep, consciously relax your face and jaw, then proceed with progressive body relaxation to promote calmness.
13. Avoid Checking Time at Night
Refrain from looking at the time if you wake up in the middle of the night, as this habit can make it harder to fall back asleep.
14. Limit Evening Fluids and Food
Reduce fluid intake in the last few hours before bed and avoid going to sleep with a full stomach to prevent waking up during the night.
15. Reconsider Chronic Melatonin Use
If you frequently wake up after falling asleep with melatonin, reconsider its regular use, as common dosages can be too high and may disrupt sleep later in the night.
16. Accept Occasional Poor Sleep
If you cannot fall back asleep after waking, accept that you can function after one night of minimal sleep, reducing anxiety about sleep loss.
17. Don’t Over-rely on Sleep Scores
While tracking sleep scores (e.g., from Oura, Whoop) can be useful, avoid letting individual daily scores dictate your perceived ability to perform; instead, focus on averages and subjective feelings.
18. Use Bright Artificial Morning Lights
If you wake before sunrise or live in dark regions, turn on bright overhead artificial lights or a 10,000 lux light panel for 5-10 minutes to stimulate wakefulness.
19. Take Cold Showers for Adrenaline
If morning light is unavailable, take a cold shower to get an early-day adrenaline bump, which aids in waking up.
20. Optimize Workout Duration, Intensity
Aim for resistance training workouts of 40-60 minutes (plus 10 min warm-up) at 6-8 out of 10 intensity, and limit long cardio to 90 minutes, allowing for consistent training without over-exertion.
21. Monitor Subjective Wellbeing
Regularly assess your sleep quality, appetite consistency, general mood, and energy levels for workouts as key subjective metrics of overall health and recovery.
22. Track Morning Resting Pulse Rate
Measure your morning resting pulse rate; if it’s substantially elevated without stress, consider reducing workout intensity to aid recovery.
23. Get Regular Blood Work
Schedule blood work every six months to monitor key health markers and identify potential issues that may require attention.
24. Schedule Regular Eye Exams
Get regular eye exams, including the air puff test for glaucoma, as vision is precious and early detection allows for effective treatment.
25. Train Heavy, Low Reps for Strength
To gain strength without significant hypertrophy, focus on lifting very heavy weights for 1-3 repetitions per set, or up to 5 repetitions, with sufficient rest between sets.
26. Use Long Rest Between Heavy Sets
To minimize hypertrophy when training with heavy weights (1-3 reps), ensure long rest periods between sets (more than 2 minutes) to prevent compounding effects that can stimulate muscle growth.
27. Address Muscle Imbalances Unilaterally
For a weaker limb, prioritize unilateral exercises, perform more sets for the weaker side, or even temporarily reduce intensity on the stronger side to allow the weaker limb to catch up.
28. Enhance Strength with Mind-Muscle
When lifting, grip the weight tightly and focus on actively contracting the target muscle, using weights you can control, as this neural connection enhances strength and performance.
29. Be Patient with Training Progress
Understand that building strength and developing a strong mind-muscle connection takes time; avoid rushing the process and enjoy the journey of consistent training.
30. Cultivate Love for Hard Training
Embrace and learn to enjoy the process of training hard, as this mindset can foster consistency and long-term adherence to your fitness goals.
31. Use Reverie App for Self-Hypnosis
Practice the 8-minute “falling back asleep” hypnosis on the Reverie app during the day, then use it at night if you wake up to self-direct relaxation and aid sleep.
32. Adjust Theanine for Vivid Dreams
If taking theanine causes vivid dreams that lead to waking up, reduce or eliminate its dosage to improve sleep continuity.
33. Consider Full Body MRI Scans
While full body MRI scans can provide valuable health data and detect issues like tumors or disc bulges, be prepared for potential anxiety and medical decisions if benign or minor findings are discovered.
34. Carefully Consider Pet Adoption
Before getting a dog, especially breeds with high needs like bulldogs, ensure you can commit to providing excellent care and anticipate significant annual medical expenses; consider adopting from a shelter if possible.
35. Explore Allan Schore’s Work
For insights into early childhood development, attachment, and emotional regulation, consult Allan Schore’s books, which offer a detailed and technical perspective.
6 Key Quotes
The anterior mid-cingulate cortex is an anatomical and neural reflection of willpower and tenacity.
Andrew Huberman
You're looking for that feeling of leaning into challenge, that friction. If something's too easy or it's too delightful, that's not going to contribute to your anterior mid-cingulate cortex function and growth.
Andrew Huberman
If you have to blink, it's too bright, step back. If you have to blink every once in a while, that's okay, but if you have to blink in order to close your eyes, in order to protect your eyes, then you're standing too close.
Andrew Huberman
The gym is a place for training for the rest of life, in my opinion.
Andrew Huberman
Don't put too much weight into them. Take the average, see how you're doing lately. If your sleep score is dropping each day by 15, 20 points, well then pay attention to that. Or your heart rate's going up or is going down, you know, averages, averages, averages, you know? And so be a scientist of yourself.
Andrew Huberman
The best advice I ever got about training was somebody very accomplished, and he said, and I really internalized this. I was like, learn to... And you may delete the learn to. Learn to enjoy training really hard, or just love training hard.
Andrew Huberman
6 Protocols
Protocol to Grow Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex
Andrew Huberman- Engage in challenging endeavors that you would prefer not to do, but that lead to an adaptive internal anxiety.
- Ensure these challenges are uncomfortable but safe.
- Practice leaning into this friction, even for just five minutes daily or weekly.
- Apply this to physical endeavors, language learning, or difficult conversations.
Evening Light Management for Sleep
Andrew Huberman- Get 5-10 minutes of afternoon/evening sunlight in your eyes before the sun goes down, removing sunglasses if safe.
- Dim the lights in the evening and at night as much as safely possible for necessary functions.
- Shift to red lights (e.g., red bulbs in lamps) to eliminate blue wavelengths, which reduces cortisol and promotes sleepiness.
- Position lights fairly low in your room environment, as overhead lights are more stimulating.
- Use your phone's accessibility function (e.g., a triple-click shortcut) to filter out all blue light from screens in the evening.
Morning Light Alternatives for Dark Regions
Andrew Huberman- If waking up before sunrise, turn on bright artificial overhead lights.
- Consider using a 10,000 lux light panel on your desk for 5-10 minutes, being mindful of potential over-stimulation or headaches.
- If no light is available, take a cold shower to get an adrenaline boost and wake up.
- For individuals over 40, view a red light therapy panel (650-800nm wavelengths) at a distance of 12-18 inches for 5-10 minutes in the morning, ensuring the light is not painfully bright.
Andrew Huberman's Weekly Fitness Routine
Andrew Huberman- Perform three cardiovascular training sessions per week: one long (1-1.5 hours, slow pace like a weighted hike or jog), one medium (35 minutes, faster pace where conversation is difficult), and one short, high-intensity (12 minutes, e.g., 3 min warmup followed by 1 min on/1 min off or 20 sec on/10 sec off for 8 rounds, like assault bike or hill sprints).
- Perform three resistance training sessions per week, spaced about a day apart.
- Dedicate one resistance training day to legs (calves, hamstrings, quads).
- Dedicate one resistance training day to torso (shoulders, upper chest, dips, pull-ups, rowing, neck).
- Dedicate one resistance training day to smaller body parts (e.g., calves again, biceps, triceps, rear delts, abs).
- Ensure most workouts (except the long cardio) consist of about 10 minutes of warmup and 40-60 minutes of work.
Falling Back Asleep After Waking
Andrew Huberman- Practice long exhale breathing to calm yourself.
- Relax your face, jaw, and then perform a progressive body relaxation.
- Use a self-directed hypnosis app (e.g., Reverie) specifically designed for falling back asleep, ideally after practicing it during the daytime.
- Engage in non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) or yoga nidra, which can also be practiced during the day and used if you wake up at night.
- Avoid looking at the time if you wake up in the middle of the night.
- Refrain from getting on your phone and scrolling social media.
Strength Training Without Hypertrophy (for Women)
Andrew Huberman- Train with very heavy weights in the one to three repetition range to maximize strength gains with minimal hypertrophy.
- Ensure long rest periods between sets (e.g., several minutes) when training in this heavy, low-rep range to prevent compounding effects that could induce hypertrophy.
- Incorporate training strictly for power, which involves moving lighter weights quickly.
- If one arm or limb is weaker, emphasize unilateral movements for that side, potentially doing its sets first or temporarily reducing intensity on the stronger side.
- Focus on a strong mind-muscle connection and gripping the weights tightly during exercises.