Behaviors

Do not use serotonin, 5-HTP, or tryptophan supplements for sleep if they disrupt sleep architecture or cause middle-of-the-night waking.

Avoid melatonin supplements for sleep because doses are often too high, they may affect sex steroid hormones and puberty timing, and they may help sleep onset without maintaining sleep.

If your melatonin pulse starts too early and you wake too early, get a little more bright light around 7 or 8 p.m. to delay melatonin onset.

Provided it does not worsen the injury, rub the painful area or apply pressure near it—typically above the injury, though below can also help—to activate mechanoreceptive pathways that inhibit pain signaling.

If the same behavior yields less and less pleasure over time, reduce how often you engage in it and/or lower your expectation of reward each time you engage in it.

Avoid overnight flights because they disrupt sleep timing and can impair brain function and well-being for days afterward.

Consensual, age-appropriate sexual activity resulting in orgasm was described as improving subjective sleep quality and objective sleep measures; masturbation was also mentioned as showing sleep benefit for some people.

Avoid TV in bed because it can emit too much light and be too activating.

Use voluntary exercise as a stress-mitigation practice; voluntary exercise is presented as beneficial in contrast to forced exercise, which can produce stress-related downsides despite identical movement.

Increase predictability with a warning signal shortly before a stressor; about 10 seconds beforehand is described as protective because it allows coping preparation and indicates when safety returns, whereas warning too far in advance can worsen stress by prolonging dread.

Temporarily stop checking the news; Sapolsky describes stretches of not looking at the news as 'wonderfully freeing.'

Deliberately avoid phones during social interactions to focus on being together rather than bringing in outside contexts; this captures the broader recommendation to restrict social media/phone use in social settings.

Do not sample or eat non-food items such as dirt, rocks, or metal, as this is extremely dangerous.

Do not explore MDMA, psilocybin, or ibogaine for eating disorders outside properly trained medical supervision and completed clinical trials; he emphasizes legality, safety, and the need for more data.

He does not recommend cheat days involving eating whatever you want in whatever volumes.

Avoid self-induced vomiting and laxative use for purging, as these practices can harm the digestive tract mucosal lining and gut microbiome.

Try not to approach a meal or sit down to eat while anxious.

Explore whether children already have allergies to foods they consume, since eliminating foods to which they are allergic may improve symptoms.

Use subtle movements such as tapping your foot, bouncing your knee, pacing, nodding your head, or gesticulating to shuttle premotor activity elsewhere in the body and improve steadiness, focus, and control, including during surgery or public speaking.

When using TMS for ADHD, combine stimulation with a focused learning task to teach the brain to learn while circuits are being engaged.

Be judicious about entering psychedelic states because attention can become so narrowed that basic safety can be compromised.

Wait about 1–2 weeks before making major decisions after a psychedelic experience, including ending or starting a relationship, quitting your job, or making impulsive commitments like getting a puppy.

Be skeptical of microdosing claims because controlled studies have not shown increases in creativity, enhancement of cognition, or sustained mood improvement.

Avoid repeated psychedelic use such as twice a week for years; host warns this pattern may carry cumulative heart valve risk because many psychedelics, including MDMA, have serotonin 2B agonist effects linked to valvulopathy.

Use journaling, appreciation, or deliberate focus on enjoyable aspects of an activity to increase its rewarding properties and the dopamine associated with it. He gives exercise as an example: if you dislike it, identify some aspect you genuinely enjoy.

Do not rely on rewards given after hard work to make exercise, studying, or other effortful activities more appealing. Post-effort rewards may reduce the activity’s own dopamine response and weaken future motivation.

If using pre-workout drinks or coffee before exercise, do so only occasionally rather than habitually, because doing it too often can reduce overall dopamine release capacity, motivation, drive, and energy.

For dopamine reset/replenishment from overstimulating digital behaviors, do a complete 30-day abstinence from phone use, video games, and social media; his example notes the first 14 days were especially difficult.

If baseline dopamine has dropped due to addictive behaviors or substances, the path forward is to limit interactions with the dopamine-evoking behavior or substance, either through complete abstinence or a taper.

Do not use stimulants every time you study or every time you work out if you want to preserve enjoyment and motivation for those activities over time.