In this episode 44 protocols
▶ 34:20 Morning Bright Light Exposure Behaviors “The protocol is to get bright light, ideally from sunlight into your eyes within the first hour of waking, ideally within the first 30 minutes. ideally it's from sunlight so you would go outside take your sunglasses off eyeglasses and contacts are fine even if they have uv protection in them look in the direction of the sun blink as needed to protect your eyes.” ▷ 34:50 10,000 Lux Light Tools “If you don't have access to sunlight for whatever reason, travel, you live in a cave, time of year, weather, whatever, you could use a 10,000 lux artificial light. These are available online for usually about a hundred dollars or so.” ▷ 42:37 Morning Hydration Behaviors “So it's very important that you hydrate first thing in the morning. For me, that's 16 to 32 ounces of water with some electrolytes in it.” ▷ 42:39 Electrolytes Supplements “For me, that's 16 to 32 ounces of water with some electrolytes in it.” ▷ 46:56 Caffeine Supplements “This is where the recommendation that I've been making for some years now of delaying your caffeine by anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes comes about. You now know that caffeine for a habitual user is not going to increase your cortisol levels that much.” ▷ 46:56 Delay Morning Caffeine Behaviors “This is where the recommendation that I've been making for some years now of delaying your caffeine by anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes comes about. So the logic here is if you drink your caffeine not immediately after waking, but let's say an hour after waking or 90 minutes after waking, it's going to flatten out a bit the downslope of that cortisol.” ▷ 50:38 Exercise Early and Consistently Behaviors “If you're like me and you like to exercise within the first three hours of the day, and you exercise in the first three hours of the day, doing either resistance training or cardiovascular exercise... Exercise of a type that's familiar to you... provides a very strong, what's called entrainment cue.” ▷ 1:00:00 Deliberate Cold Exposure Behaviors “If you want to boost your cortisol levels using deliberate cold exposure, cold shower, ice plunge, whatever it is, you can do that. But it needs to be occasional deliberate cold exposure, probably not more than twice per week.” ▷ 1:00:00 Cold Plunge Tools “If you want to boost your cortisol levels using deliberate cold exposure, cold shower, ice plunge, whatever it is, you can do that.” ▷ 1:03:55 L-Tyrosine Supplements “It is true that certain supplements like Yohimbine, like L-tyrosine, can have a modest effect in increasing cortisol.” ▷ 1:03:55 Yohimbine Supplements “It is true that certain supplements like Yohimbine, like L-tyrosine, can have a modest effect in increasing cortisol.” ▷ 1:04:33 Grapefruit Diet “If you eat a grapefruit or you drink a, I don't know, six to eight ounces of grapefruit juice, it's going to have a meaningful impact on how long the cortisol that's already in your bloodstream lasts. So if you're interested in boosting your morning cortisol, simply eat a grapefruit in the morning.” ▷ 1:08:54 Licorice Root Supplements “Start with the lowest possible dose of licorice root if you're going to use it in capsule form. If you're going to eat black licorice... you're going to need to be cautious about not spiking your cortisol too much.” ▷ 1:08:59 Black Licorice Diet “If you're going to eat black licorice... you're going to need to be cautious about not spiking your cortisol too much, especially if you're eating it later in the day. One very important point, licorice has a potent enough effect on cortisol and cortisol has a potent enough effect on blood pressure that if you suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you absolutely do not want to eat black licorice.” ▷ 1:15:44 Reduce Light Exposure at Night Behaviors “First of all, you just dim the indoor lights, right? Dim them as much as possible, especially overhead lights.” ▷ 1:16:12 Floor Lights Tools “Table lamps are better than overhead lights and floor lights are better than table lamps.” ▷ 1:16:12 Table Lamps Tools “Table lamps are better than overhead lights and floor lights are better than table lamps.” ▷ 1:16:49 Red Light Bulb Tools “You could purchase a red light bulb. I'm not talking about red light therapy, but there are various sources of red lights that you can install. They're very inexpensive.” ▷ 1:18:12 Blue-Light Blocking Glasses Tools “And of course, if you're interested in using glasses that restrict short wavelength light... the glasses are convenient because oftentimes you don't have control over your indoor lighting environment.” ▷ 1:21:29 Limit Afternoon and Evening Caffeine Behaviors “I recommend a cutoff of about 2 p.m. Now I'm very caffeine tolerant. So for some people, noon might be the cutoff for other people, 4 p.m. might be that cutoff. But in general... it's a good idea to cut your caffeine intake off somewhere around 2.30 or 3 p.m. at the very latest.” ▷ 1:23:24 Long-Exhale Breathing Behaviors “Exhale-emphasized breathing slows your heart rate down... and exhale, emphasize breathing engages the diaphragm... in ways that bring your levels of stress down all very quickly. If you can't remember to do that because you're so stressed, just do some emphasized exhale breathing.” ▷ 1:23:45 Physiological Sigh Behaviors “The fastest way to calm down in real time is going to be the so-called physiological sigh, which is just a big, deep inhale through your nose, then a second sharp inhale to try and maximally inflate your lungs, and then a long exhale until your lungs are empty. If you're experiencing stress, especially in the evening and nighttime hours, do one to three physiological sighs.” ▷ 1:27:05 Avoid Eating 2 to 3 Hours Before Bed Behaviors “I know I've talked a lot before about how most people should probably not eat for the two hours before they go to sleep or ideally even the three hours before they go to sleep.” ▷ 1:27:18 Small Pre-Bed Snack Diet “So if it means having a small snack, an hour or even 30 minutes before bed, I'll sometimes do that. But ideally you're not eating anything for about two hours before you go to sleep.” ▷ 1:28:07 Starchy Carbohydrates at Dinner Diet “I try to get some starchy carbohydrates in that meal. I tend to eat pretty moderate to low carb throughout the day. And then in the evening for my last meal... I make sure that I have some starches. I have some rice or I have some potatoes or yams.” ▷ 1:32:27 Introduce Evening Starches if Low-Carb Sleep Suffers Behaviors “If your sleep is great, terrific. If it's not, maybe you want to explore introducing some starchy carbohydrates to your last meal of the day, see how that goes.” ▷ 1:36:43 Alpha-GPC Supplements “if you have a really grueling, hard, intense workout at 2 p.m. and before that you drank an energy drink or a big cup of coffee, or if you're me, some yerba mate plus a big cup of coffee, maybe an alpha GPC every once in a while, I'll do that and then hit the gym really hard in the early afternoon.” ▷ 1:38:09 Post-Workout Recovery Meal After Late Workout Diet “I would suggest eating some starchy carbohydrates, especially after a hard resistance training workout that comes later in the day.” ▷ 1:39:35 Warm or Hot Shower After Late Workout Behaviors “Or when you get home, you want to take a hot shower.” ▷ 1:39:38 Sauna Tools “Great if you can sit in a sauna, then take a warm shower, kind of a neutral shower.” ▷ 1:40:15 Avoid Phone or Computer Before Bed After Late Workout Behaviors “don't get on your phone or computer right before getting into bed because you've already spiked your cortisol from that workout and your basal cortisol levels are low, and so it's a perfect time to send yourself into later hours of the night when your cortisol is way too high.” ▷ 1:41:13 Avoid Late-Evening Intense Exercise Behaviors “If you're working out in the late evening and closer to sleep, you're going to need to do a number of things to really try and offset any increases in cortisol. It's so critical that you get this phase one correct.” ▷ 1:44:38 Rhodiola Supplements “These include things like ashwagandha, apigenin, which we'll discuss, things like phosphatidylserine, even rhodiola.” ▷ 1:44:38 Phosphatidylserine Supplements “These include things like ashwagandha, apigenin, which we'll discuss, things like phosphatidylserine, even rhodiola.” ▷ 1:45:37 Ashwagandha Supplements “If you're going to experiment with ashwagandha as a means to reduce your cortisol levels... dosages somewhere between 300 milligrams... all the way up to 900 milligrams. But typically I would recommend... somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 milligrams, at least to start... that you restrict your intake of ashwagandha to the late afternoon and evening and nighttime hours.” ▷ 1:47:46 Apigenin Supplements “Apigenin is found in chamomile tea. Chamomile tea is sort of long known to be a, you know, sort of relaxing agent, but apigenin comes from chamomile.” ▷ 1:47:46 Chamomile Tea Diet “Apigenin is found in chamomile tea. Chamomile tea is sort of long known to be a, you know, sort of relaxing agent.” ▷ 1:48:12 Magnesium Threonate Supplements “magnesium threonate, which by the way is interchangeable with bisglycinate for sleep, but threonate is going to be better for a variety of reasons.” ▷ 1:48:22 L-Theanine Supplements “So apigenin, magnesium, threonate, and theanine is the so-called Huberman Lab sleep stack that has worked exceptionally well for me.” ▷ 1:56:19 NSDR / Yoga Nidra Behaviors “I highly recommend that you use a practice I've talked about before on this podcast, which is non-sleep deep rest, AKA yoga nidra... There are great data now showing that NSDR and yoga nidra done regularly for durations of anywhere from 10 minutes... to 30 minutes can significantly reduce cortisol levels.” ▷ 2:03:51 Evening Walk at Sunset Behaviors “If there's a beautiful sunset out, take a sunset walk, walk in the direction of the sun, look at the sunlight, blink as needed to protect your eyes, but see those beautiful sunsets... that's going to be part of your regimen for bringing down your levels of autonomic activation, for reducing your cortisol.” ▷ 2:10:36 Get 6 to 8 Hours of Sleep Behaviors “For most people, it's going to be six to eight hours. There are you rare ones out there that can get by on four to five hours, but the data really points to the fact that most people should get six to eight hours, maybe nine or maybe more if you're a kid and you're developing or you're combating an illness.” ▷ 2:13:26 Creatine Supplements “There are a few like creatine, which may be okay, or some whey protein if your parents decides, okay, talk to your parents, kids.” ▷ 2:13:26 Whey Protein Supplements “There are a few like creatine, which may be okay, or some whey protein if your parents decides, okay, talk to your parents, kids.”