How to Defeat Jet Lag, Shift Work & Sleeplessness | Huberman Lab Essentials

Aim to get ~100,000 lux of light exposure before 9–10 AM (mostly from outdoor sunlight, even on cloudy days) to robustly set your clock and improve nighttime sleep 14–16 hours later. Brief exposure to low light at night (especially after 8–10 PM) can strongly shift your clock, so minimize bright and even moderate light between about 10–11 PM and 4 AM to avoid unintentional phase shifts.

Your temperature minimum is the lowest body temperature point in a 24-hour cycle, generally 90–120 minutes before your habitual wake-up time. Without thermometers, estimate it from your usual wake time (e.g., wake at 6:30 AM → temp minimum around 4:30–5:00 AM). Knowing this time lets you use light, food, exercise, and temperature to reliably advance or delay your circadian rhythm.

Viewing bright light (and optionally exercising and eating) in the ~4 hours after your temperature minimum will phase-advance your clock: you’ll naturally feel sleepy and wake up earlier on subsequent days. This is the key protocol for preparing for eastward travel or for anyone wanting to shift to an earlier schedule in a controlled way (up to about 1–3 hours of shift per day).

Exposure to bright light, food intake, and exercise in the 4–6 hours BEFORE your temperature minimum will phase-delay your clock: you’ll want to go to bed and wake up later. This is useful for adapting to westward travel or extending wakefulness to match later local time—while understanding that such delays are generally easier for the nervous system than trying to sleep earlier.

For large time-zone changes (e.g., California to Europe, ~9 hours), start shifting your schedule 2–3 days before departure by using light, exercise, and food timed around your home temperature minimum in the direction you need to move (advance for eastward trips, delay for westward). After landing, continue using local-time light exposure and meal timing relative to your *shifted* temperature minimum. For trips shorter than ~48 hours, it’s often better to stay on your home schedule rather than trying to adapt.