LIVE EVENT Q&A: Dr. Andrew Huberman at the ICC Sydney Theatre

Keep naps under 90 minutes to avoid disrupting night-time sleep, and avoid napping altogether if even short naps impair your ability to fall or stay asleep. For many people, 10–20 minute NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) sessions—body still, mind awake—restore dopamine, enhance vigor, and *improve* night-time sleep rather than interfere with it. NSDR is zero-cost, can be practiced several times per week, and may even help compensate for lost sleep.

Placebo and more specific ‘belief effects’ are physiologically real—what we believe about a drug or protocol can change neural activity patterns and outcomes. In a nicotine study, people who *believed* they had taken a higher dose performed better cognitively, even when given zero or moderate doses, and brain recordings showed changes in cognition-relevant areas according to belief. Understanding mechanism and cultivating accurate, constructive beliefs can amplify beneficial effects—provided the underlying intervention is safe.

During effortful learning (e.g., difficult language practice, music, or motor skills), agitation and frustration correspond to neuromodulators like norepinephrine and adrenaline bathing neurons, signaling that circuits should change. Optimal learning usually occurs around ~85% correct and 15% errors—enough challenge to drive plasticity. The *actual* rewiring of synapses occurs largely during sleep and deep rest states, so combining deliberate, slightly frustrating practice with sufficient nightly sleep and periodic NSDR is the most effective way to learn.

To quickly shift out of a chronic fight-or-flight state, Huberman recommends performing 2–3 physiological sighs (double inhale through the nose, long exhale through the mouth), ideally combined with panoramic vision (relaxing the gaze and widening the visual field). Practicing NSDR 3–5 times per week (about 10 minutes per session) builds the capacity for self-directed relaxation and makes quality sleep more accessible. Behavioral tools should be first-line; supplements like magnesium or theanine, and then prescription medications, are viewed as secondary layers if needed.

Macrodose, clinically supervised psilocybin sessions appear more effective than traditional antidepressants for some patients with major depression, likely by transiently broadening connectivity between brain regions and changing how problems are perceived. MDMA-assisted therapy, when done with medical supervision and structured eye-masked inward focus, shows 60–67% remission rates for PTSD, likely via its empathogenic, serotonin- and dopamine-boosting effects. However, these compounds can be risky—especially for children, adolescents, people with psychosis or certain bipolar disorders—and must be used only in carefully controlled clinical environments.