Dr. Matt Walker: How to Structure Your Sleep, Use Naps & Time Caffeine | Huberman Lab Guest Series

(instrumental music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Guest Series, where I and an expert guest discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today marks the third episode in our six-episode series all about sleep, with expert guest Dr. Matthew Walker. During today's episode, we discuss how to structure your sleep for optimal mental health, physical health, and performance. We discuss monophasic sleep schedules, which are the more typical sleep schedule where you go to sleep at night and then wake up in the morning, so sleeping in one bout, as opposed to polyphasic sleep schedules, which are when you sleep in two or more bouts, either at night or perhaps a shorter bout of sleep at night and another bout of sleep during the day. We also discuss naps, including how to nap, how long your nap should be, whether or not naps are good or bad, in particular whether or not they're good or bad for you. It turns out this varies according to individual. We also discuss how your needs for sleep and naps vary across the lifespan, and we discuss body position during sleep, which might seem excessively detailed, but it turns out that body position during sleep is critical for ensuring that the sleep you get is optimally restorative. As with the first two episodes of this six-episode series, today's third episode is filled with both science, that is, the biology of sleep and napping and body position and how those relate to one another, as well as practical tools that you can use to vastly improve your sleep. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist, carried out online. Now, I've been doing therapy for well over 30 years. Initially, I had to do therapy against my will, but, of course, I continued to do it voluntarily over time, because I really believe that doing regular therapy with a quality therapist is one of the best things that we can do for our mental health. Indeed, for many people, it's as beneficial as getting regular physical exercise. The great thing about BetterHelp is that it makes it very easy to find a therapist that's optimal for your needs, and I think it's fair to say that we can define a great therapist as somebody with whom you have excellent rapport, somebody with whom you can talk about a variety of different issues, and who can provide you not just support, but also insight. And with BetterHelp, they make it extremely convenient so that it's matched to your schedule and other aspects of your life. If you'd like to try BetterHelp, you can go to betterhelp.com/huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by LMNT. LMNT is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means plenty of the electrolytes, magnesium, potassium, and sodium, and no sugar. As I've mentioned before on this podcast, I'm a big fan of salt. Now, I want to be clear. People who already consume a lot of salt or who have high blood pressure or who happen to consume a lot of processed foods that typically contain salt need to control their salt intake. However, if you're somebody who eats pretty clean and you're somebody who exercises and you're drinking a lot of water, there's a decent chance that you could benefit from ingesting more electrolytes with your liquids. The reason for that is that all the cells in our body, including the nerve cells, the neurons, require the electrolytes in order to function properly. So we don't just want to be hydrated. We want to be hydrated with proper electrolyte levels. With LMNT, that's very easy to do. What I do is when I wake up in the morning, I consume about 16 to 32 ounces of water, and I'll dissolve a packet of LMNT in that water. I'll also do the same when I exercise, especially if it's on a hot day and I'm sweating a lot, and sometimes I'll even have a third LMNT packet dissolved in water if I'm exercising really hard or sweating a lot or if I just notice that I'm not consuming enough salt with my food. If you'd like to try LMNT, you can go to drinklmnt, spelled L-M-N-T, .com/huberman to claim a free LMNT sample pack with your purchase. Again, that's drinklmnt, L-M-N-T, .com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Waking Up. Waking Up is a meditation app that has hundreds of different meditations as well as scripts for yoga nidra and non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR, protocols. By now, there's an abundance of data showing that even short daily meditations can greatly improve our mood, reduce anxiety, improve our ability to focus, and can improve our memory. And while there are many different forms of meditation, most people find it difficult to find and stick to a meditation practice in a way that is most beneficial for them. The Waking Up app makes it extremely easy to learn how to meditate and to carry out your daily meditation practice in a way that's going to be most effective and efficient for you. It includes a variety of different types of meditations of different duration, as well as things like yoga nidra, which place the brain and body into a sort of pseudo-sleep that allows you to emerge feeling incredibly mentally refreshed. In fact, the science around yoga nidra is really impressive, showing that after a yoga nidra session, levels of dopamine in certain areas of the brain are enhanced by up to 60%, which places the brain and body into a state of enhanced readiness for mental work and for physical work. Another thing I really like about the Waking Up app is that it provides a 30-day introduction course, so for those of you that have not meditated before or are getting back to a meditation practice, that's fantastic. Or, if you're somebody who's already a skilled and regular meditator, Waking Up has more advanced meditations and yoga nidra sessions for you as well. If you'd like to try the Waking Up app, you can go to wakingup.com/huberman and access a free 30-day trial. Again, that's wakingup.com/huberman. And now for my conversation with Dr. Matthew Walker. Dr. Walker, welcome back.