Biggest Takeaways from Huberman’s Sleep Series

I finished listening to the 6 part podcast series Andrew Huberman did with Dr. Matthew Walker.

All up I think it was probably about 15 hours of content, assuming each episode was an average of 2.5 hours.

The thing about these interviews is that there is a lot of information. Everything is backed up with cited studies.

But when you take out all that information the core messages and actionable ideas can be summed up quite quickly, so here are the main ideas I gleaned from each episode.

Episode 1 was an overview. The main thing I got from it was the Q-Q-R-T framework which is an acronym for the 4 behavioral things to watch in order to optimize your sleep.

The first Q is quantity. You need to get enough sleep. Most people need 7 to 9 hours a night.

The second Q is for quality. There’s a big difference between 8 hours of solid sleep and 8 hours of tossing and turning all night. There are many things you can do to increase the quality of sleep which are covered throughout the rest of the series.

R is for regularity. This means going to bed at around the same time every night and waking up at around the same time every day.

And T is for timing which refers to sleeping at the right time based on your body. This last thing, timing, is something I never heard before. In fact, I always thought it was generally better for everyone to go to bed before 10 pm and wake up around 6 am.

As it turns out, there are, in general, 5 different types of people. Each wakes up 7 to 9 hours after sleeping.

Extreme morning types go to sleep at around 8pm. Morning types sleep at 9 pm. The neutrals go to sleep at about 11 pm, evening sleep at 1 am and extreme evening sleep at around 2:30 am.

Episode 2 covers some protocols for improving sleep. There are many, but the main things are to follow the 5 pillars of sleep hygiene.

The first pillar is regularity as previously talked about. The second is darkness. Use blackout curtains or a sleep mask. Third is temperature. Keep your room cool. The fourth pillar is to get out of bed if you can’t fall asleep. The idea here is that you don’t want to associate your bed with not being able to sleep. Instead, get up and do something relaxing while in a different room until you feel sleepy enough to go back to bed. The last thing is to be mindful of alcohol and caffeine. Basically, any amount of alcohol is detrimental. As for caffeine, try to keep it at least 10 hours from bedtime.

Episode 3 is about how to structure your sleep. My main takeaway here was about naps. If you don’t nap and don’t feel the need to nap, there is no need to start. If you are a napper, as I am, then it is best to keep them short, about 20 minutes. Also, don’t nap after 3pm.

Episode 4 and 5 highlighted the effects of quality sleep on cognitive function and emotional state. There was a lot of information but it basically boiled down to this: Getting enough quality sleep is a net positive for learning and emotional health, and not getting enough is a negative.

The last episode covered dreaming and ended with 10 frequently asked questions from the audience.

Basically, they don’t really know for certain why we dream or why we have lucid dreams or nightmares. There was an interesting method to get over recurring nightmares which was to replay the nightmare in your head before sleep but with an alternative ending, that is, a neutral or positive one. Apparently after doing this daily for a week or so it will start to change the nightmare.

Some of the questions brought out some good information also including to check yourself for sleep apnea, using sleep banking, and some supplements.

Sleep banking is the idea that if you know you will be short of sleep in the future then you can sleep more prior to the event. Unfortunately it doesn’t work the other way around. So if you spend too many nights with lack of sleep you can’t effectively make it up by sleeping more the following days.

They mentioned several supplements with the understanding that many people won’t need them and to also work on your behaviors first, such as the 5 pillars of sleep hygiene. I personally have been taking magnesium glycinate for a while but will now switch to magnesium threonate as per their recommendation.

If you are interested in learning more I highly suggest listening to the full series via The Huberman Lab, and although I haven’t read it yet, check out Matthew Walker’s book entitled “Why we sleep.”