How Light Impacts Your Sleep and Mood: Easy Daily Tactics from Dr. Andrew Huberman

“Use the body to control the mind.”
— Dr. Andrew Huberman

Andrew Huberman, PhD is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has made numerous important contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity. Andrew is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation fellow and recipient of the 2017 Cogan Award for his discoveries in the study of vision. Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford Medicine has been consistently published in top journals including Nature, Science, and Cell.

Andrew is host of the Huberman Lab podcast, which he launched in January of this year. The show aims to help viewers and listeners improve their health with science and science-based tools. New episodes air every Monday on YouTube and all podcast platforms.


About Tim Ferriss:
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running.

Connect with Tim Ferriss:

[method]

I suggest everyone read the book "Lights Out". It changed my life. It is crucial that we humans sleep in pure darkness.

[cgsec]

I have had problems keeping regular sleeping for my whole life. Working at home and staying up late was fine, but now with a new job I must get up early so decided to do some research. Glad I found this, I would never have thought about light. It makes sense, I will try experimenting with this.

[jparcasm]

the 10 minutes i spend on my phone before i go to sleep are the best 5 hours of my life

[earlj.d.]

Thanks for this concise video 🤙🏽 I have a 6 week old and my wife and I have gotten into the habit of letting her see morning sun (indirect for now). It’s definitely helped with her sleeping pattern

[lindastrykers]

You've done different podcasts on sleep. You've touched on light therapies to help set the circadian rhythm, but it would be great if you could offer insight on what to do - how to start your day if you have to wake up at 3 am. Is there a special light that can be used to wake up? I've seen different lights and their reviews, but I need to determine which ones are legitimate. Would love your thoughts/science on this.

[nate]

Its a cultural phenomenon that dictates our relationship with sleep and how much respect we pay to it. If we let go of the somewhat immature and adolescent idea that 'staying up late' and not going to bed early is somehow 'hip', 'trendy' or somehow makes you feel youthful. Ironically, you are probably sleeping sub-optimally and consequently you're probably not doing good for your health and consequently aging faster. The issue is that staying up late is engrained in our culture, but if we all respected sleep more and slept more in tune with how our ancestors slept, we'd benefit from it hugely.

We are literally morphing into people who have poor quality sleep, and subsequently detract from having any real focus on anything in life, just numbing ourselves with a myriad of distractions, context switching all the time, having apps and tech which constantly steals our attention. This is going to make us sad, depressed, unfulfilled and unable to really create real change in life.

Conclusion, put down your phone and mute all notifications, pay attention to your circadian Rhythm and do anything you can to help it stay well tuned (eating times, exercise, being outside in natural sunlight, avoidance of bright light during the night time). All of this will result in a significant improvement in your sleep and your mood and your ability to focus on the things in life that are worth focusing on.

[valbennett]

This really worries me when it comes to children especially middle and HS kids. They have to wake before sun comes up and be in a school building all day with no sunlight. They dont get to see the sunlight in the morning.

[guyfantastico]

Is there one light therapy lamp that you could recommend? There's too many to choose from and I want to buy the right one.

[bluebutterflywellness]

I'm glad he said 2-10 minutes because I've been sitting out here for 35 minutes! 🥵

[SuzanneKirshPianist]

Cannot recommend Northern Lights Technologies' Boxlite highly enough. Its large panel ensures that the 10, 000 lux will enter the eyes and on account of its size one can be seated a comfortable 14" away approx. They are an outstanding company and have been around for many years. There are a lot of tiny lights on the market now but the disadvantage is one has to sit very, very close to them to get any benefit. For those of us who live in the far north with cold, gray weather for months on end this particular light is a life saver!

[ababycow]

When you are actually watching this at 2am in bed on your phone 👀

[PedroCarvalho-lbqx]

So it's best to exercise in the morning?

[sq]

I could definitely use more positive anticipation!

[wiegraf]

The overhead light thing is a good idea!

[morginejurdan]

I live really nestled in the woods and I cannot even see the sun until about an hour or more after the sun actually rises where I live and I can barely even see it through the trees!! I now read by a blue Therapy light instead. I like being up then, and it’s dark outside.

[oliverbrunncarstens]

Wow that was really informational, thanks!

[marlenedeandrade]

Excelente presentación de la información! Concisa, clara y científicamente fundamentada. Además de muy útiles y fáciles de aplicar las técnicas expuestas. Gracias por compartirla!

[MisterWealth]

Andrew what about those places without sunlight during storming seasons and whatnot? Do those SAD lamps help at all?

[Bill]

Your narrative is rich and compelling; reminiscent of a book that was rich and compelling in its narrative. "Better Sleep Better Life" by William Brook

[TheMarlinMan]

The only problem with implementing all of these pieces of advice from the genius minds like Tim's, Dr. Hubermans, Dr. Sinclair, Dr Patrick etc, is your life and mentality will improve so much you'll want to quit your job and conquer the world !