YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → It Sucks for 3 Days But It Makes Waking Up Early Effortless - Dr Andrew Huberman

It Sucks for 3 Days But It Makes Waking Up Early Effortless - Dr Andrew Huberman — Transcript

by Chris Williamson · 2,412 words · 337 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00how can people become a morning person
0:02or learn to get up early more easily and
0:06more regularly yeah um three days of
0:09pain the rest is easy so it takes about
0:11three days to shift the biological
0:14mechanisms to uh make you a morning
0:16person now if you are a very strongly
0:20genetically determined Night Owl that's
0:22a thing that's a thing so there are
0:24genetic mutations they call them
0:26polymorphisms that make some people
0:28night owls they feel best
0:30psychologically and physically going to
0:31sleep at about 1: 2 or 3:00 a.m. and
0:34waking up somewhere around you know 10
0:3711 am or noon that exists not just
0:41during development or teen years but
0:43that exists not just for social reasons
0:44other people are true morning people
0:46they feel absolutely best going to sleep
0:48around 8:00 p.m. or 900 p.m. 10: p.m.
0:52would be late for them and they feel
0:53great waking up at 4:00 5 or 6:00 a.m.
0:56okay most people feel best going to
0:57sleep somewhere between 10: and midnight
0:59and waking up somewhere between 6:00
1:01a.m. and 8:00 a.m. or so maybe 5:30 to
1:048:00 a.m. okay so those are three bins
1:08of the Night Owl the morning person and
1:11then the more typical schedule but it's
1:13heavily weighted toward that typical
1:15schedule if you look at the general
1:17population so if somebody wants to get
1:20up earlier you need to stack the four
1:23primary what are called zeit gers or
1:25timekeepers so named because some of the
1:27early chronobiologists that discovered
1:29this this stuff and the underlying
1:31mechanisms were German as it were so the
1:34number one zeit Gaber the number one way
1:36to shift your circadian clock which is
1:38this cluster of neurons that sits a few
1:40centimeters above the roof of your mouth
1:42is to view bright light at a time when
1:45you want to be awake aka the morning
1:48okay so that's why I say get outside
1:50look at the sun toward the sun don't
1:53force yourself to stare at it don't
1:55damage your eyes blink as needed no
1:57sunglasses eye glasses corrective lenses
2:00contacts are absolutely fine even if
2:01they have UV protection
2:04okay however if you combine that with
2:06another zeit Gaber the second most
2:08powerful zeit Gaber is exercise or
2:10movement so if you do some jumping jacks
2:12you skip some rope or even just take a
2:14walk while facing the sun now you're
2:16starting to stack different zeit gers
2:18and I'll explain the mechanisms in a
2:20moment if you then also add caffeine now
2:23this spits in the face a little bit of
2:25what I said a few minutes ago but if you
2:27were to add caffeine you can entrain as
2:31it's called the circadian clock to be
2:33alert at that time a bit more and I'll
2:35be honest if I'm going to exercise first
2:36thing in the morning I need caffeine I
2:38can't wait that 60 to 90 minutes if I
2:40need to jump right into exercise I find
2:42it's easiest for me to do 30 minutes
2:44after waking three hours after waking or
2:4611 hours after waking and a lot of
2:48people find that the same but of course
2:50exercise when you can because it's that
2:52important but if you want to quot and
2:53optimize your energy levels for exercise
2:55typically people will notice that has to
2:56do with your temperature Rhythm Okay so
2:58we've got sunlight we've got exercise or
3:01movement of any kind it could be jumping
3:02jacks could be walking you don't have to
3:04do a full workout and then caffeine and
3:07in some cases food I'm not big on eating
3:10first thing in the morning I don't like
3:11to eat until 11: a.m. or noon that's
3:14when my first meal arrives for me just
3:16naturally that's when I get hungry it's
3:17all caffeine and hydration prior to that
3:20but if you were to eat something first
3:22thing in the morning you that's part of
3:24the way you entrain your circadian clock
3:26to wake up to essentially wake you up
3:29earlier and then the fourth one is a
3:30social Rhythm if you're interacting with
3:32other people you're going to entrain
3:35your clock to that as well way yes so
3:37there's a socially there's a social
3:39component to circadian entrainment now
3:41the pathways for these are from the eye
3:43in the case of viewing light to the
3:45circadian clock the supermatic nucleus
3:47in the case of caffeine it's more
3:49General in the case of exercise there's
3:51literally a brain stem to circadian
3:54clock connection a big super highway of
3:56neuronal connections that then So-Cal
3:59entrains your circadian clock remember
4:01your circadian clock generates an
4:03intrinsic 24-hour Rhythm such that if we
4:05put you into constant dark or constant
4:07light you would still sleep for a given
4:08bout and then be alert for a given bout
4:10with a little bit of a nap it just is
4:12what would call free run it would drift
4:13a little later each day this is what
4:15happens when you go to Vegas this is
4:17what happens when you're in an
4:18environment without a lot of cues about
4:20the day uh the sunlight uh rising and
4:23setting
4:25cycle
4:26sunlight exercise caffeine and eating
4:29and social interactions bring your
4:32circadian clock into alignment with all
4:35of those zit gers so when I said it
4:38takes three days if tomorrow you want to
4:41start beginning the process of becoming
4:43an early riser you'd set your alarm for
4:455:00 a.m. no matter what time you went
4:47to sleep the night before you're going
4:48to get up and you're going to do the
4:49four things that I described maybe leave
4:51out food if you don't want to eat maybe
4:53leave out caffeine if you want to delay
4:54by 90 minutes it's going to hurt and
4:58then by the early afternoon you'll be
4:59dragging a bit and you just have to be
5:01careful to not overindulge in caffeine
5:03which will then cause you to fall asleep
5:04later then you want to go to sleep at
5:06your now naturally slightly earlier
5:08sleep time the next day you'll notice
5:11you'll it'll be a little bit easier to
5:13do the morning routine I just described
5:16and by the third day you ought to be
5:18waking up with or before the Alarm by a
5:20few minutes or moments because your
5:22circadian clock has phase shifted okay
5:25it's phase Advanced as we say your
5:27circadian clock intrinsic to you
5:29generates a
5:3124.2 or a 24.3 hour Rhythm it's not
5:34perfectly 24 hours and that we believe
5:37we don't know but the just so story is
5:39that it's that it's such that that
5:43you're able to then shift that clock in
5:46in one or the other direction you can
5:47phase advance so you wake up earlier and
5:49go to sleep earlier you can phase delay
5:51how do you phase delay well you're
5:52probably doing this already everyone
5:54nowadays pretty much qualifies as a
5:56shift worker by the strict and not so
5:58strict criteria of shift work which is
6:00are you doing any kind of cognitive
6:02activity after 9:00 p.m. are you viewing
6:04any kind of bright lights after 9:30
6:06p.m. most people would say yes so the
6:09the Diabolical thing about the Circadian
6:11Timing System is that it requires a lot
6:14of bright light ideally from sunlight
6:16but a lot of bright light early in the
6:18day to make you a morning and daytime
6:20person but it requires just a little bit
6:22of bright light even from an artificial
6:23Source after the hours of about 9:30
6:26p.m. till 4:00 a.m. to quash your Mel
6:29tonin make it difficult to sleep or if
6:31you sleep to make that sleep not as
6:33effective there's a simple remedy
6:34however which is and this is a beautiful
6:37study publishing science reports in
6:412022 if you view sunlight in the
6:45afternoon even for five minutes or so
6:48could be late afternoon could be sunset
6:50take off your sunglasses look in the
6:51direction of the Sun so now looking West
6:53you adjust the sensitivity of your
6:55retina the neurons in the back of your
6:57eye such that bright light later at
7:00night doesn't have quite as much effect
7:03to suppress melatonin and it reduces the
7:05Melatonin suppressive Effects by about
7:0750% or offsets those so I think of this
7:10afternoon viewing as well first of all
7:12it's nice to look at a sunset if you're
7:14indoors in environment like this even if
7:16there are bright lights on get outside
7:19for a few minutes before the sun sets
7:20this is especially important in Winter
7:23even if you can't see the Sun as an
7:24object get some sun light in your eyes
7:26and that will at least partially offset
7:28the effects of bright light light in
7:30your eyes at night partially and I refer
7:32to this more or less as your Netflix
7:33inoculation so that that night you can
7:35be on your phone or watch Netflix and
7:36it's not going to disrupt your sleep as
7:38much but it will still disrupt your
7:40sleep somewhat but let's you know unless
7:42like Rick rubin's very diligent about
7:44wearing the red lens classes I've
7:46started doing that as well um but if you
7:49don't do that you I'm guessing he also
7:52sees the sunset in the evening um he's
7:54very attached for good scientific
7:57reasons uh to the sunlight thing but
7:59these are little things that take just
8:01moments right they're essentially zero
8:03cost that can really improve your sleep
8:05but that's how you become a morning
8:06person if you want to become a night
8:07person you do the opposite you view
8:09bright light between the hours of 400
8:12p.m. and 10 p.m. and there then you will
8:15phase delay or phase shift in a delayed
8:18way your circadian clock making you want
8:21to wake up later the next morning I
8:23wonder if dogs count as uh social
8:28interaction absolutely and they have all
8:31of the same mechanisms we just described
8:33so I just thinking how can we stack that
8:35everything first thing in the morning
8:37morning walk you if you're in a place
8:40that's not Iceland or somewhere that's
8:42super high North dog social interaction
8:46moving around and then caffeine if you
8:48do or if you don't if you don't want it
8:50but uh if you have a dog that likes to
8:52run you're even better off CU it'll
8:54force you to run if you have if you have
8:56an English bulldog like I did you'd be
8:58lucky if you get out of bed by
9:00their eyes are droopy they don't and um
9:03uh they don't like to move but it is the
9:06case that dogs will naturally Orient
9:09toward the sun you know and people
9:11always ask you know do dogs have the
9:12same mechanisms absolutely intrinsically
9:14photosensitive retinal gangling cells
9:15the one that project to the clock and
9:17carry all of this um thing about
9:19circadian entrainment to sunlight are
9:22present as far as we know in every
9:24extent Mamon species every Mamon species
9:26that's that's alive today um and you
9:29know this is a system that evolved from
9:32bacteria that's very similar to the
9:35opsin the light absorbing molecules that
9:37are in the insect eye it's a very
9:39primordial system it's organized very
9:41differently anatomically in the retina
9:43and to me it's actually one of the more
9:44beautiful systems in in all of us in
9:47fact the one thing that no one can seem
9:49to defeat you're never going to biohack
9:51away is circadian biology this this you
9:54know fluctu 24-hour fluctuation in
9:56energy and focus you know some people
9:58require less sleep but we we're all um
10:02more or less a slave to these mechanisms
10:04and you know it's a good thing that we
10:05are because it forces us to rest
10:07neuroplasticity occurs during sleep it
10:09push down adenosine you know it takes us
10:11through these natural es and cycles of
10:13cognition I'm obsessed by the idea that
10:15in sleep you know the conscious mind
10:17obviously is not in control the
10:19unconscious mind can geyser up thoughts
10:21the brain is organizing things more in
10:22terms of symbols time and space are very
10:25uh very organized very differently in
10:26dreams and there's a lot of information
10:28to be gleaned from dreams it's just that
10:30we don't yet understand what the symbols
10:32mean the kind of classic Freudian yian
10:35um interpretations are certainly not
10:36going to be complete but you know I I'm
10:38so grateful that we get this thing
10:40called sleep and I think thanks to the
10:42great Matt Walker We Now understand that
10:44the whole thing of all sleep would I'm
10:45dead is a really dumb mindset and you
10:49know my team at The hubman Lab podcast
10:51we sometimes joke that we win by
10:53sleeping you know when we're in the peak
10:55of things we all encourage each other to
10:57like get rest you know get rest like we
11:00really prioritize sleep traveling should
11:03be about the journey not the chaos of
11:05packing which is why I have been using
11:07nomatic backpack and carryon Pro for
11:09over a year now this thing is the best
11:13backpack on the planet I did an entire
11:15month on tour on just hand luggage alone
11:18it's like the Swiss army knife of travel
11:21pack they've got pockets for your laptop
11:22your clothes your snacks it is so well
11:24organized that even your toothbrush
11:25feels important and the amount of
11:27thought that they've put into every
11:28pouch and zipper is is incredible it's
11:30beautifully designed it's not over
11:31engineered and it will literally last
11:33you a lifetime with that lifetime
11:34guarantee so this is the final backpack
11:37that you will ever buy plus they also
11:39offer international shipping free
11:40shipping on orders over $49 in the
11:42United States and if you don't like it
11:44for any reason you can return or
11:46exchange it within 30 days so you can
11:48buy it completely risk-free fill it with
11:50all of your possessions and if you don't
11:51like it they'll give you your money back
11:52right now you can get a 20% discount by
11:54going to the link in the description
11:55below or heading to Nom matic.com wisdom
11:59using the code mw20 a checkout that's
12:01Nom matic.com wisdom and mw20 a checkout
12:06thank you very much for tuning in if you
12:08enjoyed that clip you will love the full
12:09length episode with Dr hubman right
12:12there

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of It Sucks for 3 Days But It Makes Waking Up Early Effortless - Dr Andrew Huberman by Chris Williamson, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,412 words across 337 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.