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

Name: It Sucks for 3 Days But It Makes Waking Up Early Effortless - Dr Andrew Huberman
Duration: 12 min 14 s
Description: Chris and Andrew Huberman discuss how to wake up early. What are Dr. Andrew Huberman's tips for being a morning riser? Why is it so hard to be a morning pers...

Chris Williamson12:14Added Aug 30, 2026

Chris and Andrew Huberman discuss how to wake up early. What are Dr. Andrew Huberman's tips for being a morning riser? Why is it so hard to be a morning pers...

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Transcript

337 segments

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