Andrew Huberman’s Key Health Protocols

Andrew Huberman discusses practical habits from his book Protocols, which he says work together to support health, mood, focus, sleep, and performance. Most are free or inexpensive. The conversation also covers nutrition, supplements, learning, personal growth, and faith.

Daily habits

• Hydrate after waking: Drink about 16–32 ounces of water, with electrolytes if desired. Huberman suggests roughly 80 ounces over the day, adjusted to individual needs.
• Get bright outdoor light early: Aim for daylight in the first hour after waking, ideally outdoors. Overcast daylight still helps; a 10,000-lux light box is an alternative when daylight is unavailable.
• Get daylight later, too: Light in the late afternoon or evening may reduce some negative effects of artificial light at night.
• Exercise regularly: Huberman favors alternating resistance and cardio days, with three sessions of each per week. For lifting, emphasize compound movements and a few challenging work sets. Exercise earlier in the day if practical.
• Dim lights at night: Keep the sleeping environment dark, dim indoor lighting, and reduce screen brightness. Huberman suggests avoiding screens during the final 30 minutes before sleep.
• Move after meals: A 5–10-minute walk can help moderate post-meal blood-glucose rises. He suggests aiming for roughly 7,000–8,000 steps a day.
• Practice brief focus and learning: Set aside 90 minutes to two hours for challenging mental work. Put your phone outside the room to make focusing easier.
• Make room for personal reflection: Alongside work and responsibilities, take time each day for quiet, creativity, or reflection without trying to accomplish a specific task.

Stress, resilience, and sleep

• Use a physiological sigh to calm down: Take two inhales—the second a short top-up—followed by a long exhale. Huberman says this can slow heart rate quickly. Longer exhales are another option.
• Build tolerance for manageable challenges: Exercise, cold exposure, or learning something difficult can help practice responding calmly to discomfort. He describes the anterior mid-cingulate cortex as involved in persistence and responding to challenges.
• Pause before reacting under stress: Huberman says intense stress can temporarily impair judgment. When possible, avoid making consequential decisions or sending emotional messages in the heat of the moment.
• If you wake during the night: Try long exhales. He also describes a technique involving slow eye movements beneath closed eyelids, followed by a long exhale.
• Support sleep with a suitable routine: Keep the room dark and avoid going to bed either uncomfortably hungry or immediately after eating. He notes that some people sleep poorly when they eat too few starches.
• Consider side-sleeping: Huberman says side-sleeping with the head slightly elevated may support the brain’s overnight waste-clearance processes.

Nutrition and supplements

Huberman’s general dietary suggestions include:

• Eat an appropriate amount for your needs and prioritize complete protein relative to calories.
• Include vegetables and fruit for fiber and micronutrients, while recognizing that some people tolerate certain foods or high fiber poorly.
• Consider low-sugar fermented foods, such as sauerkraut or kimchi.
• Use olive oil if desired; avoid making diet decisions based on oversimplified claims about seed oils.
• Include enough starches to support energy and, for some people, sleep.

When asked to choose five supplements, Huberman named:

1. Magnesium glycinate or magnesium L-threonate, particularly for people with sleep difficulties.
2. EPA omega-3, ideally a prescription product such as Lovaza.
3. Vitamin D, while noting that dose and blood levels matter.
4. Alpha-GPC for focus, with a caveat that it may affect cardiovascular risk markers.
5. Creatine, which he uses for strength and potential cognitive support, especially during sleep deprivation or stress.

He also discusses caffeine and other supplements, but emphasizes that behavioral habits are the foundation. Supplement and medication choices should be considered with a qualified clinician.

Learning and personal development

• Learning requires effort and errors: Repeatedly attempting a difficult skill—and sometimes failing—is more useful for building new abilities than simply reviewing familiar material.
• Use self-testing: Quiz yourself after learning, identify what you could not recall, and revisit it later. Huberman says this supports longer-term retention.
• Balance responsibility with reflection: He shares a framework from analyst James Hollis: “shut up, suit up, and show up”—practice gratitude, prepare, and fulfill your responsibilities—while also making time to step out of routine roles and listen for what matters to you.
• Find direction through action: Huberman argues that people often discover meaningful work while putting effort into other responsibilities, rather than waiting for a single calling to appear.

Other topics discussed

• Huberman describes faith and prayer as personally meaningful practices that helped him feel less responsible for controlling everything. He presents this as his experience, not a scientific conclusion.
• He discusses peptides and GLP-1 drugs, acknowledging potential benefits as well as uncertainties and risks. He cautions that evidence varies and long-term effects may not be fully known.
• The episode also includes promotions for the show, a book, and sponsors.