Welcome back to Protocols Study Group — my YouTube-exclusive series where I'm working through Andrew Huberman's book Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body, one protocol at a time. This is essentially my version of fan art. I'm not affiliated with Huberman, his podcast, or Stanford — I'm simply a fan, reading the book, highlighting what sticks, and teaching it back to you because that's how it solidifies in my brain.
Put simply, we win by sleeping. Sleep is the foundation of mental and physical health and performance, and sleep deprivation is linked to many diseases and mental health issues. So before the new protocol, a quick recap of where we've been in Chapter 1, Protocols for Sleep:
- Protocol 1: view sunlight as soon as possible after waking — 5–10 minutes within 30–60 minutes of waking — to keep your body and brain on schedule.
- Protocol 2: view sunlight in the late afternoon, which also keeps you on schedule and protects your retinas from artificial light after dark.
- Protocol 3: avoid bright lights in the final hours before bedtime. LEDs emit a disproportionate amount of short-wavelength light that can reduce melatonin, affect mitochondrial health, and activate the habenula, a brain part tied to depressive feelings and disappointment. Next-day anxiety, reduced dopamine, and deficits in learning can follow. The fix: dim lights, candlelight, red lights, or blue-green blocking glasses.
This episode is Sleep Protocol 4: find your ideal sleep and wake times and strive to adhere to them.
The protocol: find your chronotype, then stick to it
Some people sleep better staying up late and sleeping in. Others feel best going to bed early and waking early. Most of us fall somewhere in between. The protocol is to find which one you are, pick a sleep-wake schedule that works for you, and stick to it — as long as you get at least 6–8 hours a night.
Consistency is the point. Regardless of your ideal schedule, you benefit from being consistent with any sleep-wake schedule.
The camping study: nature or artificial light?
Kenneth Wright, whose lab at the University of Colorado Boulder studies circadian rhythms, wanted to know how much of people's preference for late nights and late mornings was natural inclination versus the influence of artificial indoor lighting.
Participants went camping for a week with only the sun and campfires as light sources — no flashlights, screens, or electronics. One week was all it took to sync their sleep-wake cycles to the rising and setting of the sun. Before the outing, some were convinced they were morning people and others night owls; after a week in the wilderness, those differences faded and they all went to sleep around sunset.
Try it for one week
Unless you are perfectly happy with your sleep, the book suggests a more solar-cycle-aligned rhythm — and a one-week experiment to find it:
- Get into bed by 8:30 PM. If you're not ready for bed, read a book or do another non-screen activity — but turn all lights out by 9:30, 10:00 PM at the latest.
- Many people who do this wake at 6:00 AM, or even 5:00 AM, feeling more refreshed than ever.
Two things wreck the experiment: eating too close to bedtime and drinking caffeine late in the day. Last bite at least 2–3 hours before bed (but gnawing hunger keeps you awake too, so be practical), and no caffeine after 1–2 PM.
The three thirds
People tend to fall into three groups:
- About a third feel great going to sleep between 10:30 PM and midnight and waking between 6:30 and 7:00 AM.
- Another third do best going to sleep between 8:30 and 10:00 PM and waking between 4:30 and 6:30 AM.
- The remaining third are bona fide night owls — genetically driven melatonin and circadian rhythms keep them wide awake until 12:30 AM or even 2–3:00 AM, and they do best waking between 9:00 AM and noon.
The point is to determine which group you are in, without letting other variables screw up your experiment.
The second wind is normal — let it pass
It is very normal to feel very awake about 1–3 hours before bedtime — thought to be an adaptive mechanism for securing our surroundings and safety prior to sleep. Let it pass, and embrace the drop in body temperature, the rise in melatonin, and the sleepiness that follows.
Sleep runs in ~90-minute cycles
There are two types of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM. Non-REM has three phases, N1, N2, and N3, and only in N3 does actual deep or slow-wave sleep occur. Cycling through N1 to N2 to N3 to REM takes about 90 minutes on average. A person who sleeps 3 hours makes it through 2 cycles; a person who sleeps 7.5 hours gets 5 cycles.
During N3, heart rate slows way down and growth hormone is released; active repair of muscle, brain, and other bodily tissue occurs. N3 is also when the glymphatic washout of the brain occurs — removing waste products caused by normal brain metabolism and any cellular debris accumulated the previous day. It's not only regenerating muscle and tissue, but washing stuff built up in your brain.
REM sleep, meanwhile, is the brain's overnight therapy. It's crucial for sorting through all that waking life brings — eliminating or strengthening specific neural connections according to what to keep and what to discard. REM is also the only time in our lives when the locus coeruleus, the brainstem region that releases norepinephrine and increases focus and alertness, goes largely dormant. The brain is highly active but the body is paralyzed, the locus coeruleus is almost silent, and the body can't easily release adrenaline. Researchers believe this paradoxical state unloads emotional burdens from daytime experiences — and people selectively deprived of REM have a harder time unloading emotional burdens, including traumas.
Why this matters: the cost of too little sleep
Lack of sleep affects mind and body: diminished response time, alertness, attention, memory, and executive functioning. Insufficient REM sleep may increase dementia risk. Getting sufficient REM sleep is connected to overall longevity — less REM sleep is associated with increased mortality risk: for every 5% decrease in REM sleep, the mortality rate increases by 13%, holding true for most causes of death, including cardiovascular disease.
And when you sleep is almost as important as getting enough of it. If you get to bed and wake up at a time in sync with your chronotype, you end up getting more growth hormone release, spending less time in light sleep and more time in deep sleep and REM. As a consequence, you tend to need less sleep overall — sleep becomes more efficient and restorative.
That concludes Protocol 4: find your sleep-wake schedule and stick with it — the most important part being that you stick with it. It doesn't matter whether you're a stay-up-later person or a go-to-bed-earlier person. There are health risks with late-night shift work, but even then, sticking with the rhythm is the most important piece — plus setting yourself up with Protocols 1, 2, and 3: morning sunlight, afternoon sunlight, and reducing bright lights after dark.
The target to aim for: 7.5 hours is 5 cycles, and 7.5 to 9 hours is the recommended amount.
My own night routine
My own nighttime changes: blue-green blocking glasses that clip on to my glasses an hour or two before bed, dimmed lights, and red light bulbs in the lamp next to my bed. My stepson and wife have been asking questions about these changes and purchases, and I've had to pick the book back up to explain — which is part of why I'm hoping to build community around these subjects. Comment with questions about what I read or anything to dive deeper into; I read comments and will respond, answering from the book's text, not outside it.
The road ahead
There are 15 protocols for sleep in this book and we'll be covering them all here, then moving into other chapters such as protocols for stress, nutrition, focus, and more. As noted in the episode, the book was recently $28 for hardcover, $17 for Kindle, and $0.99 for the audiobook with membership — but it's not really meant to be read cover to cover. It's a manual to reference protocols as needed, so the hardcover, kept on the coffee table, picked up frequently, jumped around in, and highlighted, is the recommendation.
And if you want to put any of these protocols into practice: the Headphones to Action Workbook is available on the website, thisweekinmyheadphones.com — a 16-page PDF workbook, downloadable immediately after purchase, for $9. Reflect on what you heard, set an intention, and formulate a 7-day action plan — and it doesn't have to be a podcast; anything you hear counts.
Show notes
- Book: Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body by Andrew Huberman
- Protocol: Sleep Protocol 4 — find your ideal sleep and wake times and strive to adhere to them (6–8 hours minimum; 7.5–9 hours recommended; ~90-minute N1 → N2 → N3 → REM cycles)
- Key idea: consistency beats the perfect schedule; find your third, sync to your chronotype, and let the second wind pass
- Kevin's takeaway: N3 deep sleep repairs and washes out the brain; REM is overnight therapy — and when you sleep matters almost as much as how much
- Disclaimer: independent fan-made educational project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab, or Stanford University. For educational purposes only — not a substitute for professional medical advice.