GUEST SERIES | Dr. Matt Walker: Improve Sleep to Boost Mood & Emotional Regulation

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab guest series, where I and an expert guest discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today marks the fifth episode in our six episode series, All About Sleep, with expert guest, Dr. Matthew Walker. Today's episode focuses on the inextricable link between sleep and our mental health. For instance, a specific stage of sleep called rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, is critical for removing the emotional content of our previous day's memories. And in doing so, provides a sort of therapy within sleep that allows us to feel emotionally restored when we wake the next morning. We discuss what happens when you are deprived of REM sleep to a small or greater degree. And we discuss how to improve the quality and quantity of your REM sleep in order to ensure mental health. We also discuss science-based protocols for reducing rumination and negative thoughts before sleep. The information shared by Dr. Walker in today's episode is sure to be critical for anyone that is either struggling with mental health issues or who simply wants to bolster their overall mental health. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating and sleep tracking capacity. Many times on this podcast, we discuss how in order to fall and stay deeply asleep, your body temperature actually needs to drop by about one to three degrees. And in order to wake up feeling maximally refreshed and energized, your body temperature needs to heat up by about one to three degrees. Eight Sleep makes it very easy to control the temperature of your sleeping environment so that it's easy to fall and stay asleep and wake up feeling refreshed. I started sleeping on an Eight Sleep mattress cover several years ago, and it has completely and positively transformed my sleep. So much so that when I travel to hotels or Airbnbs, I really miss my Eight Sleep. I've even shipped my Eight Sleep out to hotels that I've been staying in because it improves my sleep that much. If you'd like to try Eight Sleep, you can go to eightsleep.com/huberman to save $150 off their Pod3 cover. Eight Sleep currently ships to the USA, Canada, UK, select countries in the EU and Australia. Again, that's eightsleep.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means plenty of the electrolytes, magnesium, potassium and sodium, and no sugar. As I mentioned before on this podcast, I'm a big fan of salt. Now I want to be clear, people who already consume a lot of salt or who have high blood pressure or who happen to consume a lot of processed foods that typically contain salt need to control their salt intake. However, if you're somebody who eats pretty clean and you're somebody who exercises and you're drinking a lot of water, there's a decent chance that you could benefit from ingesting more electrolytes with your liquids. The reason for that is that all the cells in our body, including the nerve cells, the neurons, require the electrolytes in order to function properly. So we don't just want to be hydrated, we want to be hydrated with proper electrolyte levels. With element, that's very easy to do. What I do is when I wake up in the morning, I consume about 16 to 32 ounces of water and I'll dissolve a packet of element in that water. I'll also do the same when I exercise, especially if it's on a hot day and I'm sweating a lot. And sometimes I'll even have a third element packet dissolved in water. If I'm exercising really hard or sweating a lot, or if I just noticed that I'm not consuming enough salt with my food. If you'd like to try element, you can go to drink element spelled lmnt.com/huberman to claim a free element sample pack with your purchase. Again, that's drink element lmnt.com/huberman.
Today's episode is also brought to us by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing therapy for over 30 years. Initially, it was a requirement for being let back in school, but I decided to keep up with that therapy because provided the therapy has three essential components, which are excellent rapport with the therapist, support from the therapist, and valuable insights from the therapist that we wouldn't otherwise be able to arrive at. Well, then it's a terrific way to improve our mental landscape, both our emotional state and our behaviors. Better Help allows you to find a therapist with whom you have those three key components, and it also makes it very easy to schedule. Again, the sessions are carried out entirely online, and even if you're extremely busy or traveling a lot or have a lot of family and business obligations, Better Help allows you to access those therapy sessions regularly so that you can constantly improve. There's just oh so much data supporting that quality therapy can improve our mental health and the overall landscape of our lives. In fact, I view quality therapy as important as physical exercise, and I know many others do as well. There certainly aren't a replacement for one another, but if you're doing physical exercise, meaning resistance training and cardiovascular training, and you're doing regular quality therapy of the sort that Better Help can provide, well, then you're essentially doing as much as anyone possibly can to improve your mental health and physical health. If you'd like to try Better Help, go to betterhelp.com/huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman.