Bright light exposure between the hours of about 10 PM and 4 AM, if it's chronic, if you do it more than every once in a while, triggers a suppression of dopamine that leads to deficits in learning, deficits in mood, and a whole host of other problems, including a connection to the pancreas that starts dis-regulating blood sugar.
play_arrow
stop
Bright Light Exposure Between 10 PM & 4 AM Suppresses Dopamine
This is the fastest way that I'm aware of that's anchored in real known biology to calm oneself down ... It's an inhale through the nose, and then it's another inhale at the top, and then a long exhale. That's the fastest way to slow your heart down and calm down.
play_arrow
stop
Double Inhale, Single Exhale Breathing Reduces Stress & Anxiety
Dopamine, at least at modest levels, tends to increase the positivity of mood; it tends to make us more outward goal-directed; and it tends to place our body into a state of action ... Dopamine makes us want to move, it makes us motivated, and it makes us think about what's outside us that we want to pursue ... Serotonin tends to activate circuits in the brain and body that tend to make us feel rather placid, kind of blissed, and feel pretty good about what we've got in the present. It tends to restrict our goals toward things that are already in our immediate experience or possession.
play_arrow
stop
Dopamine Increases Motivation; Serotonin Enhances Satisfaction
I'm a big proponent, based on 25 years of quality peer-reviewed work, of viewing bright light within the four to six hours after waking—but ideally within the first hour after waking.
play_arrow
stop
Viewing Bright Light After Waking Triggers Cortisol Release & Sets the Circadian Clock
Viewing light circa sunset adjusts the sensitivity of the cells in the eye such that it buffers you against some of the negative effects of light late at night. So, I call it sort of my Netflix vaccination—I can watch some late-night movie or TV or be on my screen a little bit later provided I got some sunlight right around sunset.
play_arrow
stop
Watching the Sunset Reduces Late-Night Light Exposure's Adverse Effects
The fatigue after MDMA, in my assessment, is very unlikely to be due to serotonin depletion; it's pretty likely due to a rebound in a hormone called prolactin ... Anytime you get dopamine real high, prolactin then rebounds.
play_arrow
stop
Andrew Huberman Doesn't Supplement With 5-HTP for Sleep
Wearing blue blockers early and throughout the day is exactly the wrong approach to setting your circadian clock properly. People have just decided that blue light is bad, and nothing could be further from the truth.
play_arrow
stop
Don't Wear Blue Light Blocking Glasses During the Day
There was this lure in the yoga nidra community that 30 minutes of yoga nidra is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep. Frankly, I don't think there's any evidence for that specific statement. But when I started doing this practice and exploring it, I found that I would come out of a 30-minute yoga nidra session feeling like I slept 5, 6 hours or longer.
play_arrow
stop
Yoga Nidra Facilitates Relaxation & Helps People Fall Asleep
This yoga nidra practice resets levels of certain neurotransmitters and neuromodulators in the basal ganglia, which is an area of the brain involved in action, execution, and planning.
play_arrow
stop
Yoga Nidra Facilitates Relaxation & Helps People Fall Asleep
Breathing through the nose... improves learning and memory retention—in one case olfactory memory, so it was for odors; in the other case, it was non-olfactory memory, so cognitive material related to I think it was a spatial memory task.
play_arrow
stop
To Learn About Nasal Breathing's Benefits, Read 'Breathe' & 'Jaws'
It's pretty clear that about 5 grams of creatine can have some pro-cognitive effects, but for people that are prone to hair loss, creatine does seem to facilitate the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, which will increase beard growth but will also strip hair off the scalp.
play_arrow
stop
Creatine Enhances Cognition But Can Cause Hair Loss
