How to Fall Asleep Faster Tonight: Huberman's Protocol

Most sleep guides bury the answer behind morning routines—but you need to sleep tonight. Here's Huberman's complete 6-step protocol with the temperature hack that works your first night.

Skip the theory. Here's what to do if you need to fall asleep tonight:

The 3-step "tonight" protocol:

1. Take a hot shower or bath 1 hour before bed (20-30 minutes max)
2. Drop your room temperature by at least 3 degrees (use a fan or open window)
3. Remove all clocks from your bedroom (including your phone face-down)

That's it. These three actions trigger the physiological changes your body needs to fall asleep.

The hot shower seems counterintuitive. You'd think heating up before bed would keep you awake. But the opposite happens.

When you get out of a hot bath or shower, your core body temperature drops rapidly. This drop is exactly what your brain needs to initiate sleep.

According to Huberman: "Your body temperature will drop by one to three degrees and it will make it much easier to get into sleep." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast #84, 1:05:26

If you only do one thing tonight, make it the hot shower protocol.

Your body can't fall asleep until it cools down. This isn't optional.

"Every night when you actually sleep, your body is dropping by one to three degrees and that drop in temperature is required. It's like a gate that your body has to go through in order for you to get into sleep." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast #84, 10:18

Here's what most people get wrong: cold showers before bed actually make it harder to sleep.

When you expose your body to cold, your core temperature increases as a defensive response. Your body thinks, "I'm cold on the outside, better heat up the core." This is the opposite of what you want at night.

Hot baths work because of the compensatory cooling effect. Heat up, get out, and your body overcorrects by cooling down faster than it would naturally.

The timing matters too. One hour before bed gives your body enough time to complete the cooling process. Right before bed doesn't work as well.

Here's the full protocol, ordered by impact and when you should use each method.

Method 1: Morning Light Exposure (Foundation)

This won't help you tonight, but it's the foundation for long-term sleep quality.

Morning sunlight sets your internal clock for the entire day. Get it wrong, and you'll fight your biology every night.

The rule: Get outside and view sunlight within 30-60 minutes of waking.

How long?

• Bright sunny day: 10 minutes minimum
• Cloudy or overcast: 20-30 minutes
• Very overcast: Up to 60 minutes

Huberman explains why this matters for that night's sleep: "To be able to fall asleep about 16 hours later." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast #84, 28:48

Critical mistake most people make: Viewing sunlight through windows doesn't count. Glass filters the wavelengths your brain needs to set its clock. You have to actually go outside.

No sunglasses either (regular glasses are fine). The light needs to reach your eyes directly.

Method 2: The Temperature Protocol (Fastest Impact)

This is the protocol from the quick section, explained in more detail.

Step 1: Hot bath, shower, or sauna

• Timing: 1 hour before your target sleep time
• Duration: 20-30 minutes maximum
• Temperature: Hot enough to raise your body temperature

Step 2: Cool rinse

• After the hot exposure, take a lukewarm or cool (not cold) shower
• This accelerates the cooling process

Step 3: Cool bedroom

• Drop room temperature by at least 3 degrees
• Use a fan, open window, or cooling mattress cover
• Layer blankets so you can adjust during the night

Huberman on the bedroom setup: "Try and make your sleeping environment pretty cool, if not cold... drop the temperature in that sleeping environment by at least three degrees and you'll be happy that you did." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast #84, 1:05:41

Pro tip on blankets: Layer multiple blankets instead of one heavy comforter. If you wake up too warm, you can stick a foot or hand out from under the covers. Your palms, feet, and face are "cooling portals" that release heat efficiently.

Avoid wearing socks to bed if you tend to wake up hot. Socks block one of your main cooling mechanisms.

Method 3: Evening Light Control

Starting around 8-9 PM, begin dimming your lights.

The goal isn't total darkness. It's avoiding bright overhead lighting that signals "daytime" to your brain.

What to do:

• Dim overhead lights or switch to lamps
• Use red or amber bulbs if you want to optimize further
• Avoid bright bathroom lights right before bed

What matters less than you think: Phone and screen light gets a lot of attention, but overhead room lighting is actually more disruptive. A bright bathroom trip at 11 PM does more damage than scrolling on your phone with night mode enabled.

The key window: Avoid bright overhead lights between 10 PM and 4 AM.

Method 4: Caffeine Timing

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your "safe" afternoon coffee might be sabotaging your sleep.

Most advice says avoid caffeine 6 hours before bed. Huberman recommends a much larger buffer: 8-10 hours minimum.

If you go to bed at 10 PM, your last coffee should be before noon. For many people, this means one morning coffee and nothing after.

Why caffeine lingers longer than you think:

Caffeine blocks adenosine, the molecule that makes you feel sleepy. When the caffeine wears off, all that built-up adenosine floods your receptors at once. This is the "crash."

But even after the crash, caffeine metabolites stay in your system affecting sleep architecture. You might fall asleep fine but spend less time in deep sleep.

Best approach: Delay your first coffee 90-120 minutes after waking, and make it your only one. This avoids the afternoon crash entirely.

Method 5: The Supplement Stack (Optional)

Huberman emphasizes behavioral interventions first, supplements second. If you're not doing the morning light and temperature protocols consistently, supplements won't save you.

That said, here's the stack he discusses (for a complete breakdown of each supplement, see the full Huberman sleep cocktail guide):

On magnesium threonate: "People who take those often find that their transition time into sleep is much faster and their sleep is also much deeper." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Supplements Video, 2:59

On apigenin: "Also acts as a bit of an anxiety lowering compound, which is essential prior to sleep for people to essentially turn off their thinking or to be able to reduce the amount of ruminating." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Supplements Video, 3:31

Critical warning about L-Theanine:

"For people who have excessively vivid dreams, those excessively vivid dreams can lead to immediate waking and sometimes a little bit of anxiety upon waking in the middle of the night." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Supplements Video, 1:40

If you wake up from intense dreams, skip the theanine.

How to test supplements: Don't take everything at once. Try one supplement for a week, note the effects, then add another if needed. This way you'll know what actually works for you.

Best starting point: Magnesium threonate alone. It has the most consistent effects across different people and the fewest side effects.

Method 6: NSDR for Falling Back Asleep

Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) is Huberman's go-to tool for sleep issues. He does it almost daily.

"Nowadays I do NSDR or a Reveri sleep hypnosis almost every day... I'll just lie down, and I love yoga nidra, I love NSDR scripts." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast #84, 47:16

What is NSDR?

It's a guided relaxation protocol. You lie down, follow along with verbal instructions, and enter a state of deep rest without actually sleeping. Sessions run 10-30 minutes.

When to use it:

• You can't fall asleep after 20-30 minutes of trying
• You wake up at 3 AM and can't get back to sleep
• You need to recover from a bad night's sleep

Where to find NSDR protocols:

• YouTube: Search "NSDR" or "Yoga Nidra"
• Reveri app (Huberman's preferred option)
• Free scripts available on Huberman Lab website
• Learn more about the best times to practice NSDR

NSDR isn't meditation. You don't need to clear your mind or focus on your breath. Just follow the instructions and let your body relax.

Waking up in the middle of the night is normal. Everyone does it occasionally. The problem isn't waking up. It's what you do next.

Step 1: Don't check the clock

This is the single most important rule.

"Remove all clock faces from the bedroom. No matter how bad your sleep is going to be that night, knowing what time it is, is only going to make matters worse." — Dr. Andrew Huberman, Return to Sleep Short, 0:19

Checking the time triggers an anxiety cascade: "It's 2:45, I have to wake up at 6, that's only 3 hours, I'll be exhausted tomorrow, I have that important meeting..."

This mental spiral makes falling back asleep nearly impossible.

Before bed tonight, turn your clock away from the bed. Put your phone face-down or in another room.

Step 2: Try an NSDR protocol

Pull up a 10-20 minute NSDR session on your phone (keep the screen dim). Put in earbuds and follow along.

Many people fall back asleep during the protocol or immediately after.

Step 3: If still awake after 20-30 minutes, get out of bed

Lying in bed frustrated trains your brain to associate your bed with wakefulness. That's the opposite of what you want.

Get up. Go to another room. Keep lights dim. Do something boring until you feel sleepy, then return to bed.

One more thing: A brief period of alertness before sleep is completely normal. Huberman calls this the "pre-sleep alertness spike." If you feel more awake right before bed, don't panic. It passes. Knowing this is normal reduces the anxiety that keeps people awake.

Mistake 1: Hot shower right before bed

The timing matters. One hour before bed, not five minutes before. Your body needs time to complete the cooling process.

Mistake 2: Morning light through windows

Glass filters the blue light wavelengths your brain needs. Get outside, even if just on a balcony or in your backyard.

Mistake 3: Checking the time when you wake up

Already covered above, but worth repeating. Remove clocks from your bedroom entirely.

Mistake 4: Wearing socks to bed (if you run hot)

Your feet are one of three main "cooling portals" (along with your palms and face). Covering them blocks heat release.

If you wake up hot at night, try sleeping without socks.

Mistake 5: Taking all supplements at once without testing

You won't know what's working and what's causing side effects. Test one supplement for a week before adding another.

How long does Huberman's sleep protocol take to work?

The temperature protocol works the first night. Hot shower one hour before bed plus a cool room can help you fall asleep faster immediately.

Morning light exposure takes 3-7 days of consistency to shift your circadian rhythm and improve sleep quality.

Does Huberman recommend melatonin?

Not as a first-line supplement. He prefers magnesium threonate and apigenin because they support sleep without suppressing your body's natural melatonin production.

Melatonin can be useful for jet lag or occasional use, but daily supplementation may reduce your body's own production over time.

What if I can't get morning sunlight?

Use a 10,000 lux light box for 10-20 minutes within an hour of waking. Position it at eye level, not overhead. This isn't as effective as real sunlight, but it's a reasonable alternative for dark winters or early work schedules.

Can I take all the supplements together?

Huberman recommends testing one at a time for a week to see what works for you. Many people do combine magnesium and apigenin successfully once they've tested each individually.

Start with magnesium threonate alone. It has the most consistent effects and fewest side effects.

What's the most important thing to do tonight?

The hot shower protocol. Take a hot shower or bath about an hour before bed, follow with a lukewarm rinse, and keep your bedroom cool.

This triggers the 1-3 degree body temperature drop your brain requires to initiate sleep. It works the first night you try it.

Sources:

• Huberman Lab Podcast #84: Sleep Toolkit
• Best Supplements for Improving Sleep | Dr. Andrew Huberman
• A Simple Solution for Quickly Returning to Sleep at Night