Dr. Matt Walker

My recommendation would be after that bad night of sleep, hold out for as long as you can, as close to your natural bedtime as possible.

Then go to sleep and you'll give yourself highest chance of success.

Don't over-caffeinate.

That's the obvious one.

Follow the beautiful Huberman taper.

And then obviously try not to compensate with a nap.

Why?

Because that nap, as happens when we sleep, is going to remove some of that sleepiness, that adenosine.

And once again, you get into bed and you're not as sleepy as you would naturally be.

So you again go through a bad night because you're struggling to sleep or you wake up and you can't get back because you've got less weight of sleepiness on your shoulders.

due to the nap that happened earlier.

So I know it's hard, but I would say when the alarm goes off after a bad night, you just think, I do not want to get up.

It's been such a rough night.

I know it's a short-term gain, but trust me, it's a long-term loss because you're going to then just get into this vicious cycle.

So that's the first unconventional tip.

And I would have thought that too, and maybe even suggested that.

And if you listen to the first episode and where I list in a doomsday manner, the things that can happen by way of a short night, you would think that that's what I would then recommend.

But it was really imprinted on me by a wonderful sleep clinician, Michael Perlis, who sort of described some of these features and exactly the reasons why.

sort of underlying them.

And I think I've just tried to bake that out into a formula that makes sense.