The Dr. Hyman Show
The #1 Anti-Aging Tool You’re Ignoring (Hint: It’s Free and Happens at Night)
Mon, 14 Apr 2025
Sleep is not just a luxury—it’s a foundational pillar of health that influences nearly every aspect of our well-being. Sleep deprivation doesn’t just cause fatigue; it disrupts hormones, drives inflammation, damages metabolism, and accelerates aging. From the gut microbiome to stress hormones like cortisol, sleep is deeply intertwined with brain, immune, and metabolic health. Yet our modern world—filled with late-night screens, ultra-processed foods, and chronic stress—works against quality rest. In this episode, I discuss, along with Dr. Matt Walker and Shawn Stevenson, why we need to address sleep as a core health priority to unlock healing, prevention of chronic disease, and renewed vitality. Matthew Walker earned his PhD in neuroscience from the Medical Research Council in the UK, and subsequently became a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is currently a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Matt’s research focuses on the effect of sleep on human health and disease, brain, and body. He has published more than 100 scientific research studies and has received numerous funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Matt has given a main-stage TED Talk that has been viewed over 13 million times, has also created several TED Miniseries on sleep, a MasterClass series on sleep, and is author of the New York Times bestseller, Why We Sleep. Matt is also the host of the 5-star-rated, The Matt Walker Podcast. Shawn Stevenson is the author of the USA Today National bestseller Eat Smarter, and the international bestselling book Sleep Smarter. He’s also the creator of The Model Health Show, featured as the number #1 health podcast in the U.S. with millions of listener downloads each month. A graduate of the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Shawn studied business, biology, and nutritional science and became the cofounder of Advanced Integrative Health Alliance. Shawn has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times, Muscle & Fitness, ABC News, ESPN, and many other major media outlets. This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN10 to save 10%. Full-length episodes can be found here: How to Optimize Your Sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker How To Stay Asleep And Sleep More Deeply Hack Your Sleep
Chapter 1: What are the harmful effects of sleep deprivation on health?
Coming up on this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show. I often tell people that you can overeat your whey fat, you can under-exercise your whey fat, you can under-sleep your whey fat, and you can also over-stress your whey fat. Stanford University, they found that just one night of sleep deprivation has a dramatic effect on suppressing leptin.
Just one night of sleep deprivation, we're seeing about 14% reduction in glucose reach in your brain.
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Go to bioptimizers.com slash hymen and use code HYMEN10 for 10% off your order. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone by my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you.
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human beings are the only species that will deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent good reason. Like doctors, you mean? Like doctors, exactly. But what does that tell us? That tells us is that Mother Nature has never had to face this challenge of sleep deprivation. So no wonder there are no safety nets in place. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: Why is sleep considered a foundational pillar of health?
And ultimately it led to chronic fatigue syndrome and a bunch of other stuff. My system just kind of collapsed because I was pushing through all these circadian rhythms, which have to be in balance for you to be healthy. And whether we like it or not, we tend to do a lot better from our health perspective.
If we go to bed at the same time, if we wake at the same time, if we eat at the same time, our bodies are designed like that. So you want to make sure that you actually don't eat before bed because that's the worst thing you can do. But you need to make sure you're having meals during a regular time space. So don't eat three hours before bed.
Don't eat a heavy meal before bed because I guarantee you that'll screw up your sleep. Also carbohydrates. I think if you want to actually eat some starchy things like sweet potatoes or some more starchy foods and you can handle it metabolically, Make sure you do it at night because the serotonin levels go up and it helps with sleep when you have your carbohydrates.
But still, don't eat white flour, sugar, all that processed food. Also, not eating enough is stressful. If your body's not getting enough food, it's also considered a stress. Now, you can do time-restricted eating and you can sort of narrow the window in which you eat for longevity purposes and so on.
But you also want to make sure you're getting enough food and not actually starving because that will increase cortisol and you'll wake in the middle of the night. Now, if you want to lose weight, you can use what I think is probably the most effective treatment I've ever found, which is the 10-Day Detox Diet. It helped people lose 120, 130, 200 pounds
It's like a gastric bypass without the pain of surgery, vomiting, and malnutrition. Another thing you can do is get stuff out of your head. Write your worries down at night. So get a little piece of paper or journal or maybe in your phone. Write down all your worries, what you have to do. Your day should be organized for the next day.
Free up your mind so you can actually let go of things and go into a deep, restful sleep. Next, you can try a number of supplements and things that I found very helpful. Magnesium is super important. It's the relaxation mineral. It helps regulate the stress response, helps you regulate cortisol, helps relax your muscles. I recommend two to 400, even more of magnesium glycinate before bed.
Glycine also helps with sleep. So you can use glycine and you can use that to help relax the nervous system and your muscles. Next, try some melatonin. Mellow out with a little melatonin. You can use half to up to two to three milligrams of melatonin at night. And that can often help you reset your circadian rhythms, particularly with travel.
Also ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb that can be really powerful for resetting cortisol. I use a product called Cortisol Manager, which helps at night to reduce the stress response and improve sleep quality. Also make sure, as I said, to get in rhythm, you know, where you can sleep at the same time. Try to go to sleep before 10. That's the best sleep you can have is before midnight.
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