How to Control Your Cortisol & Overcome Burnout

Huberman calls hydration the most underrated protocol in mental and physical health. Literature shows cellular and organ function decline with mild dehydration. The rise in cortisol from hydration is pulsatile and modest, not a spike, but it contributes to the overall morning energy profile. He combines hydration with the bright light protocol by drinking water while outside, stacking both tools.

Huberman clarifies that the popular advice to always delay caffeine stems from the desire to avoid a sharp post-caffeine cortisol drop. He outlines two listener profiles: those who can drink immediately because they have robust morning routines (light, hydration, exercise) that lift cortisol high enough, and those who crash hard. For the latter, shifting caffeine later reduces the steepness of the cortisol decline, making energy more even. He notes thousands of people have reported this single change eliminated their afternoon slump. For occasional users, he notes caffeine is a very effective cortisol-spiking tool, but you lose that with daily use.

Huberman tackles the controversy around cold exposure, metabolism, and cortisol. He states that while the perfect experiment hasn't been done, the aggregate literature shows that if you put people into uncomfortably cold water, they release cortisol; but if they do this habitually, the cortisol increase becomes non-significant. However, the long arc of dopamine release— which changes mood for hours—remains. This dual outcome allows people to use cold exposure strategically: infrequently for a cortisol and catecholamine spike, or regularly for catecholamines alone without cortisol worries. He also addresses the online narrative that cold exposure is bad for women's hormones, saying evidence doesn't support that.

Huberman frames licorice as an emergency or occasional tool, not a staple. He references clinical advice where patients on cortisol-altering medications are told to avoid licorice, demonstrating its real potency. Because cortisol increases blood pressure, the risk profile is serious. He advises against kids using it and underscores that this is not alternative medicine fluff but a well-documented pharmacological effect.

Huberman notes that 'comfort foods' are often carbohydrate-rich precisely because they increase blood glucose and suppress cortisol. He references studies showing that switching to a low-carb diet (<30% calories from carbs) transiently increases cortisol across the 24-h cycle for about 3 weeks, after which it normalizes. He advises people to evaluate their sleep quality on low-carb diets and, if sleep is poor, to experiment with reintroducing starches at dinner. He himself eats moderate-to-low carbs during the day and purposefully eats starches at his last meal around 7–7:30 pm.

Huberman cites his own clinical trial with David Spiegel at Stanford where participants practiced this breathing for 5 minutes daily. Results showed reduced heart rate, increased heart rate variability (a marker of parasympathetic activation), improved mood, and better sleep — benefits that extended beyond the practice window. He emphasizes that this is the fastest known way to calm down in real time, superior to meditation or massage in moments when those aren't feasible. The process is demonstrated verbally on the podcast.

Huberman explains that the goal in Type 1 burnout is to shift the acrophase (peak) later, not eliminate it. NSDR sits between the fast cortisol climb and the desired wake-up time, acting as a dampener. He provides free NSDR scripts of 10, 20, and 30 minutes (some read by him, others by Kelly Boys) and emphasizes that the practice teaches self-directed relaxation, which is a skill that transfers to other times of day.

Huberman cautions that ashwagandha is only an adjunct to the behavioral evening protocols. It has a meaningful dose-dependent effect on cortisol, but it cannot override bright light exposure or high stress. He references the literature's 11–29% reduction range and explains that timing matters because the goal is to reinforce, not disrupt, the circadian rhythm. He personally takes 300 mg in the evening.

Huberman describes this stack as his long-standing nightly routine. He notes that while apigenin's cortisol-lowering effect is smaller than ashwagandha's, it synergizes with the light-dimming and breathing practices. The stack is not a soporific but a facilitator of the natural cortisol decline. He reinforces that supplementation should come after behavior is optimized.

Huberman builds the case that cortisol's release from the adrenals is slow (about 10 minutes after a stressor) and long-lasting, which explains why we stay stressed after an event is over. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a peak that normally occurs in the last hours of sleep and the first hour after waking; it's the single most important energy surge of the day. He explains that cortisol releases glucose into the blood mainly from liver and muscle glycogen, and because of its lipophilic nature, it readily enters the brain, particularly the hippocampus. This energy-deployment role is why cortisol is needed not just for emergencies but for any cognitive or physical effort. The reframe leads directly to the conclusion that we should spike cortisol early and let it fall low at night — a complete inversion of the 'keep cortisol low' mantra.

Huberman characterizes Type 1 burnout: cortisol rises too fast before waking, causing early-morning anxiety and truncated sleep; then there's a crash in the afternoon. The fix is to blunt that pre-waking spike and shift the peak later. He prescribes NSDR/yoga nidra upon waking (or when waking too early) to engage the parasympathetic system, hydration, bright light to anchor the acrophase at the correct clock time, and delayed caffeine to make the cortisol drop more gradual. Type 2 burnout: cortisol is blunted in the morning (can't get going) and fails to drop at night (mind racing, can't sleep). The fix is to aggressively suppress evening cortisol so the morning spike can be restored. That means an evening routine: avoid bright/blue light, use red/amber lighting, take a 5-min physiological sigh session, perhaps hot shower/sauna, and consume starchy carbs at the last meal. He notes that for Type 2, ashwagandha (300–600 mg) and apigenin in the evening can augment the behavioral tools.