Huberman has evangelized NSDR far and wide. He has been a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast four times, and the conversation always turns to sleep—being, as it is, recharge mode for the brain. Huberman calls optimization techniques like NSDR “protocols,” shading his speech with a militant flavor of masculinity. (His sleep routine also includes red light therapy, but non-cosmetically so, he insisted to Rogan: “I’m not trying to heal acne or anything.”) On the Lex Fridman podcast, he explained how NSDR “encompasses a lot of practices that are not meditation per se.” Hypnosis is one form of NSDR; so is yoga nidra, or yogic sleep.
Huberman’s speech is often laced with references to peer-reviewed studies, and bolstered by podcast guests, like the sleep scientist Gina Poe, whose insights help ratify his advice. But this advice does not benefit from his proximity to figures, like Rogan or Fridman, who have been criticized for platforming less than credible figures, who go on to spew misinformation into the podcast record. When it comes to NSDR in particular, a lot of what Huberman shares is probably true: That entering hypnagogia, the state between waking and slumbering, activates our parasympathetic nervous system, one of our body’s many fabulous built-in healing apparatuses.
“You’re basically putting yourself in a deep state of relaxation,” says Angela Holiday-Bell, a certified clinical sleep specialist in Illinois. The restoration process is triggered when brain activity slows into long and languorous “delta waves” that typically come about in the deepest stage of slumber. NSDR, in theory, allows you to plunge in and out of this state, as opposed to a nap, which is a slower descent. Holiday-Bell likes to pair the two: She may do a guided meditation or short yoga nidra practice to fall asleep. “It can improve stress and anxiety, cognitive functioning, mood,” she adds.
Yoga nidra has been the subject of decades of research, with studies consistently demonstrating positive effects on mood, personality, and cognition, attributed in part to increased dopamine release and brain circulation. (It’s most effective when done consistently for 30 minutes a day, a few times a week.) Huberman has repeatedly talked about how his research in NSDR was inspired by yoga nidra, which he’s practiced between one and seven times per week since 2017. “I coined NSDR,” he told Rogan in 2022, “because I didn’t like the words yoga nidra and meditation, all sounds kind of magic carpet-y and acts as a barrier for people.” What kind of people, I wonder?
