--- title: "Huberman Morning Routine: Light, Caffeine, Focus" description: "Huberman’s morning routine: 10 to 30 minutes of outdoor light, caffeine 90 to 120 minutes after waking, then a 90-minute focus block with low white noise." url: https://shimmr.app/learn/huberman-morning-routine/ --- - [Learn](https://shimmr.app/learn/) - [Focus](https://shimmr.app/learn/focus/) # Huberman morning routine: light, caffeine and focus, and what the evidence says Huberman’s morning routine: 10 to 30 minutes of outdoor light, caffeine 90 to 120 minutes after waking, then a 90-minute focus block with low white noise. The Shimmr team Published Oct 31, 2026 5 min read - **The routine:** in a July 2021 episode of his podcast, Andrew Huberman described getting outside for natural light, drinking water, waiting 90 to 120 minutes before caffeine and then starting about 90 minutes of focused work. - **Morning light:** he says 2 minutes outside is a minimum, 10 is better and 30 is “fantastic”, and a 2013 camping study found natural light moved people’s body clocks earlier. - **The caffeine delay:** waiting 90 to 120 minutes is his own practice to avoid an afternoon crash; it has barely been tested directly, so treat it as optional. - **The work block:** he works in blocks of about 90 minutes with his phone off and low white noise in the background, and a 2014 study found white noise slightly improved memory for pictures. - **What to keep:** light soon after waking has the strongest evidence; the other steps are reasonable habits you can try one at a time. Hear it The Huberman morning routine is a short set of habits from neuroscientist Andrew Huberman: get natural light soon after waking, drink water, wait 90 to 120 minutes before caffeine, then start a block of about 90 minutes of focused work. He laid it out in a July 2021 episode of the Huberman Lab podcast, “Maximizing Productivity, Physical & Mental Health with Daily Tools”. Here is the routine as a simple list, what he said about each step, and which parts the research supports. Shimmr is not affiliated with Huberman or his podcast. ## What is Huberman’s morning routine? Huberman’s morning routine has four main steps: light, water, a later coffee and a focused work block. In the episode they sit inside a longer list of daily protocols. Here is the morning part in order: | Step | What he does | How long | | --- | --- | --- | | 1. Light | Goes outside, ideally on a walk, without sunglasses if safe | 10 to 30 min | | 2. Water | Drinks water before anything else | At least 16 oz (about half a litre) | | 3. Caffeine | Waits before his first coffee or tea | 90 to 120 min after waking | | 4. Deep work | Phone fully off, screen at eye level, low white noise | About 90 min | The full episode also covers fasting, exercise, sleep and supplements. Those are beyond this page. If you are thinking about supplements, talk to your doctor first. ## How long should you get morning sunlight? Huberman suggests 10 to 30 minutes of outdoor light in the morning. In his words, “two minutes would be a minimum, 10 minutes would be even better, and if you can, 30 minutes would be fantastic.” He adds that the time depends on how bright it is outside, and that indoor lamps work less well, because daylight is far brighter even under cloud. This is the best supported step. Morning light is the main signal that sets your body clock earlier. A [2013 study in Current Biology](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.039) took people camping in summer with only natural light. Their body clocks shifted to match the sun, with the biological night ending just after sunrise, and the people with the latest clocks moved the most. If you want to get up earlier as well, [how to wake up early](https://shimmr.app/learn/how-to-wake-up-early/) covers the rest of the steps. Huberman also likes to walk during this time. He says forward motion through a scene, with the world flowing past your eyes, quiets activity in the amygdala, a brain area involved in fear. Treat that as his view; a walk outside is a simple way to get your light either way. ## Why does Huberman delay caffeine 90 to 120 minutes? Huberman delays caffeine to avoid a crash later in the day. He says: “I purposely delay my caffeine intake to 90 minutes to 120 minutes after I wake up.” His reasoning is that caffeine blocks adenosine, the chemical that builds up while you are awake and makes you sleepy. Drinking it straight away, he says, can lead to an early afternoon dip when it wears off. The honest answer is that this has barely been tested directly. No large study has compared coffee at waking with coffee two hours later and measured the afternoon slump. It is his practice, not a proven rule. If coffee at 7 works fine for you, there is no strong reason to change. If you crash after lunch, a later first cup is an easy, harmless thing to try. Keeping caffeine out of the late afternoon matters more for sleep than the exact time of your first cup. ## How does Huberman structure his first work block? Huberman works in blocks of about 90 minutes, with his phone switched fully off. He links the length to ultradian cycles, rhythms of about 90 minutes in which, he says, the brain shifts from very alert to less alert and back again. He also puts his screen at eye level or a little higher, because he finds looking down makes him sleepier. The 90-minute idea comes from research on a rest and activity rhythm that runs through the day as well as through sleep. It has not been tested as a work rule, so see it as a useful starting length, not a magic number. Some people do better with shorter blocks; the [Pomodoro technique](https://shimmr.app/learn/pomodoro-technique/) uses 25 minutes. What tends to matter most is protecting one long stretch from interruptions, which is also what makes a [flow state](https://shimmr.app/learn/flow-state/) more likely. ## What does Huberman listen to when he works? Huberman uses low-level white noise in the background while he works. He says it works best at a low volume, playing in the room rather than through headphones. White noise is a steady hiss with equal energy across all frequencies, like a fan or a radio between stations. There is some support for this. In a [2014 study](https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00537), healthy adults who heard white noise while looking at pictures later recognised them slightly better than when they heard a plain tone instead. Brain scans showed more activity in the midbrain, a dopamine area linked to learning. The effect was small, and it was a memory test, not a measure of a full working day. Huberman has also talked about binaural beats, covered in [Huberman on binaural beats](https://shimmr.app/learn/huberman-binaural-beats/). ## Do you need to follow the whole routine? No, you do not need the whole routine for it to help. Start with the step that has the best evidence: 10 minutes or more of outdoor light within the first hour of waking. Once that is easy, add one more habit, such as a later coffee or a single 90-minute block with your phone off. If you want a sound to mark the start of work, Shimmr’s Flat → Bright Shift glides from Alpha to Beta over 10 minutes, and you can add white noise in the mixer under a session for your first block. Streaks and the heat map show which mornings you kept to it. Try a routine for two weeks before you judge it, and keep only what makes your mornings easier. In the app Flat → Bright · 10 min A Shift that glides from Alpha up to Beta, a short, steady start before your first block of work. ## Common questions **What is Andrew Huberman’s morning routine?** He gets outside for natural light soon after waking, often on a walk, drinks water, waits 90 to 120 minutes before caffeine and then does about 90 minutes of focused work with his phone off. He described it in a July 2021 episode of his podcast. **Why does Huberman wait 90 minutes for coffee?** He says caffeine blocks adenosine, the chemical that builds sleep pressure, and that waiting 90 to 120 minutes helps him avoid an early afternoon crash. This is his own practice and has not been tested much in studies. **How long should you get morning sunlight?** Huberman suggests 10 to 30 minutes outside, with 2 minutes as a bare minimum and more time on cloudy days. Indoor light helps less because daylight is far brighter, even under cloud. **What does Huberman listen to when he works?** He says he uses low-level white noise during focused work, played quietly in the room rather than through headphones. A 2014 study found white noise slightly improved recognition memory in healthy adults. **Do you need to follow the whole routine?** No. Morning light has the strongest evidence, so start there; add the other steps one at a time and keep what makes your mornings easier. Keep reading - [Sleep How to wake up early (and actually feel awake): what the research says](https://shimmr.app/learn/how-to-wake-up-early/) - [Focus Huberman on binaural beats: 40 Hz, focus and the studies](https://shimmr.app/learn/huberman-binaural-beats/) - [Focus How to get into a flow state: what flow is and what helps](https://shimmr.app/learn/flow-state/) This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Binaural beats are not a treatment for insomnia or any other condition.