Protocols: A Guest Post by Andrew Huberman

With a glistening resume to speak to his knowledge of the human brain, Andrew Huberman has taken to the page to bring you all the important do's and don'ts for facing stress and whatever else life throws at you. Read on for exclusive early content from Andrew Huberman's Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body.

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This book is a guide for improving your health and performance. If you’re struggling with one or more areas of your health, it can help you. If you’re generally feeling good and you want to level up one or more of those areas, it can also help you. 

What is a protocol? A protocol is an established formula to help you overcome common obstacles, achieve a specific health or performance goal, or generally improve your day-to-day physical or mental state. Each is simple to implement. Each is designed to take the minimum amount of time to produce the greatest possible results. Each can work the first time, and every time.

As you learn these protocols, you’ll discover the science behind why they work and, in doing so, you’ll also discover a lot about how your brain and body work. Because each is based on known aspects of our physiology. They work because they are based in how we work. The science is important for at least two reasons that go beyond just substantiation. First, by understanding how a given protocol can, say, improve your sleep or your ability to focus and learn new things, you place yourself in the position to customize it to suit your needs, while still allowing it to produce the effect you want. Second, you’ll start to see similar biological themes turning up in what otherwise would seem like disparate systems. Our brains and bodies repurpose a lot of the same mechanisms to allow these systems to work in concert. Knowing some of the science behind each protocol affords you insights not just into how that protocol works, but how different protocols synergize. Practically speaking, that gives you a level of control over your health that simply learning “do protocol A to get effect B” just can’t provide. You can determine what works for your needs and your goals in the context of your life, without having to make the pursuit of health a singular focus.

Because let’s face it: The real reason to do any of these protocols is to feel and perform better, mentally and physically, and to have more energy so you can go about the rest of your life.

Whether you are young or old, currently fit or out of shape, the protocols in this book can make you feel, look, and think far better, and thereby show up better at work or school or on the field or in the gym, and in your relationships . . . even in your relationship to yourself. I know that statement to be true because literally millions of people have implemented these protocols to great success and continue to do so every day. I also know because I personally use them.

In fact, I discovered many of the protocols in this book because I needed them, in some cases urgently. I, like so many others, have struggled with sleep and stress, finding the “right” diet, knowing the best way to exercise to meet specific goals, and on and on.

But if I have one innate quality, it’s curiosity. I love to learn. I also love to share what I learn with others. And what drives my curiosity—at least in the realm of health and performance—is the same thing that might interest you in this book: I wanted to know the best solutions to those challenges. 

I wrote this book for you, so you can benefit from the very same tools.