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For years I've told people the same thing: get outside in the morning, move, catch some daylight. The advice came from Andrew Huberman's podcast, which I had followed for years. When his book Protocols came out on September 15, I started reading right away. After about 20 pages I stopped. The book gives morning light a dose: five to ten minutes on a clear day, fifteen if it's cloudy, thirty if it's heavily overcast. I had passed on those numbers without ever asking where they came from.
So I went looking. This episode of Under Load is a doctor's check of the 47 protocols in the book, from the perspective of a physician and a busy person.
The book's notes hold 1,126 numbered entries and about 1,730 references. With AI help, I matched them to 1,243 different papers in PubMed and pulled 438 Huberman Lab podcast transcripts. Then I reviewed every protocol myself. About 1 in 11 of those papers is tagged as a randomized trial. 22 of the 47 protocols give a specific number of minutes, grams or degrees that I couldn't find a study to support. Follow all 47 as written and you'd need about 25 hours a week.
In this episode:
- Where the morning sunlight minutes came from, and what the research on daylight, sleep, mood and mortality shows.
- The "50 percent cortisol" claim, and the lab study of eight sleep-deprived men behind it.
- A reader who wakes up in the dark nine months a year, my Berlin winters, and the 10,000 lux lamp on our breakfast table.
- Caffeine: where the book and the data agree, and the morning coffee delay I couldn't find a trial for.
- Alcohol: why I'd replace the 8-hour rule with a simpler one. No amount has been shown to help you live longer.
- Strength training: what the mortality data support, and why I train six to seven hours a week anyway.
- Why health research describes the average person, and how to test advice on yourself without doing anything harmful.
- Two protocols where the risk outweighs the benefit: warming the bedroom before waking, and sun on bare skin for testosterone.
The episode closes with seven habits that made the cut, most of which take no extra time: a fixed wake time, a coffee cutoff, no nightcap, about 7,000 steps a day, strength and cardio twice a week, and a mostly unprocessed diet built on protein and plants.
[Visit The Upward ARC and subscribe](https://www.andreheeg.com).
Under Load is the Sunday edition of The Upward ARC, by Andre Heeg, MD, DDS, physician and reconstructive facial surgeon. This edition sits within the Activate pillar: sleep, movement and food.
This episode is general health education, not individual medical advice. For your own symptoms or decisions, talk to your doctor.
### Key sources
- Huberman, A. D. (2026). *Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body*. Simon & Schuster.
- [Burns et al., 2021, *Journal of Affective Disorders*](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.056): outdoor light, mood and sleep in UK Biobank.
- [Windred et al., 2024, *PNAS*](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2405924121): day and night light exposure and mortality in 88,905 people.
- [Leproult et al., 2001, *Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism*](https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.86.1.7102): morning bright light and cortisol.
- [Pjrek et al., 2020, *Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics*](https://doi.org/10.1159/000502891): light therapy for seasonal affective disorder.
- [Gardiner et al., 2023, *Sleep Medicine Reviews*](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2023.101764): caffeine and sleep.
- [Zhao et al., 2023, *JAMA Network Open*](https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6185): daily alcohol intake and all-cause mortality.
- [Bagnardi et al., 2013, *Annals of Oncology*](https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mds337): light drinking and cancer.
- [Gardiner et al., 2025, *Sleep Medicine Reviews*](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2024.102030): alcohol and sleep.
- [Momma et al., 2022, *British Journal of Sports Medicine*](https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2021-105061): muscle-strengthening activity and mortality.
- [Okamoto-Mizuno & Mizuno, 2012, *Journal of Physiological Anthropology*](https://doi.org/10.1186/1880-6805-31-14): thermal environment and sleep.
- [Parikh et al., 2021, *Cell Reports*](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109579): UVB exposure and sex hormones.
- International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2012, IARC Monographs Vol. 100D: solar and ultraviolet radiation.
- [Windred et al., 2024, *Sleep*](https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad253): sleep regularity and mortality.
- [Ding et al., 2025, *The Lancet Public Health*](https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00164-1): daily steps and health outcomes.
- [Bull et al., 2020, *British Journal of Sports Medicine*](https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955): WHO guidelines on physical activity.
