If people understood one thing, they’d be 10 times healthier: get your cortisol high in the first hours after waking and low in the evening Here's why and how to do it 👇

You wake up in the morning because of an inflection in cortisol that occurs during sleep

Cortisol isn’t a stress hormone, it’s designed to deploy energy to your brain and body so you can respond to stressors, work, focus

It sets in motion a cascade of dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine (the catecholamines)

The higher that morning cortisol peak, the more energy and focus you have during the day AND the lower your cortisol will be at night

Cortisol is on a negative feedback loop, when levels get too high, it starts self-regulating and bringing levels back down

Ways to boost morning cortisol: viewing bright light (10,000 lux or sunlight) in first hour after waking, exercise, hydration - Caffeine and cold exposure don’t increase it, they just prolong the peak a bit - Licorice root capsules with glycerizin plus morning coffee gives you way more energy, huge effect

Evening cortisol needs to drop: long exhale breathing, reduce bright screen light, dim the lights

If you exercise in the evening when baseline cortisol is already low, it’ll triple or quadruple your cortisol levels and then next morning you feel groggy because your morning levels are suppressed

Flattening of the cortisol curve (not dropping in afternoon) is correlated with poor longevity, poor cancer outcomes, anxiety, middle of the night waking