Neuroscientist revealed how to get straight back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night
Topics: Health, Sleep, Social Media
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images
Topics: Health, Sleep, Social Media
There are some things in life that make your days harder than they need to be, like not being able to get back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night. Well, fret no more, because now, the issue has been solved.
Gather around, a neuroscientist has the answer to this very common sleep problem, and I think you’re going to want to know about it.
Andrew Huberman, who has taken part in clinical trials for sleep, recently appeared on Bill Maher's show, and shared a surprising trick to help you fall back to sleep when you are tossing and turning.
The expert said of his hack: “I can’t promise, but I’m willing to wager… that within five minutes or so, you’ll be back to sleep.”
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A clip of their interview last year has been put up on social media, and many people have vowed to try the trick and trust this odd process.
The expert explained to Maher: “Now we are finally coming to terms with the fact that the mind and body are connected, duh. It’s been known about for thousands of years.
“I’ve published clinical trials on some of these things, like the respiration physiology, its role in stress and destress.”
Within this stress and destress category comes a certain way to unwind the body to force it to relax via a breathing technique that activates your vagal nerve in your nervous system, slowing your heart rate and calming the body down.
This is a very popular method in guided meditation, but many people (including me) didn’t know it could aid in sleep.
Huberman continued: “In fact, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you are having trouble going back to sleep, try just doing some long extended exhales.
“And get this, this sounds really weird but it has a basis in physiology.”
Huberman shared it’s not 100 per cent effective, but it can be beneficial to some.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman shares with Bill Maher a surprising trick to help you fall back asleep when you wake up in the middle of the night.
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) January 19, 2026
“I can’t promise, but I’m willing to wager… that within five minutes or so, you’ll be back to sleep.” pic.twitter.com/WxXhds3WRG
He continued: “Keep your eyes closed and just move your eyes from side to side behind your eyelids, back and fourth. Do some long exhales.
“I can’t promise but I am willing to wager one pinky that within five minutes or so, you’ll be back to sleep.”
He explained that ‘your eyes and breathing and the way you view the world’ are ways you can control your stress.
“It totally works. I just tried the sleep one this morning and it worked! I woke up way too early and I usually have a hard time falling back asleep. I tried what he said and next thing I know, I'd slept for 2 more hours,” said someone online who tried the method.
Looks like I know what I’m doing tonight if I have a fitful sleep.