I have a problem with optimization. It started with a spreadsheet where I tracked my caffeine intake down to the milligram, and it ended with me standing in my kitchen at 11:45 PM, staring at seven different brown glass bottles, wondering if I was actually becoming a ‘superhuman’ or just a guy with very expensive urine. If you’ve listened to the Huberman Lab podcast, you know the feeling. Andrew Huberman has this way of making a specific root extract sound like the literal key to the universe. You listen to three hours on dopamine, and suddenly you’re convinced that if you don’t take 400mg of Magnesium Threonate, your brain is basically a decaying sponge.
So, I did it. I bought the ‘best supplements huberman’ recommends—or at least the ones he mentions most often. I spent about $420 on a three-month supply of the essentials: Magnesium Threonate, L-Theanine, Apigenin, Tongkat Ali, and Fadogia Agrestis. I even threw in some high-dose Omega-3s because, why not? I wanted the full experience. I wanted to feel the ‘optimized’ version of myself. Instead, I mostly just felt like a lab rat who was paying for his own cage.
The sleep stack that gave me night terrors
Let’s start with the sleep stack. Huberman is big on the trio of Magnesium Threonate, L-Theanine, and Apigenin. I took this combo religiously for 72 days. The first week was actually incredible. I felt like I was being lowered into a velvet-lined coffin every night. I’d hit the pillow and just… vanish. But then things got weird. Around week three, the dreams started. Not just normal dreams, but hyper-vivid, cinematic epics where I was usually being chased by something mundane, like a giant sentient tax return.
I woke up feeling like I’d run a marathon in my sleep. What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently: I was sleeping ‘harder,’ but I wasn’t feeling more rested. I tracked my sleep with an Oura ring, and while my deep sleep numbers went up by about 15%, my heart rate variability (HRV) actually dropped. I think the L-Theanine was making me too groggy. I tried cutting it out, and the nightmares stopped, but the ‘velvet coffin’ feeling went away too. It turns out, my body doesn’t actually want to be chemically forced into a coma every night.
“The sleep stack is a software patch for a broken motherboard. If you’re still scrolling TikTok until 1 AM, no amount of Apigenin is going to save your circadian rhythm.”
The part where I talk about my kidneys
This is the part where I get a bit controversial. Huberman talks a lot about Tongkat Ali and Fadogia Agrestis for testosterone support. I took 400mg of Tongkat Ali (Solaray brand, because I’m not made of money) and 600mg of Fadogia Agrestis daily for two months. I tracked my blood work before and after. My total testosterone did go up—from 540 ng/dL to 612 ng/dL. That sounds great on paper, right? A nice little 13% bump.
But here’s the thing: I felt aggressive. Not ‘motivated athlete’ aggressive, but ‘I want to fight this guy for taking too long at the ATM’ aggressive. And then there were the dull aches in my lower back. I’m convinced Fadogia Agrestis is actually toxic to the kidneys if you don’t cycle it perfectly, and even then, I don’t trust it. I know people will disagree and point to the limited studies Andrew cites, but I’m telling you, my body hated it. I stopped taking both, and the back ache vanished in three days. I refuse to touch Fadogia again. It feels like trying to jumpstart a car with a AA battery—you’re just going to melt something. Total lie.
Anyway, I digress. I spent three hours yesterday looking at the micron levels of my kitchen water filter instead of finishing this draft, which probably means my dopamine is still a mess regardless of what I swallow in the morning.
What actually made the cut
After six months of tinkering, I’ve realized that 80% of the ‘best supplements huberman’ lists are probably overkill for 90% of people. But there are three things I still take every single day, and I’ll probably take them until I die. These are the ones that actually showed up in my blood work and made me feel like a functioning human being rather than a jittery mess.
- Vitamin D3 + K2: My levels were at a pathetic 22 ng/mL when I started. I took 5,000 IU daily for four months and hit 58 ng/mL. My seasonal depression basically disappeared. This is non-negotiable.
- Omega-3 Fish Oil: I take the high-EPA stuff. I don’t buy the cheap grocery store brands because they smell like a dumpster in July. I use Nordic Naturals. It’s expensive, but my joint pain in my left knee (from a 2018 running injury) actually went away.
- Magnesium Bisglycinate: I switched from Threonate to Bisglycinate. It’s cheaper, it doesn’t give me the weird tax-return nightmares, and it still helps me relax.
I also have to mention that I’ve developed a completely irrational hatred for the brand Thorne. I know Huberman loves them, and they are supposedly the gold standard for purity, but their packaging looks so clinical and ‘medical’ that it makes me feel like a hospital patient every time I open the cabinet. I’ve started buying generic brands from Bulk Supplements just to avoid looking at those white-and-blue bottles. I know it’s stupid. I don’t care.
The data doesn’t always match the ‘feel’
One thing I’ve noticed is that the more I focus on the supplements, the less I focus on the stuff that actually matters. I spent $120 on a bottle of NMN because I heard it helps with cellular aging. I took it for 30 days. My ‘data’ showed nothing. I didn’t feel faster, I didn’t feel smarter, and my resting heart rate stayed exactly at 58 bpm. It was just $120 gone. I think we like supplements because they feel like an ‘action’ we can take. Buying a bottle of pills is easier than going for a 30-minute walk in the sun.
I used to think that if I just found the right combination, I’d finally reach this state of permanent flow. I was completely wrong. Most of these supplements provide a 2% to 5% improvement at best, but they cost 100% of your attention. I’ve found that I feel better when I take *fewer* things. It’s less to manage, less to worry about, and less ‘noise’ in my system.
I’m still a fan of Huberman. I think he’s doing a service by bringing this stuff to the mainstream. But you have to remember that he’s an outlier. He’s a Stanford professor who lives and breathes this stuff. For a regular person who works a 9-to-5 and just wants to not feel like a zombie by 3 PM, half of this ‘stack’ is just a distraction.
Are we all just bored? Is that why we’re obsessed with the exact timing of our L-Tyrosine intake? I honestly don’t know. I still have half a bottle of Apigenin in my drawer, and sometimes I look at it and wonder if tonight is the night I’ll dream about the sentient tax returns again. Usually, I just drink a glass of water and go to bed. It’s cheaper.
Stick to the basics. Get your blood work done first. Don’t buy the hype.