back to indexFocus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration | Huberman Lab Podcast #88
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Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast,
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where we discuss science and science-based tools
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for everyday life.
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I'm Andrew Huberman,
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and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology
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at Stanford School of Medicine.
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Today, we are discussing focus and concentration
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and tools for improving your focus and concentration.
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This is a topic that I've covered previously
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on the Huberman Lab Podcast, but in different contexts.
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For instance, we had a very popular episode on ADHD,
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attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
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which of course relates to the topic of focus
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and how to improve focus.
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We've also talked a lot about dopamine motivation and drive.
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In fact, that's the title
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of your previous also quite popular episode
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But never before have we had a single episode
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solely devoted to the tools
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to improve focus and concentration.
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The rationale for recording this episode
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is to provide people one location where they can go
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and quickly access the specific tools
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for increasing focus and concentration
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that are known to be the most powerful tools
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and the most up-to-date tools.
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In fact, today's episode is going to include description
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of several peer-reviewed studies
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and the tools that emerge
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from those scientific peer-reviewed studies
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that point to new and fortunately even briefer protocols
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than I've described before.
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So what I'm basically describing here
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is tools that in a very short amount of time
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will allow you to significantly increase
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your focus and concentration abilities.
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Those tools will include behavioral tools,
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nutrition-based tools, supplement-based tools,
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brain machine interface-based tools,
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and for those of you that are working
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with physician prescription drug tools.
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Today's episode ought to benefit anybody,
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young or old or anything in between,
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whether or not you have ADHD or not.
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Today's episode is going to give you tools
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that you can apply in your daily life.
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Most all of them are completely zero cost
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and those tools will allow you
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to tap into the neurochemistry
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and the neural circuits within your brain and body
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that peer-reviewed science
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has reliably shown can significantly improve
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your focus and concentration abilities.
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Just to give you a little teaser of the kinds of tools
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that I'm going to provide you on today's episode,
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a previous guest on the Huberman Lab Podcast
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was Dr. Wendy Suzuki.
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Dr. Suzuki is a professor of psychology and neuroscience
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at New York University or NYU as it's commonly referred to.
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She's also the Dean of Arts and Sciences at NYU.
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Her laboratory made a very important discovery
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which was that a very brief, just 12, actually 13
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if you really count the intro,
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but 13 minute daily meditation
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performed for a period of about eight weeks
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significantly increased people's focus
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and concentration abilities.
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And the great news is you didn't need all eight weeks.
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It was just that's how long that you ran the study.
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So during today's episode,
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I will describe that protocol in detail.
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I'll also provide you an even briefer alternative
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to that protocol that you can use if, for instance,
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you find yourself with only three minutes or four minutes
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or five minutes a day to meditate.
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The great news is there's quality peer-reviewed science
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to support that form of meditation
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for improving focus and concentration.
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And that falls under the bin of these zero cost tools
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that you can really use to tap into the neurochemistry
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and neural circuits that really allow you to take control
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of your cognitive abilities and improve them over time.
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I'll also provide you important details
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about that protocol and other protocols.
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For instance, contrary to popular belief, it is not,
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I repeat, it is not a good idea
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to do a focused based meditation
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within the four hours before bedtime.
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Many people, including some of the subjects in that study
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performed by the Suzuki lab,
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found that when they did a focusing meditation protocol,
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even if it was very calming,
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it led to difficulties in falling and staying asleep.
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So that runs counter to a lot of what we heard
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about meditation being great for sleep.
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It turns out meditation might be great for sleep.
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It certainly is great for improving focus capacity,
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but I highly recommend that if you're going to apply
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a focused meditation tool
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in order to improve your focus and concentration,
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then you make sure that that's performed
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not within four hours prior to bedtime.
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So that's just a brief example
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of the sorts of tools and protocols
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and details about the tools and protocols
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that I'll provide on today's episode.
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I should mention that we have provided links
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in the show note caption
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so that you can quickly go to the studies that we describe,
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as well as some of the behavioral tools
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and other tools that we'll cover,
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things like the use of binaural beats, supplements, et cetera.
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Our goal here again is to provide you
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the maximum number of tools for focus and concentration
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that you can pick from and choose from
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and apply in your life
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and try and eliminate as much of the legwork
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required to seek out and apply those tools.
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I'm pleased to announce that the Huberman Lab Podcast
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is now partnered with Momentus Supplements.
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We partnered with Momentus for several important reasons.
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First of all, they ship internationally
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because we know that many of you are located
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outside of the United States.
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Second of all, and perhaps most important,
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the quality of their supplements is second to none,
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both in terms of purity and precision
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of the amounts of the ingredients.
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Third, we've really emphasized supplements
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that are single ingredient supplements
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and that are supplied in dosages
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that allow you to build a supplementation protocol
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that's optimized for cost,
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that's optimized for effectiveness,
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and that you can add things
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and remove things from your protocol
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in a way that's really systematic and scientific.
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This is really hard to do
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if you're taking blends of different supplements
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or if the dosages are such that you can't titrate
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or that is adjust the dosages of a given supplement.
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So by using single ingredient supplements,
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you can really build out the supplement kit
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that's ideal for you and your specific needs.
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If you'd like to see the supplements
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that we partner with Momentus on,
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you can go to livemomentus.com slash Huberman.
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There you'll see those supplements.
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And just keep in mind that we are constantly expanding
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the library of supplements available through Momentus
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on a regular basis.
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Again, that's livemomentus.com slash Huberman.
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Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast
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is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.
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It is, however, part of my desire and effort
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to bring zero cost to consumer information about science
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and science-related tools to the general public.
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In keeping with that theme,
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I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.
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Our first sponsor is Thesus.
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Thesus makes custom nootropics.
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And to be quite honest, I don't like the word nootropics
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because the translation of nootropics is smart drugs.
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And as a neuroscientist, I can tell you,
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there is no neural circuit in the brain for being smart.
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Rather, there are neural circuits
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that are responsible for focus,
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neural circuits for creativity,
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neural circuits for task switching, and so on and so on.
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Fortunately, Thesus understands this
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and has developed custom nootropics
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that are tailored to your specific goals
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and your specific needs.
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They use only the highest quality ingredients,
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things of the sort that we'll talk about in today's podcast,
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things like alpha-GPC, phosphatidylserine,
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ginkgo biloba, et cetera.
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However, I should mention that they are customized to you.
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So you can go to Thesus, take a brief quiz,
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and you can get a nootropic starter kit
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that will allow you to try various nootropics
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and determine which ones you like and work for you
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and which ones don't.
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I've been using Thesus nootropics customized for me
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for close to six months now
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and can confidently say that their nootropics
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have been a total game changer.
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My go-to formula is the clarity formula.
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I like to use that before cognitive work,
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and I use the energy formula before my workouts.
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To get your own personalized nootropic starter kit,
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go online to takethesus.com slash Huberman,
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take that three-minute quiz,
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and Thesus will send you four different formulas
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to try in your first month.
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Again, that's takethesus.com slash Huberman
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and use the code Huberman at checkout
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to get 10% off your first box.
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Today's episode is also brought to us by Element.
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Element is an electrolyte drink
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that has all the things you need
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and none of what you don't.
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That means the electrolytes, salt, magnesium,
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and potassium are in there, but it does not have sugar.
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Electrolytes are key to cellular function,
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in particular, neuronal or nerve cell function.
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In fact, for your nerve cells
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to be able to fire action potentials,
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those are the electrical signals
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that allow your brain and body to work
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and move and think, et cetera, you need sodium.
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A lot of people don't realize that.
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And while, of course, there are people out there
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that need to reduce their sodium intake,
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these would be people with pre-hypertension or hypertension,
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many people actually don't get enough sodium,
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especially people that are following low carbohydrate diets,
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drinking a lot of caffeine, or eating extremely clean.
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Oftentimes, those people feel better
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when they increase their sodium intake
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and their health can actually improve
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when they increase their sodium intake.
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Element contains a science-backed electrolyte ratio
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of one gram of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium,
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and 60 milligrams of magnesium.
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If you'd like to try Element, you can go to Drink Element,
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that's lmnt.com slash Huberman,
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to claim a free Element sample pack with any purchase.
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Again, that's Drink Element, lmnt.com slash Huberman.
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Today's episode is also brought to us by Eight Sleep.
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Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers
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with heating, cooling, and sleep tracking capacity.
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The reality is that sleep is the foundation
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of mental health, physical health, and performance.
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Now, I've talked before in this podcast
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about the fact that there's a direct relationship
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between temperature and our ability to fall and stay asleep.
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In fact, our body temperature needs to drop
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by about one to three degrees in order to fall asleep.
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And then there are further decreases in our body temperature
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that allow us to get into the deepest stages of sleep
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and the so-called rapid eye movement, sleep,
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all the aspects of sleep
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that really restore our brain and body.
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And then waking up actually involves a heating up
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of core body temperature.
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By sleeping on an Eight Sleep mattress cover,
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I've been sleeping on an Eight Sleep mattress cover
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I thought I was sleeping pretty well before,
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and now, frankly, I don't even want to travel
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because I don't want to be away from my Eight Sleep.
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I can't wait until hotels and Airbnbs include Eight Sleep.
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If you want to try Eight Sleep,
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you can go to EightSleep.com slash Huberman
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to save $250 off as a special Labor Day offer
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to save $250 off an Eight Sleep cover
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now through September 11th.
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Okay, let's talk about focus and concentration
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and how you can improve your focus and concentration
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using science-based protocols.
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Now, because today's episode is mainly focused on tools
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and not so much the underlying mechanisms,
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I'm mainly going to focus on what to do and when
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But I just want to take about three minutes
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and briefly describe a model that is a visual image
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that you can put in your mind
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that will help you incorporate the tools that I'll provide
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and that generally will help you understand
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at a mechanistic level how focus and concentration work.
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So what I want you to imagine is an arrow.
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And an arrow, of course, has an arrow head
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and it has the shaft of that arrow.
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And in the context of the neuroscience
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of focus and concentration,
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the neurochemical system that really represents
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the shaft of that arrow, right, the straight line,
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is epinephrine, also called adrenaline.
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And today I'll refer to adrenaline
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and epinephrine interchangeably.
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It turns out that epinephrine slash adrenaline
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are released within your brain from a little location,
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a little cluster of neurons called locus coeruleus,
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but you do not need to remember that name,
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and from your body from the adrenal glands.
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And the release of epinephrine from those two locations
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overall increases energy, it increases alertness.
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It does not alone increase focus, okay?
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So the reason I've assigned epinephrine, adrenaline,
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as the shaft of the arrow is that if focus is the arrow,
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there is no focus without epinephrine.
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So things, whether or not they're behavioral
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or psychological or supplements or drugs
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that increase epinephrine allow focus to occur.
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They are necessary for focus,
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but they are not sufficient for focus.
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That is, they are required,
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but they are not enough to create focus.
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So we're going to need epinephrine in the equation.
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Without epinephrine, there is no focus or concentration.
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Now, the arrowhead on this metaphorical arrowhead
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that represents focus and concentration
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is going to be represented or related to the mechanisms
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of acetylcholine, a different neurochemical
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that also exists in the brain and body.
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In fact, in the body, it's responsible
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for the contraction and movement of your muscles.
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But today we're talking about acetylcholine
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not in that context, but rather in the context
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of it's released within the brain.
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Acetylcholine is released from a couple
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of different locations in the brain.
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And the best way to think about it is it's like a spotlight.
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It highlights specific neurons, nerve cells,
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that should be active or more active, I should say,
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than the other neurons in the environment.
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So the reason I've assigned the arrowhead
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to acetylcholine and acetylcholine to the arrowhead
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is that if you have an arrow with a very big arrowhead
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that's really broad, really blunt,
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imagine a mile wide arrowhead,
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that's not very focused on any one location.
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It's not really pointing to any one location, is it?
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But with a narrow, really tightly focused arrowhead,
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well, that's focused on one location.
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So we have alertness, epinephrine,
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and then we have the actual direction
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in which our concentration and focus is placed.
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And that's, at least in this mental model,
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I'm creating acetylcholine.
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And then in order to have ongoing focus,
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we need another neurochemical.
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And it turns out that that third neurochemical is dopamine,
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a molecule often associated with pleasure and reward,
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but it's really the molecule of motivation.
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So here, I want you to imagine in your mind an arrow
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with an arrowhead, think acetylcholine in the arrowhead,
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a shaft or a line behind that arrowhead,
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which is epinephrine, also called adrenaline,
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and then behind it, a sort of an engine
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that keeps that focus moving forward, right?
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Because we don't just want to be focused for a moment,
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we want to be able to focus for 10 minutes or for an hour,
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or maybe even for two hours.
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Turns out there's an optimal duration to focus,
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I'll teach you that in just a little bit.
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But these three neurochemicals together,
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acetylcholine, epinephrine, and dopamine,
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really allow you to get focused, to focus very precisely,
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and in fact, increasingly precisely over time
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to really narrow and narrow and narrow your focus
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progressively within a single bout of focus,
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and to continue to do that
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and to be able to do that repeatedly whenever you want.
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So here, I'm purely talking in metaphor
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and in models and mental models of arrows,
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but in a moment or two,
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I'll start transitioning to discussing tools
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in which I'll talk about increasing dopamine
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and acetylcholine, or increasing epinephrine and dopamine
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in various combinations with various approaches.
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And what I'd like you to conceptualize
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is how those are contributing
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to creating a very narrowly pointed arrow
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that has the capacity to continue moving forward
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over and over so that you can focus as sharply
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and as long as you like.
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And of course, for those of you
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that want to get really down in the weeds
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of how dopamine works,
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we have an entire episode about dopamine motivation
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and drive that really gets into neurotransmitter release
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and dopamine baselines and thresholds
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and all of that sort of thing.
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We also have episodes on focus,
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much longer episodes, I should say, on focus,
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that incorporate a lot of the biology of acetylcholine.
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It turns out acetylcholine
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is also involved in neuroplasticity, et cetera.
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And epinephrine, of course, relates to stress
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and our capacity to deal with and buffer stress
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Those episodes are all available to you in their long form
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at hubermanlab.com.
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You can find them very easily.
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They are all timestamps.
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You can navigate to the particular topics
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most of interest to you.
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I mentioned this all not as a diversion
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from what we want to cover today,
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but I know that some of you are hungry
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for a lot more mechanism,
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but today's episode is really mainly focused on the tools.
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I will, of course, touch on mechanism,
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but if you really want to do the deep dive on mechanism,
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go to hubermanlab.com and you'll have more
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than you ever could want about those mechanisms.
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Let's jump into the tools for concentration and focus.
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If you want to think about tools of any kind
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to modify your biology or physiology in any way,
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whether or not it's for cognitive function
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or you want to get better at exercising
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or you want to build muscle
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or you want to improve your hormones,
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you need to think and understand tools
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in the context of modulation and mediation.
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What do I mean by that?
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Well, it's quite simple, really.
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Mediation is how specific types of chemicals and cells
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and circuits and organs control very specific things
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in your brain and body.
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Whereas modulation is the ability of chemicals
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and cells and circuits to adjust how different things change,
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how different things work in your brain and body,
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but to do it more broadly.
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What do I mean by this?
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Let me give an example.
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For instance, I'm going to tell you now
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that one of the most important things to build
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and maintain your focus and concentration
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is to optimize your sleeping behavior.
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That is to get enough quality sleep,
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I would say 80% of the nights of your life.
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Not everyone can get optimal sleep 100%
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of the nights of their life.
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Nobody, truly nobody achieves that.
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However, sleep has been shown to relate
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to cognitive performance, physical performance,
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hormone output, and so many other things,
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including immune system function.
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What we can reliably say is that sleep modulates
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just about every process in your brain and body.
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So you have to get great sleep.
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There's simply no tool that's going to allow you
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to overcome chronic sleep deprivation
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and allow you to remain focused.
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No pill, no device, no supplement, no protocol whatsoever.
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There are tools to overcome one night
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or maybe two nights of sleep deprivation,
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and we'll talk about those.
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But at a fundamental level,
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we need to do the things that modulate our focus
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and attention in powerful ways,
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and sleep really is that thing.
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So we've done two episodes, one called Master Your Sleep,
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and the other episode is Perfect Your Sleep.
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The Perfect Your Sleep is a little bit more
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like this episode, more focused on protocols.
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Master Your Sleep includes protocols and mechanism.
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Again, you can find those at HubermanLab.com.
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We also have a sleep toolkit,
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a distilled list of things to do
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in order to optimize your sleep.
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I highly recommend that you download that.
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You can go to HubermanLab.com,
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go to the Neural Network newsletter.
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It is listed there.
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If you want, you can sign up for the newsletter,
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but you don't have to.
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You can simply download the PDF of that toolkit
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Why do I say sleep modulates focus and attention?
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Well, I'll give an analogy.
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If right now someone pulled a fire alarm in this building,
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or if we had a fire in this building,
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my attention would drift.
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It would not be on recording this podcast.
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It would be on something else.
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But would I say that the fire alarm mediates attention?
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I mean, fire alarms are not really involved in attention.
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No, rather they modulate my attention.
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The noise in the room modulates my attention.
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That's quite a bit different
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than a tool that I'll provide later,
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and I'll just give you a little hint of now.
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In fact, I'll give it to you now,
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which is that 40 hertz binaural beats
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have been shown in a number of peer-reviewed studies
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to increase focus and concentration.
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And if you'd like to access 40 hertz binaural beats
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in order to improve your focus and concentration,
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You can actually get it at zero cost.
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You can go into the App Store.
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For instance, the Apple App Store.
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This is also available for Android phone.
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There's an app called Brainwave, and you can go there.
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You can dial in 40 hertz,
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and it'll play these binaural beats.
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It's been shown in multiple quality peer-reviewed studies
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that playing a pattern of sound waves
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to one ear, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,
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and the other ear, which is slightly offset in frequency,
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meaning not quite the same frequency,
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so more like doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,
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that that combination of frequencies
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played to the different ears
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actually get integrated within deep brain centers
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and can increase focus and concentration
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in part by increasing levels
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of the neurochemical dopamine and acetylcholine,
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which we talked about a little bit earlier
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in this aero model of focus.
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So we'll provide a link to that app.
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I don't have any relationship to that app I should mention,
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but it's an excellent one.
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It's one that I've used for many years.
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There are also additional functions within the app,
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such as for sleep and for other things,
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but the 40 hertz, 40HZ, is the way it reads out.
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40 hertz stimulation has been shown
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to improve focus and concentration.
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Here is my recommendation in the way that I use it.
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I would not use 40 hertz binaural beats
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every time I'm doing a bout of work.
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What I tend to do is use it for about five minutes
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prior to that work and then turn it off and then do the work
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and I'll talk about other tools to use during that work,
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whether or not it's reading or math
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or even just emailing or something
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where I require a bunch of focus for awhile.
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However, there are times in which I'm in an area
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or I'm in a state of mind where I'm feeling very distractible
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and then I'll keep the 40 hertz binaural beats
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on the entire time I'm doing that bout of cognitive work.
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I'll also sometimes use the 40 hertz binaural beats
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prior to a workout, in particular weight workouts
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where I really want to be able to focus on
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and contract specific muscles.
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So it's a very useful tool,
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again, supported by quality peer-reviewed science,
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zero cost available out there,
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not just in the Brainwave app, but in multiple apps.
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I think many of you will benefit from it.
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Some of you might not experience it immediately
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as a total dropping into a tunnel of focus
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in the same way that you might with say,
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the sorts of neurochemicals that we'll talk about later,
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like alpha GPC and some of these other things
link |
that change neurochemicals directly,
link |
but nonetheless, 40 hertz binaural beats
link |
are a very powerful tool,
link |
again, zero cost non-pharmacologic tool
link |
that tap into your own endogenous,
link |
meaning within you or exists within you physiology
link |
in order to increase acetylcholine
link |
and some other neurochemicals
link |
and they have been shown to work quite well.
link |
Okay, so assuming that you are sleeping well
link |
80% of the nights of your life
link |
or at least working on the various protocols and tools
link |
to sleep well and sufficiently long,
link |
80% of the nights of your life,
link |
and you are interested in additional tools
link |
that are sound-based
link |
in order to improve your ability to concentrate and focus.
link |
There are quality peer-reviewed studies
link |
supporting the idea that white noise or pink noise,
link |
and believe it or not, there is something called pink noise.
link |
It has to do with the specific frequencies of sound
link |
that are in the noise.
link |
Well, white noise and pink noise
link |
have been shown to not improve concentration per se,
link |
but to improve people's ability to transition
link |
into concentrated states.
link |
So I don't tend to use white noise and pink noise
link |
while I work, but I know a number of people that do.
link |
I know people that also use what's called brown noise.
link |
The folks I know from the engineering
link |
and computer science side get really into these details
link |
of white noise, pink noise, brown noise.
link |
You can find white noise, pink noise, or brown noise
link |
and listen to it through headphones or in the room.
link |
There is indeed some data to support the fact
link |
that white noise and to some extent pink noise
link |
and brown noise can support the release
link |
of particular neurochemicals,
link |
but more data showing that they can amplify the activity
link |
of neurons in the so-called prefrontal cortex,
link |
this front area, this sort of the bumper
link |
behind your forehead that is directly related
link |
to your ability to direct your own focus
link |
and remain focused on certain things.
link |
So you have the option of either using binaural beats before
link |
but not during your work, that is 40 hertz binaural beats
link |
or 40 hertz binaural beats
link |
throughout your attempt to focus.
link |
You also have the option of not using binaural beats
link |
but using white noise, pink noise, or brown noise.
link |
Again, there are a lot of zero cost apps.
link |
You can find also white noise, pink noise,
link |
and brown noise on YouTube.
link |
Again, these are tools that really have been shown
link |
over and over in humans to allow people to focus
link |
with more depth and to decrease
link |
the transition time into focus.
link |
This is a really key point.
link |
A lot of people are challenged
link |
with getting into a mode of focus.
link |
None of us, however, should be expected to just sit down
link |
and drop directly into a state of focus.
link |
I think that's completely an unfair request of ourselves.
link |
I mean, for instance, you wouldn't expect yourself
link |
to go out on the track or go out for a run and not warm up.
link |
You might jog for a few minutes
link |
or even walk before you would jog
link |
and then jog before you would run, right?
link |
I would hope you would do that.
link |
And if you're doing resistance training,
link |
I doubt that you go over and load up the bar
link |
or the machine with the maximum amount of weight
link |
that you can move and then just drop right into that.
link |
You always do a warmup.
link |
And I think it's very important to understand mental work,
link |
focus, and concentration as requiring that warmup.
link |
What is that warmup?
link |
Well, you know what that warmup is.
link |
That warmup is the ramping up or the increase
link |
of epinephrine, adrenaline, acetylcholine, and dopamine.
link |
The way that neurochemicals work is we don't just get
link |
to flip switches in our brain because we decide to.
link |
That's sort of the limitless movie or movies and ideas
link |
that suddenly you're going to flip a switch on your arm
link |
and all of a sudden you're going to be in a laser focus.
link |
That is just not the way that your nervous system works.
link |
There's a gradual dropping into any state,
link |
whether or not that state is sleep, right?
link |
You go from shallow sleep to deep sleep
link |
and then out eventually.
link |
Focus too, you go from shallow focus
link |
to increasingly deep focus.
link |
That is in our metaphor of the arrow, it's very broad.
link |
It's pointed at a lot of things.
link |
And over time, as we drop into focus,
link |
that arrow is narrowing and narrowing and narrowing.
link |
In fact, probably better to think about it narrowing
link |
and then sometimes oscillating and getting wider again.
link |
You know, we might hear something down the hallway
link |
or more typically our phone will buzz or we'll think,
link |
oh, I wonder what so-and-so is doing
link |
or I hadn't contacted them about something.
link |
Your focus is dynamic.
link |
It is not what we call a step function.
link |
It's not like you go from unfocused to focused
link |
and then you drop into your maximal focus.
link |
By understanding that it's dynamic,
link |
by understanding that you are going to be continually going
link |
in and out of progressively but varying levels of focus,
link |
you will greatly release the pressure on yourself
link |
to feel focused all the time when you want to be.
link |
People who are very good at focusing understand this
link |
and understand that they can't expect themselves
link |
to just immediately focus
link |
and then snap into or out of focus, okay?
link |
So be patient with yourself
link |
and also understand that focus is an ability,
link |
that you can improve your ability to focus
link |
by engaging the neural circuits responsible
link |
for focus repeatedly over time
link |
through so-called neuroplasticity,
link |
the ability of your nervous system to change
link |
in response to experience.
link |
And that has a couple of different components,
link |
but put very simply,
link |
what we repeat gets etched into our nervous system
link |
and becomes easier over time.
link |
And the more emotionally important
link |
or vital something feels to us,
link |
the more likely it is to trigger neuroplasticity.
link |
We're going to talk a little bit more
link |
about how to increase neural circuits for focus later,
link |
but right now, what you have in hand is the key importance
link |
of sleep, and I, again, will direct you
link |
to HubermanLab.com and the Neural Network Newsletter
link |
to really work on optimizing your sleep.
link |
We've also got two auditory sound-based tools
link |
for improving focus.
link |
There's 40 hertz binaural beats used before
link |
or during bouts of focus and concentration.
link |
And if you don't like those, or even if you do,
link |
you might alternate them with
link |
or occasionally use white noise, pink noise, or brown noise,
link |
also readily available at zero cost.
link |
A question I often get is how long should I try to focus?
link |
Well, the research literature point to the key importance
link |
of so-called ultradian cycles.
link |
You've all probably heard of circadian cycles
link |
or circadian biology, circa the day,
link |
circadian is about 24 hour cycle.
link |
Well, our brain and body operate within that day
link |
or within each and every day, I should say,
link |
with 90 minute ultradian cycles.
link |
So my suggestion would be anytime you're going to sit down
link |
and try and focus, you're going to try
link |
and do a focused bout of physical exercise
link |
or skill learning or musical learning,
link |
or maybe you're even just having a conversation.
link |
Maybe you're a therapist or you're attending therapy
link |
or a class, how long should it be?
link |
And the ideal duration is about 90 minutes,
link |
not exactly 90 minutes,
link |
but we can reliably say 90 minutes or less, okay?
link |
It doesn't have to be the full 90 minutes,
link |
but trying to push yourself to be able to drop
link |
into two hours of focus or three hours of focus
link |
while possible is not really in line
link |
with what we know about the underlying biology.
link |
Everything from our sleep states
link |
or the different stages of sleep
link |
and our waking states is divided
link |
into these 90 minute cycles or so-called ultradian cycles.
link |
So what I like to do is set a timer for 90 minutes.
link |
I acknowledge and accept the fact
link |
that under most conditions,
link |
unless I'm really pressed for a deadline
link |
and I'm optimally caffeinated, et cetera,
link |
the first five to 10 minutes of that 90 minutes
link |
are a transition time.
link |
It's like the warmup for focus,
link |
but I do include it in that 90 minutes.
link |
And then I really try and drop
link |
into doing focused mental work or learning of some sort.
link |
Again, this could be physical as well,
link |
motor skill learning,
link |
or I think we're running or lifting weights, et cetera,
link |
and really try and drop into that across the full 90 minutes
link |
again, accepting the fact, okay?
link |
It's not just an idea,
link |
the fact that occasionally our focus will flicker.
link |
It will jump out of focus.
link |
And then a big part of being able to focus
link |
is to go back to focusing.
link |
The way I'd like you to conceptualize this perhaps
link |
is that arrowhead suddenly getting very, very broad,
link |
that you're focusing on many things
link |
or that arrow shifts to a different location in the room.
link |
The key is to be able to shift it back
link |
and to narrow it once again.
link |
And that's an active process,
link |
so much so that it requires a lot of metabolic energy.
link |
Your brain is the chief consumer of metabolic energy.
link |
The calories that you consume
link |
is so-called basal metabolic rate.
link |
Most of that isn't related to movement
link |
or heartbeat or breathing.
link |
It's related to brain function.
link |
Your brain is a glutton with respect to caloric need.
link |
So understand that at the end of 90 minutes
link |
or maybe even after 45 minutes,
link |
you might feel rather tired or even exhausted.
link |
And it's very important that after about a focus,
link |
that you take at least 10 minutes
link |
and ideally as long as 30 minutes
link |
and go through what I call deliberate defocus.
link |
You really want to focus on somewhat menial tasks
link |
or things that really don't require
link |
a ton of your concentration.
link |
This is starting to become a little bit of a movement
link |
out there in the kind of pop psychology
link |
and optimization world.
link |
This idea of not looking at your phone
link |
as you walk down the hall to the bathroom,
link |
certainly not looking at your phone in the bathroom.
link |
And I should mention, by the way,
link |
this is a particular annoyance of mine.
link |
Have you noticed that wait times for restrooms
link |
in public places has increased substantially
link |
in the last 10 years?
link |
The reason for that is not digestive, okay?
link |
It's not the gut microbiome.
link |
I mean, it might be the gut microbiome,
link |
but chances are it's because people are on their phones
link |
So you're doing yourself and everybody else a favor
link |
by staying off your phone in the restroom,
link |
staying off your phone while walking down the hall.
link |
Try and give yourself some time to deliberately decompress,
link |
to let your mental states idle,
link |
to not be focused on any one thing.
link |
That period of idling is essential
link |
for your ability to focus,
link |
much in the same way that rest between sets
link |
of resistance training or rest between exercise
link |
is vital to being able to focus and perform
link |
during the actual sets or during the actual bouts
link |
of running or cycling or whatever
link |
your particular form of exercise might be.
link |
So deliberate decompression is key.
link |
And I know this is hard because we're all being drawn in
link |
by the incredible rich array of sensory information
link |
available on our phones and other devices,
link |
but I can't emphasize this enough.
link |
Our ability to focus is not just related
link |
to what happens during the entry
link |
and movement through those focus bouts,
link |
but after those focus bouts,
link |
we really need to deliberately decompress.
link |
And of course, the ultimate decompress,
link |
the time in which we are not directing our thinking
link |
and our action is during sleep.
link |
And so it's no wonder,
link |
or I should say it holds together logically
link |
that that deep long lasting duration
link |
of not controlling where our mind is at
link |
is in fact the ultimate form of restoration
link |
even if we have very intense dreams.
link |
So take that period after each 90 minute
link |
or less focus bout, right?
link |
Remember those focus bouts don't have to be full 90 minutes.
link |
Let's say you do 45 minutes of work.
link |
You're just done with it, set it down
link |
and go do something for maybe five, 10,
link |
maybe even 30 minutes that is functional for your day, right?
link |
Just not just walking around in circles
link |
or staring up at the sky, although if you can do that,
link |
do that, but most of us have other things to do,
link |
but do things that are rather automatic
link |
or reflexive for you
link |
and try not to do any focused reading,
link |
try not to bring your vision into a tight location
link |
such as your phone and try and deliberately decompress
link |
because that will allow you to drop into intense bouts
link |
of focus again repeatedly and repeatedly throughout the day.
link |
I'm often asked how many ultradian cycles
link |
one can perform throughout the day.
link |
That depends on how well you've slept,
link |
how well you are nourished,
link |
which we'll talk about in a moment
link |
and how well trained up your focus capacity is.
link |
And here's the paradox.
link |
If you are very trained at focusing,
link |
if you're very good at dropping into focus,
link |
you're actually going to need
link |
more deliberate decompression and defocus.
link |
And I recommend only doing about two,
link |
maybe three deep work sessions per day.
link |
So not one 90-minute session
link |
then expecting yourself to do another one
link |
and another one, another one,
link |
but rather one deep work 90-minute session
link |
and maybe another in the afternoon.
link |
A lot of people get surprised by this and say,
link |
wait, how many people can afford
link |
to just work three hours a day?
link |
I'm not saying just work three hours a day.
link |
I'm really talking about the hard mental work.
link |
And again, somewhat paradoxically,
link |
the more you can concentrate,
link |
the more deeply you can concentrate,
link |
the fewer deep work concentration bouts
link |
you can actually perform each day.
link |
It makes sense, however,
link |
if you think about it in the context of say,
link |
resistance training,
link |
if you are stronger and stronger in the gym
link |
or you're an endurance athlete
link |
and you can run ultra marathons 100 miles or so,
link |
you are essentially cutting a deeper cut
link |
into your recovery capacity
link |
than somebody who's not very skilled at those things
link |
or can't perform as much intense work.
link |
So the intensity of the work scales directly
link |
with how long you need to rest after that work.
link |
I, at this stage of my life,
link |
am pretty good at dropping into
link |
and maintaining focus bouts of concentration,
link |
provided the landscape of my life is right.
link |
I don't have some burning, stressful thing
link |
that's essential or an emergency that I'm tending to
link |
and that I put my phone away or turn it off.
link |
I can do three 90-minute focus bouts per day,
link |
but that's about it.
link |
And then in between those focus bouts,
link |
I'm doing other things that require less focus.
link |
Some of you may be able to perform four.
link |
What I highly recommend is that you try doing at least one,
link |
that is one 90-minute or less bout
link |
of focused, concentrated work per day.
link |
And yes, that means the weekends too.
link |
And on the weekends, I like to read a book
link |
with my phone nowhere in sight, not on a device.
link |
Or I'll listen to an audio book sometimes
link |
while taking a walk,
link |
but really concentrating on what I'm trying to learn,
link |
what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing.
link |
So again, a daily 90-minute bout is one to start with.
link |
And I would say after about four weeks of that,
link |
if you're able to stay concentrated
link |
and work through the agitation,
link |
then I would consider increasing the number of focus bouts.
link |
Again, this is not to say that you should go to your teacher
link |
or your PhD advisor or your parent or your friends
link |
and say, listen, I can't really concentrate
link |
or think about anything for more than 90 minutes per day.
link |
That's not what I'm saying.
link |
These are deep focus bouts.
link |
These are bouts of work or I should say mental work
link |
or physical work where you're really forcing yourself
link |
to focus and refocus, to sharpen the head of that arrowhead,
link |
to redirect it to what you're trying to concentrate on.
link |
And it is indeed hard work.
link |
I would even think about it more or less
link |
like a workout of any kind.
link |
Before we continue with today's discussion,
link |
we're going to take a brief pause
link |
to acknowledge our sponsor, Athletic Greens,
link |
I started taking Athletic Greens way back in 2012.
link |
So I'm delighted that they've been a sponsor of this podcast.
link |
Athletic Greens contains vitamins, minerals, probiotics,
link |
digestive medicines, and adaptogens.
link |
So it's got a lot of things in there.
link |
And that's actually the reason I started taking it.
link |
And the reason I still take it once or twice a day
link |
essentially covers all of my nutritional bases.
link |
And the probiotics in particular are important to me
link |
because of the critical importance
link |
of what's called the gut brain axis.
link |
That is neurons and other cell types in the gut,
link |
in the digestive tract that communicate with the brain
link |
and the brain back to the digestive tract
link |
in order to control things like mood, immune function,
link |
hormone function, and on and on.
link |
Whenever somebody has asked me,
link |
what's the one supplement they should take?
link |
I always answer Athletic Greens.
link |
I gave that answer long before I ever had this podcast.
link |
And it's the answer I still give now
link |
for all the reasons that I detailed just a moment ago.
link |
If you'd like to try Athletic Greens,
link |
you can go to athleticgreens.com slash Huberman
link |
to claim a special offer.
link |
They'll give you five free travel packs
link |
that make it really easy to mix up Athletic Greens
link |
while you're on the road,
link |
plus a year supply of vitamin D3K2,
link |
which are also very important for a huge number
link |
of bodily factors and brain factors
link |
that impact your immediate and long-term health.
link |
Again, that's athleticgreens.com slash Huberman
link |
to claim that special offer.
link |
I'd like to call your attention to a new
link |
and extremely useful tool for learning
link |
and applying science-based protocols for mental health,
link |
physical health, and performance.
link |
It's called Virtusan, V-I-R-T-U-S-A-N, and it's an app.
link |
And inside the app, you'll find what are called journeys.
link |
Each journey is aimed at a specific goal,
link |
such as improving your sleep or tracking your sleep,
link |
or improving your ability to focus and concentrate,
link |
or improving your nutrition, or specific exercise programs.
link |
The Virtusan app makes a lot of the protocols
link |
that you've seen here on the Huberman Lab Podcast
link |
and elsewhere very easy to understand
link |
and access and practice.
link |
And in fact, it tracks your progress
link |
with each of these protocols.
link |
I and several other researchers have been directly involved
link |
in developing the specific journeys and protocols
link |
that you'll find within the Virtusan app.
link |
In fact, a lot of it involves direct video tutorials
link |
from me and others that you'll recognize
link |
from social media and from podcasts.
link |
Everything that you'll find within the Virtusan app
link |
is geared towards giving you the latest science
link |
in simple, straightforward protocols
link |
to allow you to improve your mental health,
link |
physical health, and performance.
link |
If you want to check it out,
link |
you can go to the app store under Virtusan.
link |
Again, that's spelled V-I-R-T-U-S-A-N,
link |
or you can go to virtusan.com slash Huberman.
link |
Again, that's virtusan.com slash Huberman.
link |
I mentioned the topic of nutrition a little bit ago,
link |
and of course, nutrition is a complicated topic.
link |
In fact, one of the quickest ways
link |
to get yourself into a battle online
link |
is to say something definitive about nutrition.
link |
I just want to clearly state my stance about nutrition.
link |
I fully support and applaud those of you
link |
that are vegans for whatever reason,
link |
those of you that are pure carnivore for whatever reason,
link |
and those of you that are omnivores for whatever reason.
link |
I happen to be an omnivore.
link |
My goal is always to eat high quality,
link |
minimally or non-processed foods,
link |
and to eat things in moderation.
link |
So I do eat some meat from sustainable sources
link |
or from organic sources.
link |
I eat some starches and I eat vegetables and I eat fruits.
link |
I try not to eat sugars,
link |
and I don't really like highly processed foods
link |
at this point in my life.
link |
That's me, that's what I do,
link |
but I'm certainly not dictating what people should eat.
link |
I know certain people are ketogenic,
link |
and I can say that for people who achieve ketosis
link |
and can get into ketosis, yes, indeed,
link |
there is a mental state associated with ketosis
link |
that will allow your brain to function
link |
and to think really clearly,
link |
that many people find very attractive
link |
and keep them going back over and over again
link |
to a ketogenic diet.
link |
I'm somebody who, for instance,
link |
has not been in ketosis many times in my life,
link |
at least not deliberately so,
link |
but I actually will ingest liquid ketones from time to time
link |
because of the further cognitive enhancement
link |
or physical enhancement that I experience
link |
on top of nutrition that does include some carbohydrates.
link |
So there are a lot of different ways to approach all this.
link |
Whether or not you're a vegan, omnivore,
link |
vegetarian, carnivore, et cetera,
link |
the point is this, your ability to focus,
link |
and in fact, your ability of neurons
link |
to encode specific information in your environment,
link |
that is to represent what's out there in the world,
link |
is actually related to your blood glucose level.
link |
Now, here I'm setting aside the discussion of ketosis
link |
and ketogenic diets for the moment,
link |
but there's a beautiful study
link |
that was published in Neuron not long ago
link |
that showed that the tuning,
link |
that is the precision with which neurons in the brain
link |
will represent things in our environment,
link |
is actually much greater
link |
when there is sufficient glucose in the brain.
link |
Translated into English,
link |
this means that when we are fasted
link |
or when our blood glucose is very low,
link |
we aren't able to perceive and think about things
link |
Now, there's a twist to this, however.
link |
Many people who practice intermittent fasting,
link |
and I should say I practice
link |
a sort of pseudo-intermittent fasting.
link |
I generally eat my meals
link |
between the hours of 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.,
link |
although sometimes there's some wiggle around that.
link |
Occasionally I have an early breakfast.
link |
I'm not super rigid about it,
link |
but I know there are a number of people
link |
who are doing longer fasts
link |
or they're eating in a six-hour window.
link |
We did an entire episode about fasting.
link |
You can, again, find that at HubermanLab.com.
link |
We'll likely have Sachin Panda,
link |
who's an expert in intermittent fasting on the podcast.
link |
Intermittent fasting
link |
has a lot of different potential benefits.
link |
For some people, it's a convenient way
link |
to restrict their calories.
link |
For other people, it's a convenient way to avoid eating.
link |
That is, it's easier to not eat
link |
than to eat a small portion,
link |
so they opt for intermittent fasting,
link |
and so on and so forth.
link |
But one of the things that you hear very often
link |
is that some people like being fasted
link |
because they like the clarity of mind that it provides.
link |
Here's the situation.
link |
Neurons, unless you're in a ketogenic diet,
link |
really thrive on glucose.
link |
They love glucose.
link |
And as I mentioned before,
link |
your ability to think and perceive things
link |
is actually enhanced
link |
by having sufficient glucose in your bloodstream.
link |
So why would it be that some people experience
link |
a heightened state of mental clarity when they are fasted?
link |
I've certainly experienced that before.
link |
Well, I should say that provided you're well-hydrated enough
link |
and you have enough electrolytes in your system,
link |
what tends to happen is that when you ingest food,
link |
there's a shift in your nervous system
link |
towards so-called parasympathetic mode.
link |
That is, the more relaxed,
link |
you probably heard it as rest and digest,
link |
although it does other things,
link |
a more relaxed mode that can indeed make us very sleepy.
link |
If we have too many carbohydrates,
link |
it actually can make us quite sleepy.
link |
However, if we have any food, if we have enough of it,
link |
that is, if our gut is full, it diverts blood to our gut
link |
and we become sleepy and we can't focus as well.
link |
So a lot of people really like fasting
link |
in the state of being fasted for focus and concentration
link |
because they don't have
link |
as much of that parasympathetic activation.
link |
They're just not as sleepy.
link |
And in fact, under those conditions,
link |
half as much caffeine will give you just as much lift
link |
as twice as much caffeine
link |
will give you on a full belly of pasta.
link |
And that's just the way that caffeine interacts
link |
with blood glucose.
link |
So what I'd like you to imagine
link |
is if you had a measure of focus from zero to 10,
link |
these are arbitrary units, 10 being maximally focused
link |
and zero being not focused at all,
link |
imagine a U-shaped function, right?
link |
Where if you're very fasted,
link |
you're going to have a high degree of focus and concentration
link |
but then if you ingest some food and your belly is full,
link |
your focus and concentration is reduced.
link |
But having enough blood glucose
link |
and maybe even elevated blood glucose
link |
will increase cognitive function.
link |
So there are two ends of the spectrum.
link |
On one end of the spectrum,
link |
blood glucose is relatively low and you're fasted
link |
and you can think and behave in a very concentrated way.
link |
And on the other end of the spectrum,
link |
you have a lot of blood glucose
link |
or I should say sufficient blood glucose.
link |
You never want your blood glucose to be too high.
link |
And that allows your neurons to encode and perceive
link |
and basically allow you to think really clearly.
link |
So you sort of have to pick your condition.
link |
What do you want for your bouts of focus and concentration?
link |
I actually do both.
link |
So what I do is, as I mentioned before,
link |
I eat my meals sometime around 11 a.m.,
link |
my first meal typically,
link |
unless I'm very hungry when I wake up.
link |
And so I will do my workout and one bout of focused work.
link |
I always think of this as my hard work early in the day.
link |
And I do that fasted.
link |
I'll be consuming water with electrolytes,
link |
maybe Element or other electrolytes,
link |
maybe some caffeine as well
link |
in the form of Yerba Mate or coffee.
link |
That's my first focus bout of 90 minutes or less.
link |
That is essentially done fasted.
link |
And then I'll eat.
link |
And then I do notice after I eat,
link |
I actually have a diminished capacity to focus.
link |
But then again in the afternoon,
link |
I will do another 90 minute bout of focus.
link |
And I'll talk about some of the tools I use
link |
to make sure that that bout of focus is optimal
link |
for getting the most amount of focused work done,
link |
whether or not it's mental work or physical work,
link |
although I tend to do my physical work early in the day
link |
and my mental work both early and late in the day.
link |
So to make this very simple or as simple as I can for you,
link |
being fasted is great for focus and concentration
link |
provided you're not thinking about food the entire time.
link |
And being fed is terrific for focus and concentration,
link |
actually can improve neuronal function
link |
provided that you didn't eat too much food.
link |
So one way to manage this is if you're going to have a lunch
link |
to make sure that you don't stuff yourself at lunch,
link |
that you're not overeating and to not get quite so full
link |
that you put your nervous system into this parasympathetic
link |
mode and make it hard to focus in the afternoon.
link |
I know a lot of people experience a dip
link |
or even a crash in energy in the afternoon
link |
that make it really hard to focus.
link |
For that reason, I'll just remind people of a tool
link |
I've talked about many times before,
link |
which is based on the biology of adenosine
link |
and caffeine, et cetera,
link |
which is to delay your first caffeine intake
link |
to 90 to 120 minutes after waking up.
link |
I know that can be painful for certain people.
link |
I violate that rule when I'm working out
link |
very early in the morning,
link |
I'll drink my caffeine before my workout,
link |
which often occurs within 30 to 60 minutes of waking.
link |
But in general, unless I'm working out very early,
link |
I will ingest my caffeine 90 to 120 minutes
link |
So again, I want to emphasize that if you hear somebody
link |
out there say being fasted is optimal
link |
for focus and concentration.
link |
Well, that is true in one context
link |
and perhaps ideal for a certain part of the day.
link |
And other people will say, no, neurons run on glucose.
link |
You need glucose in your bloodstream
link |
in order to get those neurons to be tuned.
link |
That is to respond with electrical activity
link |
in the optimal way when you're reading something
link |
or when you're trying to perform exercise.
link |
Well, that's also true.
link |
And of course you can incorporate both.
link |
I, in fact, as I just described,
link |
incorporate both fasted states and fed states
link |
in order to optimize my concentration and focus.
link |
And as a brief note about ketosis,
link |
for those of you that actually managed to transition
link |
into ketosis and are maintaining a ketogenic state,
link |
that, as I mentioned earlier, can enhance brain function,
link |
concentration and focus because of the way
link |
in which ketones can be used
link |
as a so-called optimal fuel for neurons.
link |
The ketogenic diet was originally designed, if you will,
link |
for epilepsy as a whole relationship to epilepsy
link |
and controlling epileptic seizures.
link |
And it can in fact allow people
link |
to achieve focus concentrated brain states.
link |
So in the future, I'll do an episode about ketosis
link |
and be sure to circle back on how to optimize ketosis
link |
for focus and concentration.
link |
Although I have to believe that most of the people
link |
listening to this are probably not in ketosis
link |
or following a ketogenic diet.
link |
So that's why I mainly focused on fasted states
link |
And just to make sure that I'm thorough,
link |
a fasted state to me would be a state
link |
in which you haven't ingested any calories,
link |
but may have ingested caffeine
link |
or maybe even a small amount of artificial sweetener
link |
or something like that,
link |
but really haven't ingested any significant number
link |
of calories in the previous four to eight
link |
or maybe even 12 hours.
link |
And again, there's tremendous variation here
link |
depending on how long people have fasted,
link |
whether or not we're talking about the state
link |
right after people wake up, et cetera.
link |
Again, if you're interested in intermittent fasting,
link |
both for sake of mental and physical health and performance,
link |
check out our episode on fasting at hubermanlab.com.
link |
I also want to touch back on this idea
link |
of which foods can increase focus.
link |
You know, in the episode on ADHD that I did,
link |
I touched on this quite a bit
link |
as it relates to elimination diets.
link |
You know, there's a whole industry
link |
and a ton of interest for obvious reasons
link |
into what sorts of things kids and adults
link |
should and shouldn't eat
link |
in order to reduce symptoms of ADHD.
link |
I think that the sum total of those data
link |
point to the fact that reducing simple sugar intake
link |
and certainly highly processed foods,
link |
so ice cream, candy, chips, et cetera,
link |
those sorts of things really does seem to improve symptoms
link |
of ADHD in both children and adults.
link |
But once you move past that and you start to say,
link |
well, which foods can improve concentration and focus?
link |
Well, foods that, for instance, include a lot of tyrosine,
link |
which is a precursor to dopamine,
link |
and now you know why dopamine is important in this context,
link |
are certainly going to increase concentration and focus.
link |
So things like Parmesan cheese,
link |
certain meats, certain nuts,
link |
you can look up which foods contain
link |
high amounts of tyrosine.
link |
There are also some fruits and vegetables
link |
that include higher amounts of tyrosine.
link |
But to be quite direct,
link |
it doesn't matter whether or not you're ingesting foods
link |
that are rich in the precursor amino acids
link |
to dopamine, acetylcholine, et cetera,
link |
if you're consuming large amounts of those foods.
link |
That is, one can look and see, for instance,
link |
that a steak includes a lot of the precursors
link |
It has amino acid precursors to dopamine as well,
link |
and there are other foods that will do that as well.
link |
But if I were to ingest, say, two ribeye steaks,
link |
that's a lot of meat,
link |
and it will direct a lot of blood to my gut,
link |
and it will cause me to be sleepy,
link |
and that will create challenges in me
link |
being able to achieve states of focus and concentration.
link |
So the simple way to put this is,
link |
if you eat too much or you eat a very large volume of food,
link |
you are going to diminish your focus and concentration.
link |
The key is to eat enough that you're nourished
link |
for the certain activities, mental and physical,
link |
that you need to perform.
link |
But if you're eating large meals,
link |
you are going to diminish your concentration and focus,
link |
I know many people are curious as to whether or not caffeine
link |
can improve focus and concentration,
link |
and indeed, it can.
link |
There is an immense amount of data supporting the idea
link |
that caffeine, provided it's consumed
link |
in the appropriate dosages,
link |
can improve mental performance and physical performance,
link |
and it largely does that
link |
through improvements in focus and concentration.
link |
The dosage of caffeine, of course,
link |
is going to depend on how caffeine-adapted you are,
link |
how much caffeine tolerance you have,
link |
and that is going to vary tremendously
link |
depending on whether or not you ingest that caffeine
link |
with or without food, as I mentioned earlier.
link |
But there is a kind of general range
link |
in which we can talk about caffeine
link |
as being useful for focus and concentration.
link |
And the range is basically from 100 milligrams
link |
to 400 milligrams.
link |
I want to caution everybody out there.
link |
If you're somebody who suffers from anxiety
link |
or panic attacks, and you're not used to ingesting caffeine,
link |
and you run out and ingest 400 milligrams of caffeine
link |
in the form of espresso or yerba mate or an energy drink
link |
or in pill form, that is going to be very uncomfortable
link |
for you, you're going to be sweating profusely,
link |
your heart rate is going to increase,
link |
you're going to be quite panicked, in fact,
link |
or at least anxious.
link |
So be cautious with your use and adopting of caffeine
link |
if you're not already caffeine-adapted.
link |
But most people do quite well to ingest 100 to 200 milligrams
link |
of caffeine prior to doing some focused work.
link |
And again, I recommend delaying your caffeine intake
link |
to 90 to 120 minutes after waking
link |
unless you are using that caffeine
link |
to really jolt your system before a workout.
link |
Caffeine can, of course, be ingested in various forms,
link |
even pill form, but most people ingest it
link |
in the form of coffee, or my particular favorite way
link |
to ingest caffeine is yerba mate.
link |
It is important, and I should note
link |
that you should actively avoid the smoked versions
link |
of yerba mate as they contain a lot
link |
of carcinogenic cancer-promoting compounds.
link |
There's some great yerba mate brands out there.
link |
The most cost-effective way to consume it would be
link |
to use the loose leaf tea and to pour water over that.
link |
There's one particular brand that I like.
link |
I don't have any affiliation to them whatsoever,
link |
but I've been using it for years.
link |
It's an organic brand that is sold.
link |
I buy mine on Amazon, but you can find it elsewhere
link |
on the internet as well.
link |
Again, I don't have any affiliation to them.
link |
It's just very cost-effective, very clean.
link |
It doesn't have the smoked flavor.
link |
At least the one that I buy is not the smoked variety,
link |
so none of the carcinogenic compounds are in there,
link |
at least that I'm aware of.
link |
And I like the way it tastes,
link |
and it provides a very even lift and stimulant
link |
that I think certainly works for me
link |
and that a number of people I know
link |
that I've suggested to also enjoy.
link |
Yerba mate or caffeine also have other additional benefits.
link |
In particular, the caffeine in yerba mate and coffee
link |
and other sources of caffeine are known to increase
link |
the density and efficacy that is the number
link |
and the function of dopamine receptors.
link |
And this has been shown in humans several times.
link |
So by ingesting caffeine pretty regularly,
link |
you're actually increasing the ability of dopamine
link |
to have this effect of increasing motivation and drive.
link |
I tend to ingest caffeine only early in the day.
link |
I tend to cut off my caffeine intake
link |
somewhere around one or 2 p.m.
link |
to ensure that I can get into a good night's sleep.
link |
But I realized that there are people out there
link |
that ingest caffeine as late as two or three
link |
in the afternoon and can still sleep fine.
link |
I will caution those of you that think
link |
that you can drink caffeine in the evening or nighttime
link |
and still fall asleep.
link |
All of the research points to the fact
link |
that the architecture of your sleep
link |
and the depth of your sleep is disrupted
link |
even if you're able to fall and stay asleep.
link |
The sleep you're getting is simply not as good
link |
as the sleep you would get
link |
if you were to shut off your caffeine intake
link |
at least eight hours before bedtime
link |
and ideally more like 10 or even 12 hours before bedtime.
link |
But of course there are practical constraints as well.
link |
Okay, so caffeine is increasing dopamine's function
link |
by changing the number and efficacy of dopamine receptors.
link |
But of course it also increases our wakefulness,
link |
And that is largely through the neurochemical systems
link |
related to adenosine,
link |
which is a molecule that builds up in our brain and body
link |
the longer we are awake.
link |
It's part of the sleepiness system, if you will.
link |
It makes us feel fatigued or tired.
link |
And caffeine also operates on the epinephrine,
link |
the adrenaline system.
link |
In fact, if we ingest too much caffeine,
link |
we'll sometimes get the jitters.
link |
Those jitters are really the sympathetic,
link |
as it's called, nervous systems biased toward movement.
link |
And our pupils will dilate.
link |
They actually get broader.
link |
Now, somewhat paradoxically,
link |
when our pupils get bigger,
link |
the pupils of our eyes, that is,
link |
our visual world actually narrows.
link |
It becomes more tunnel-like.
link |
A lot of people don't realize this.
link |
When our pupils are really small,
link |
that means we are relaxed.
link |
So if you ever see someone with really tiny
link |
or pin-sized pupils, they are very relaxed.
link |
If their pupils are very big, they're very dilated,
link |
well then they are very amped up.
link |
They are very, very alert.
link |
Caffeine increases alertness by increasing epinephrine,
link |
adrenaline release, both in the brain and within the body.
link |
And so that's another way
link |
that it facilitates focus and concentration.
link |
Now, there are other ways to increase epinephrine
link |
in the brain and body besides caffeine or other stimulants.
link |
And in fact, that has been studied.
link |
There's an excellent study that was carried out
link |
not that long ago on how stress itself
link |
can increase our ability to focus and concentrate.
link |
That's right, how stress itself
link |
can increase focus and concentration.
link |
Most people think of stress as impairing our ability
link |
to focus, but that's actually not true.
link |
When we are stressed, it involves the deployment,
link |
the release of adrenaline, epinephrine,
link |
and that adrenaline both changes our visual field.
link |
In other words, it narrows our vision
link |
to a more tunnel-like focus.
link |
That is, it makes the arrow in our metaphor
link |
of the arrow more sharp and it improves our concentration.
link |
This makes sense given what we know about stress.
link |
When we're stressed, we tend to be stressed
link |
about a specific thing.
link |
We start anticipating or wondering
link |
or thinking about what's going to happen next.
link |
What led up to this?
link |
How is this going to impact me?
link |
How do I feel right now?
link |
It really narrows the context
link |
of our thinking and our behavior.
link |
So one of my favorite studies that really illustrates
link |
how stress can improve concentration and performance
link |
is one that was published not that long ago.
link |
And I will provide a link to this in the show notes.
link |
It's a paper published
link |
in the journal Experimental Psychology in 2020.
link |
The title of the paper is, not surprisingly,
link |
acute stress improves concentration performance.
link |
First author DeGroote, D-E-G-R-O-O-T-E.
link |
And this study involved taking a number of subjects
link |
and stressing them out or not
link |
prior to a cognitive or concentration task.
link |
And there are a lot of data in this paper,
link |
but I'm just going to home in on one specific set of data.
link |
And I should mention as I go there
link |
that they measured things like cortisol, a stress hormone,
link |
they measured anxiety.
link |
It was a quite thorough study.
link |
And what they found was that concentration performance
link |
improved manifold, I should say,
link |
from there was a greater than doubling of concentration
link |
and performance in the stress group.
link |
And stress in this context was provided
link |
using a standard way of inducing stress.
link |
What they basically do is they bring subjects
link |
into the laboratory and they have to either do something
link |
fairly mundane in the control group,
link |
or they have to do a simulated job interview
link |
and arithmetic task,
link |
and they're being evaluated as they're doing this.
link |
So this isn't intense psychosocial stress.
link |
They're not watching anything disturbing.
link |
They're not being traumatized in any kind of way.
link |
This is fairly low levels of stress
link |
that rates their levels of epinephrine,
link |
and we know this from this study,
link |
and other levels of cortisol and other stress hormone
link |
modestly within their brain and blood.
link |
But that even modest increase in these stress hormones
link |
and their reported psychological levels of stress
link |
really enhance their focus and concentration.
link |
This may come as surprising because you,
link |
like many people think,
link |
gosh, stress really diminishes cognitive performance,
link |
but that's absolutely wrong.
link |
Stress improves cognitive performance.
link |
there are other ways to increase stress levels
link |
and to do that in healthy ways
link |
to improve concentration and performance.
link |
And one of the best ways to do that,
link |
because it's so sure fire and it's generally safe,
link |
provided you do it safely, is deliberate cold exposure.
link |
This is something I've talked about on the podcast before,
link |
but deliberate cold exposure can be achieved
link |
by getting into a cold shower for one to five minutes.
link |
If you're not used to it,
link |
you probably want to start with one minute,
link |
or you can get into an ice bath,
link |
or nowadays there are a number of different commercial
link |
sources of circulating cold water,
link |
or if you have access to a body of cold water,
link |
like a lake or a pool or an ocean,
link |
we know that getting into cold water or under cold water
link |
greatly increases epinephrine levels
link |
and dopamine levels in the brain and blood.
link |
There's a beautiful study that was published
link |
in the European Journal of Physiology
link |
that showed that the increases in dopamine are massive,
link |
you know, near doubling or more of dopamine levels
link |
that are very long lasting for hours,
link |
and epinephrine and indeed cortisol levels
link |
are also increased, and in ways that support
link |
not just immune system function, because they do that,
link |
and mood, because it does that,
link |
but it can really improve concentration and focus.
link |
I touched on this a little bit in an episode about memory,
link |
that there is an age-old practice,
link |
really dating back to medieval times,
link |
of putting people into cold water
link |
right after they learn something in order to spike,
link |
to increase their epinephrine
link |
as a way to consolidate those memories.
link |
For sake of today's discussion,
link |
if you're interested in ways to improve focus
link |
and concentration, you need to increase your epinephrine,
link |
your adrenaline levels.
link |
Cold water exposure is one of the most efficient ways
link |
This is not a bio hack.
link |
I don't like the word hack.
link |
I know it's commonly used,
link |
but a hack is something where you're using one thing
link |
for a different purpose than it was originally intended for.
link |
And here, I'm not referring to the shower
link |
or the cold bath, I'm referring to epinephrine.
link |
Epinephrine is a neurochemical that will place your vision
link |
into more of a tunnel mode,
link |
which will allow you to focus on cognitive work
link |
or physical work in a more specific way.
link |
You're not going to be as distractible.
link |
And it's very easy to achieve by getting into a cold shower
link |
or a cold body of water for a brief period of time.
link |
People always ask how long to get under or into cold water
link |
and how cold to make it.
link |
Here's the thing, it should be uncomfortably cold,
link |
but safe to stay in for one to five minutes.
link |
Okay, so uncomfortably cold that you really want to get out,
link |
but safe to stay in,
link |
not so cold that it's going to give you a heart attack
link |
and not so warm that it's comfortable
link |
that it doesn't create that adrenaline release.
link |
Cold water exposure, I should say deliberate cold water
link |
or non-deliberate cold water exposure
link |
reliably increases epinephrine levels.
link |
It is incredibly useful as a tool for this.
link |
And it is in fact zero cost or even negative zero cost.
link |
How could it be negative zero cost?
link |
Well, you can certainly save on your heating bill
link |
by taking a cold shower, so that's one way.
link |
And for those of you that have access to devices
link |
or locations where you can get into cold water,
link |
you can submerge, well, then that can work.
link |
For those of you that don't, maybe you take a cold bath,
link |
you get in up to your neck,
link |
that's going to be most efficient.
link |
For those of you that can't do that,
link |
you'll get under a cold shower.
link |
Again, it should be uncomfortably cold
link |
to the point where you want to get out,
link |
but that you can safely stay in for one to five minutes.
link |
How long should you do it before a work bout?
link |
Well, if you get into really cold water,
link |
it's uncomfortably cold and get out
link |
after about three minutes, you're probably good to go,
link |
dry off and get to work.
link |
Some of you might think this is a little bit silly
link |
as a tool for focus and concentration,
link |
but if you look at the data on epinephrine
link |
and how powerfully it can increase focus,
link |
I think you'd be very impressed.
link |
I mean, it certainly can increase one's ability
link |
to attend to specific visual stimuli.
link |
So for reading or math work, et cetera,
link |
it's going to be very useful.
link |
And of course, you don't want to make it so cold
link |
that you're shivering and chattering the whole time.
link |
And of course you could, if you like,
link |
combine this with 40 Hertz binaural beats.
link |
There's no reason why you couldn't combine
link |
the two protocols.
link |
But the point here is that a lot of people would love to,
link |
and I think ought to leverage the health promoting
link |
and powerful effects of increasing epinephrine
link |
on focus and concentration.
link |
And running out and getting stressed by a life event
link |
or getting into an argument or something like that
link |
simply as a way to increase focus and concentration
link |
doesn't seem that adaptive to me.
link |
So deliberate cold exposure
link |
is a straightforward way to do that.
link |
It doesn't involve anyone else.
link |
I suppose you could do it with somebody else,
link |
but it doesn't require anyone else.
link |
And again, there are zero, low,
link |
and even negative cost ways to approach that.
link |
If you'd like to know how long the positive effects
link |
of epinephrine last toward improving focus and concentration,
link |
well, if we look to that study from DeGroote et al,
link |
the acute stress improves cognitive performance study,
link |
they measured concentration before and 30 minutes
link |
after the stress was induced.
link |
And there does appear to be a quite long lasting,
link |
really up to an hour or more effect
link |
of increasing epinephrine.
link |
So how might you apply these sorts of protocols
link |
early in the day or later in the day?
link |
Well, one suggestion or one potential protocol would be
link |
if you're going to sit down and do some work,
link |
if you're already feeling alert and focused,
link |
no need to reach to this tool,
link |
but if you're feeling like your focus and alertness
link |
isn't quite where you'd like it to be,
link |
you could take a three minute very cold shower
link |
or submerge yourself in cold water for three minutes.
link |
You might have a cup of coffee as well
link |
and then sit down and do that work,
link |
maybe even throw in the 40 Hertz binaural beats.
link |
All of that would be layering in the different systems,
link |
the different neurochemicals, such as acetylcholine,
link |
epinephrine, and dopamine that are going to lend themselves
link |
to a really terrific 90 minute or less work bout.
link |
Now I'd like to discuss some of the purely behavioral tools
link |
that quality peer-reviewed science say
link |
can improve focus and concentration significantly.
link |
At the beginning of today's episode,
link |
I talked about the study from Dr. Wendy Suzuki's lab,
link |
where they explored a 13 minute meditation done every day
link |
for a period of eight weeks.
link |
That meditation led to significant improvements
link |
in focus and concentration ability,
link |
as well as other aspects of cognitive performance.
link |
It also improved mood and reduced stress.
link |
So you might be wondering what exactly is this meditation?
link |
The meditation is very simple,
link |
and it's one that anyone can perform.
link |
What you would want to do is set a timer
link |
for about 13 minutes.
link |
I don't think it has to be exactly 13 minutes,
link |
but since that's what they included in the study,
link |
you would set a timer for 13 minutes.
link |
You would sit or lie down, close your eyes,
link |
and you would simply focus on your breathing.
link |
Most people are going to benefit
link |
from only doing that breathing through their nose,
link |
but if you have some sort of obstruction
link |
or inability to breathe just through your nose,
link |
you could probably also do it by breathing
link |
through your nose and mouth or just your mouth.
link |
But ideally, you would do just nasal breathing
link |
for a period of 13 minutes,
link |
concentrating on that breathing and concentrating,
link |
meaning bringing your awareness,
link |
your so-called interoceptive awareness,
link |
if you wanted to get really technical about it,
link |
your interoceptive awareness to a point
link |
just about an inch inside of your forehead.
link |
Now, of course, that might sound kind of gory
link |
to some of you who've never actually been
link |
inside your forehead, but just about an inch
link |
behind your forehead is where you would want
link |
to place your concentration
link |
while also concentrating on your breathing.
link |
Now, here's the thing about meditation
link |
that all studies of meditation show,
link |
which is that unless you are a very experienced meditator,
link |
your concentration, your focus will drift away
link |
from your breathing and away from that location
link |
about an inch inside your head, inside your brain,
link |
about just behind your forehead.
link |
That will happen maybe every 10 seconds,
link |
every 20 seconds, maybe even every five seconds.
link |
But an important part of such a meditation practice
link |
to improve concentration and focus
link |
is that you are continually refocusing
link |
back to that specific location
link |
and refocusing back on your breath.
link |
This is something that, again, is not often discussed.
link |
People think that if you do a meditation
link |
and you're supposed to concentrate on your breath,
link |
that if your mind drifts,
link |
that somehow you failed in that meditation,
link |
but actually that's not the case.
link |
A huge component of improving your ability
link |
to focus and concentrate by way of neural plasticity,
link |
rewiring of the circuits for focus and concentration
link |
is the repeated return to a state of focus
link |
from a state of non-focus or diminished focus.
link |
So think about it like trying to drive down the freeway
link |
and staying between the lane lines, excuse me,
link |
and every once in a while,
link |
because there's a bit of drift on the vehicle,
link |
maybe the wheels aren't aligned correctly
link |
or there's something else wrong with the chassis
link |
or the steering device,
link |
it starts to drift right a little bit.
link |
Then you hit the rumble strip to go,
link |
and then you pull back to the center.
link |
That's really what a focused meditation practice is about
link |
as opposed to expecting yourself
link |
to stay between the mental lane lines, so to speak.
link |
So if you're somebody who's going to do a practice
link |
of the sort that I described,
link |
you know, 13 minute meditation practice every day,
link |
you'd want to sit or lie down, close your eyes,
link |
start to concentrate on your breath,
link |
focus your attention on a location
link |
about an inch behind your forehead,
link |
and then fully expect that at some point
link |
you'll be thinking about something else,
link |
and that's a cue to focus back to that location
link |
just about an inch behind your forehead
link |
and back to your breath.
link |
By doing that repeatedly over and over,
link |
what you're really training up
link |
is the network within your brain
link |
that indeed includes that prefrontal cortex
link |
that you're focusing on,
link |
as well as some other structures,
link |
the infratemporal cortex,
link |
indeed the hippocampus, a structure associated with memory,
link |
and other components of the neural circuit
link |
that are involved in directing
link |
our mental focus and concentration.
link |
Again, I can't emphasize the importance of this practice
link |
being one of focusing and refocusing.
link |
In fact, I would prefer to call such a practice
link |
a refocus-focused meditation or a constantly refocusing,
link |
or maybe you all can come up with a better name for it.
link |
I'm certainly not that good at naming things.
link |
But this sort of meditation practice
link |
has been shown in the study by the Suzuki Lab
link |
and other studies to really improve people's ability
link |
to focus and remain focused,
link |
so much so that in the beautiful book, Altered States,
link |
they describe a number of different meditation practices,
link |
some a little bit longer than the one that I described,
link |
one that's 17 minutes, another one that's 30 minutes.
link |
Some people meditate as long as 60 minutes a day,
link |
although that's quite a long time in my opinion.
link |
The point here isn't how long you focus
link |
or somehow trying to achieve total focus
link |
for the entire 13 minute or 17 minute
link |
or 60 minute bout of meditation.
link |
While that would be wonderful,
link |
and I think many people aspire to do that,
link |
that's a lot of hard mental work.
link |
I think for most people out there, including myself,
link |
a relatively short meditation practice of about 13 minutes
link |
in which you fully expect your focus
link |
and concentration to drift,
link |
but that you are continually refocusing
link |
is going to be the most effective.
link |
Yes, indeed the most effective at teaching yourself
link |
to focus and stay concentrated.
link |
In fact, I invite you to interpret every time
link |
that you focus off that location
link |
about one inch behind your forehead
link |
as an opportunity to refocus
link |
and think about the refocusing as the trigger
link |
for teaching your neural circuits
link |
how to focus for extended periods of time.
link |
And as a bonus to that sort of meditation practice,
link |
the study from Wendy Suzuki's lab
link |
also showed that people experience improvements in sleep
link |
and improvements in memory.
link |
So not just improvements in mood and reduction in stress
link |
and improvements in focus and concentration,
link |
but all these other positive benefits
link |
from just doing that 13 minute a day meditation practice.
link |
It's one that I've started to adopt
link |
and have felt tremendous benefit from
link |
and that I encourage many of you to try as well.
link |
The one cautionary note is the one that I mentioned
link |
at the beginning of the episode,
link |
which is because the refocus, as I'll call it,
link |
meditation does involve a significant amount of effort
link |
and engagement of these prefrontal cortical circuits,
link |
it is disruptive to sleep
link |
if performed too closely to sleep.
link |
So if you are going to do that practice,
link |
I recommend that you not do it
link |
within the four hours prior to your bedtime.
link |
Earlier, I mentioned that I would talk about
link |
ways to improve focus if you are sleep deprived.
link |
This is something that I'm all too familiar with.
link |
I put a lot of effort into optimizing my sleep.
link |
That's something that with each passing year,
link |
I put more and more effort into,
link |
again, because sleep is so vital for mental health,
link |
physical health, and performance of all kinds.
link |
But certainly in my role as a student,
link |
in my role as a professor, and in my role in life,
link |
I've had numerous times in which
link |
I simply did not get enough sleep
link |
or my sleep was terrible for whatever reason.
link |
And yet I still had work demands and social demands,
link |
One practice that is very effective
link |
at allowing you to focus better than you would otherwise
link |
under conditions of sleep deprivation
link |
is so-called non-sleep deep rest or NSDR.
link |
This is also referred to sometimes as yoga nidra.
link |
Yoga nidra actually means yoga sleep.
link |
Yoga nidra is a practice of lying down for about 10 to 30,
link |
sometimes even as long as 60 minutes.
link |
You listen to a script, it's an audio script,
link |
that takes you through a progressive deep relaxation.
link |
It involves a body scan, some long exhale breathing.
link |
It is very restorative in the sense that
link |
one tends to emerge from yoga nidra or NSDR
link |
feeling greatly refreshed
link |
compared to how you felt prior to it.
link |
There is also terrific neuroimaging data
link |
from laboratories in Denmark
link |
showing that there's a restoration of dopamine levels
link |
in the so-called basal ganglia after NSDR,
link |
Whether or not you call it yoga nidra or NSDR,
link |
which is what I refer to it as, non-sleep deep rest,
link |
you can find these scripts at zero cost, multiple places.
link |
You can find, there are certain apps
link |
that are NSDR or yoga nidra apps.
link |
There is a NSDR protocol that was put out there by Made For,
link |
which is on YouTube, that you can access for free.
link |
There is a NSDR, or I should say a number of NSDR protocols
link |
through the Virtusan app.
link |
There are, again, a number of different places
link |
that one can access NSDR protocols.
link |
I do NSDR for 10 to 30 minutes per day every single day,
link |
not just on days where I'm sleep deprived.
link |
If I happen to be sleep deprived,
link |
I would extend that NSDR to 30 or 60 minutes.
link |
And when you do that NSDR will depend on
link |
when you have time for that NSDR.
link |
When I haven't slept well,
link |
what I'll try and do is find a quiet place
link |
where I can do NSDR for 30 or ideally 60 minutes.
link |
Sometimes I will fall back asleep during that NSDR.
link |
That's fine if you do that,
link |
but most people will stay awake during the NSDR
link |
and then I'll emerge from that and go about my day.
link |
If in the afternoon I'm very fatigued
link |
because of lack of sleep,
link |
I might do another NSDR of 10 to 30 or 60 minutes
link |
and then another workout.
link |
Again, NSDR is something I do every day.
link |
I talk a lot about this in the episodes related to sleep
link |
because it can help you get better at falling
link |
and staying asleep at night
link |
in addition to feeling restorative
link |
in that immediate timeframe of the day in which you do NSDR.
link |
So it's immensely beneficial at various times
link |
and for various purposes.
link |
But here within the context of trying to concentrate
link |
and focus when you're sleep deprived,
link |
NSDR, AKA yoga nidra, is an immensely beneficial practice.
link |
There's growing amounts of quality science
link |
pointing to the neurochemical replenishing effects,
link |
as I mentioned before, dopamine,
link |
but also the potential for NSDR
link |
to replace sleep that you've lost.
link |
I would never want anyone to try and use NSDR
link |
as a total replacement for sleep,
link |
but under conditions in which you cannot control your sleep,
link |
NSDR is going to be the best way that I am aware of
link |
to restore your ability to focus and concentrate
link |
for whatever purpose.
link |
And if you emerge from your NSDR
link |
and then drink some caffeine,
link |
you'll notice an even greater capacity
link |
for focus and concentration
link |
for all the reasons directly related to caffeine.
link |
So again, NSDR is a general tool
link |
for enhancing your ability to sleep.
link |
And it's a tool that you can use in order to compensate for,
link |
at least to some degree, compensate for lost sleep
link |
when you need to focus and concentrate.
link |
One thing that really contrasts NSDR and yoga nidra
link |
with the sort of focus meditation
link |
that I talked about a few minutes ago,
link |
the 13-minute meditation,
link |
is that during the 13-minute meditation,
link |
you're actively trying to refocus and focus,
link |
whereas during NSDR and yoga nidra,
link |
you're actually trying to defocus.
link |
So you can think of the 13-minute meditation
link |
for refocusing and focusing as directly tapping into
link |
and mediating improvements in the circuitry
link |
for focus and concentration,
link |
whereas you can think of NSDR and yoga nidra
link |
as modulating your brain and body state
link |
to allow you to focus and concentrate better.
link |
Now, another tool that you can use
link |
to directly tap into the circuits for focus and concentration
link |
and to greatly accelerate neuroplasticity,
link |
the improvements, or I should say,
link |
the changes in those circuits
link |
that will allow you to focus and concentrate better
link |
A lot of people hear hypnosis
link |
and they think stage hypnosis,
link |
people squawking like chickens
link |
and doing things against their will.
link |
But actually, hypnosis is a atypical
link |
but highly accessible brain state
link |
that's been studied with a lot of rigor
link |
at Stanford University School of Medicine
link |
by my colleague, Dr. David Spiegel.
link |
He's been a guest on this podcast previously.
link |
Hypnosis is a unique brain state
link |
because it's one in which you are deeply focused
link |
and yet deeply relaxed.
link |
So to just sort of set up the array of practices here
link |
so you can think about them logically,
link |
the focus refocus meditation is based on
link |
and focused on focus, no pun intended.
link |
NSDR and yoga nidra are aimed at deep relaxation.
link |
Hypnosis is this atypical, very powerful brain state
link |
in which you combine high levels of focus
link |
and deep relaxation.
link |
Now, it's a little bit of a tough one
link |
to just take oneself into,
link |
but fortunately there's a tool
link |
based on a lot of quality peer-reviewed research
link |
from the Spiegel Lab and other labs
link |
and that is the Reverie app, R-E-V-E-R-I.
link |
The Reverie app is available for no cost,
link |
at least for a period of time
link |
and then I think they place certain elements of it
link |
behind a paywall, but you can try at zero cost.
link |
It's available for Apple soon, I think,
link |
also to be available for Android
link |
and they have specific hypnosis protocols
link |
that you listen to and these are very brief protocols,
link |
follow the instructions,
link |
you're listening to a particular audio script
link |
of David Spiegel himself and some progressive breathing
link |
and actually some eye movements
link |
that are directly linked to the neural circuits
link |
that allow for these highly focused, deeply relaxed states
link |
and there are components within the Reverie app
link |
specifically geared towards improving focus
link |
and concentration.
link |
So again, there's meditation for focus,
link |
there's deliberate decompression, NSDR, yoga nidra,
link |
which take you into deep relaxation
link |
and then hypnosis is this very special, very directed state
link |
of highly focused and highly relaxed
link |
or I should say deeply relaxed
link |
that allow access to the neural circuits
link |
for focus and concentration
link |
and allow you to tune those up and to improve those
link |
very significantly in a very brief amount of time
link |
and again, some of those hypnosis scripts
link |
are as short as eight minutes,
link |
some are as long as 13 minutes.
link |
So what we're really talking about here
link |
are zero cost tools that directly tap
link |
into the neural circuits,
link |
the components within your brain
link |
that allow for deep relaxation, allow for deep focus
link |
and improve your ability to focus and concentrate over time
link |
simply by repeating these.
link |
How often do you need to repeat the Reverie hypnosis
link |
for focus and concentration before you see benefits?
link |
Well, that will vary from person to person.
link |
I tend to use it once every third or fourth day
link |
and I've experienced tremendous benefits from it.
link |
I don't think I'm unique in that sense,
link |
they have a lot of data to support this.
link |
Reverie app and the protocols within it.
link |
How long do you have to do NSDR
link |
before you experience those benefits?
link |
There I would say the first time and every time
link |
because it's so deeply relaxing that you emerge from it
link |
feeling quite restored relative to how you went into it.
link |
And as I mentioned earlier in the study on meditation,
link |
it took about eight weeks to see the effects
link |
that they observed in that study
link |
but they didn't observe shorter time points.
link |
So I highly encourage people to explore meditation
link |
geared towards focus and refocus,
link |
also NSDR, non-sleep deep breast, AKA yoga nidra
link |
and the Reverie app,
link |
specifically the hypnosis within the Reverie app
link |
that's geared towards improving focus and concentration.
link |
All of these have terrific science to support them.
link |
This is not woo science or hacks
link |
or just something that people came up with.
link |
This is all grounded in work
link |
from some of the best universities in the world,
link |
from excellent groups
link |
who've looked at underlying neural mechanisms
link |
and measured things with a lot of rigor, et cetera, et cetera.
link |
These tools are available to you.
link |
I highly recommend that you use them.
link |
And if you're interested in the optimal time of day
link |
to do these, we already mentioned
link |
that the focus, refocus meditation
link |
shouldn't be done too close to sleep.
link |
The Reverie hypnosis app can be done at any time.
link |
Really, in fact, there's a component
link |
of falling back asleep in there.
link |
In other words, a hypnosis specifically geared
link |
toward helping people teach themselves to fall back asleep
link |
when they wake up in the middle of the night.
link |
NSDR, I always say, can be done first thing in the morning,
link |
in the afternoon, or any time of day.
link |
And in fact, I'll sometimes do that
link |
in the middle of the night if I happen to wake up
link |
and need to get back to sleep.
link |
So really, these tools can be applied most any time of day,
link |
except for that one caveat
link |
about the focus, refocus meditation
link |
not being done too close to sleep.
link |
Now, there's another set of behavioral tools
link |
that can really help enhance one's ability to focus,
link |
and those are visual-based tools.
link |
In fact, the tools I'm about to describe
link |
are actually being employed in a number of schools
link |
in China and elsewhere in order to teach children
link |
to focus better and for longer periods of time.
link |
Now, the key principle here
link |
is that much of our cognitive focus,
link |
our ability to think about something in a very specific way
link |
and stay focused on it, to read or to follow a line
link |
of conversation or math or music, et cetera,
link |
is going to be directed by our visual system.
link |
Our visual system has two forms of attention and focus.
link |
One is overt focus, which is very straightforward.
link |
If I'm looking at the tip of my pen,
link |
for those of you who are listening right now,
link |
I'm looking at the tip of my pen, that's overt focus.
link |
I'm focusing on it with my eyes,
link |
and of course, the rest of my brain then will follow
link |
and start to analyze the details of what I'm seeing,
link |
the contours of the pen, et cetera.
link |
It seems sort of obvious when you first hear it,
link |
but our cognitive focus tends to follow
link |
our overt visual focus.
link |
That's also why they put blinders on horses.
link |
That's also why sometimes wearing a hoodie or a hat
link |
or limiting your visual field in some way
link |
can help you enhance your cognitive focus.
link |
It can help limit distraction.
link |
You're just not seeing as much.
link |
It's also why when we ingest caffeine
link |
or any kind of stimulant or we are stressed
link |
and our pupils dilate and our vision becomes
link |
more tunnel-like, less panoramic, but more tunnel-like,
link |
they say a soda straw view of the world
link |
or you're looking through a tunnel,
link |
your focus, your visual focus,
link |
is actually driving your cognitive focus.
link |
Your cognitive focus is narrower than it would be
link |
if you were seeing the whole scene that you're in.
link |
So when you hear this, it sounds obvious,
link |
but for many people, including many scientists,
link |
it's just not obvious that this would be the case.
link |
However that is the case,
link |
your visual focus drives your cognitive focus.
link |
So what is a practice that has been studied
link |
in various laboratories and that's being employed
link |
in various schools is to have children or adults
link |
visually focus on one location for a given period of time.
link |
Anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes.
link |
And believe it or not, three minutes is a long time
link |
to maintain visual focus at one location.
link |
If you were to try that right now,
link |
you'd probably find it to be a bit of a strain,
link |
but if you want to try it, you can.
link |
Keep in mind, you, yes, are allowed to blink,
link |
but also keep in mind that meditation refocusing practice
link |
that we talked about earlier,
link |
that the refocusing is the key component
link |
of teaching yourself or your brain,
link |
you are your brain, your brain is you,
link |
but to teach yourself how to focus better.
link |
So if you're going to incorporate this practice,
link |
what you would want to do is pick a location.
link |
It could be on a wall,
link |
it could be on your computer in front of you,
link |
although I would encourage it to not be the contents
link |
of your computer screen.
link |
You might just want to blank your screen.
link |
You might want to put a piece of paper
link |
with a cross hatch there, any sort of visual target,
link |
or you can imagine a visual target,
link |
and then focus your visual attention on that target
link |
and try to breathe normally, try and stay relaxed,
link |
and certainly allow yourself to blink
link |
so that your eyes don't dry out.
link |
This is not a test of how long you can go without blinking.
link |
By focusing on that particular location
link |
and by forcing yourself to refocus on that location,
link |
anytime your gaze, your vision drifts from that location,
link |
you are encouraging the circuits for focus
link |
to get better at focusing for longer and longer
link |
and at refocusing when your focus drifts off
link |
This is incorporating neural circuits,
link |
including the prefrontal cortex,
link |
things like the frontal eye field.
link |
For those of you curious about the underlying biology,
link |
this practice is recruiting certain elements
link |
of your so-called prefrontal cortex,
link |
also the frontal eye fields,
link |
which are locations not far from the prefrontal cortex
link |
that are involved in deliberately directing your gaze
link |
to particular locations in space, not outer space,
link |
although you could do this by focusing on stars, I suppose,
link |
but in visual space.
link |
Now, I mentioned before that this is overt visual focus
link |
You are overtly looking at that location,
link |
but one also very powerful practice
link |
for improving focus and concentration
link |
is to use covert focus.
link |
Covert focus is where my gaze,
link |
my eyes are focused on one location such as my pen,
link |
but my focus is actually directed elsewhere
link |
in the room or location that I'm in.
link |
My mind and to some extent,
link |
my peripheral vision is focused in this case on the door
link |
just to my left in the room that I'm in.
link |
That takes a little bit more effort.
link |
This is something that all old world primates
link |
of which we are old world primates are able to do.
link |
And it probably evolved as part of the mechanism
link |
by which animals could evaluate their scene,
link |
evaluate predators, evaluate other primates
link |
while not necessarily staring at them directly
link |
so they can obtain information.
link |
We can obtain information
link |
without having to direct our gaze
link |
specifically to one location.
link |
Maybe we can obtain information from multiple locations.
link |
Without getting too far down the rabbit hole
link |
of how vision and cognition relate
link |
because we've done episodes on that previously
link |
and simply focusing on the tools
link |
that can be incorporated to improve focus and concentration,
link |
here's what I recommend.
link |
Set yourself a low bar at first
link |
and set a timer and try to focus on one location
link |
for 30 seconds and that's it for that day.
link |
The next day, you might add five seconds
link |
and then the next day, five seconds after that.
link |
If you miss a day, no big deal,
link |
simply do the practice for the same amount of time
link |
that you did the last time that you did the practice
link |
and then gradually try and increase the amount of time
link |
that you can focus on one visual location overtly
link |
by looking directly at that location.
link |
If you like and if you feel you have the ability,
link |
you can try and do this through covert attention and focus
link |
by looking straightforward, for instance,
link |
and attending to something in the corner of the room
link |
and trying to do that for 30 seconds.
link |
You'll find that that's quite a bit harder
link |
and then extending that by five seconds
link |
every time you do the practice.
link |
This is something that I don't think
link |
you necessarily have to build up to being able to do
link |
for a full hour in order to extract the benefits.
link |
In fact, the best way to think about this practice
link |
is as a means to get into a focused state.
link |
If you remember back about an hour or so ago,
link |
I was talking about how focused states
link |
are not a drop all the way in and then exit type phenomenon.
link |
We don't just drop into a focused state
link |
the same way we don't drop into the peak performance
link |
of a workout, we warm up.
link |
So what I recommend is having a 30 second
link |
to three minute period at the beginning of about a focus
link |
where you're going to do work or physical work
link |
and anchoring your vision to one location
link |
somewhere in the room,
link |
or if you want to do it covertly, you can do that.
link |
Setting a timer and trying to do that
link |
for anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes.
link |
What you're doing when you exercise that practice
link |
is you are ramping up neural activity
link |
within the neural circuits
link |
that create focus and concentration.
link |
Then I would stop looking at that location
link |
or that covert location,
link |
and then I would move to the work that you're trying to do,
link |
either mental work or physical work.
link |
And if about halfway through your 90 minute bout
link |
or at some point in your 90 minute bout of work or exercise,
link |
you feel that your concentration is drifting,
link |
rather than look at your phone
link |
and scroll through the thousands of contexts
link |
that exist within social media or your phone,
link |
try just picking a location again on the wall,
link |
focusing back on that location,
link |
using that as a ramp up to then direct your focus
link |
back towards if your weight training sets and reps
link |
that you might be performing,
link |
if you're running, you might do this,
link |
or cycling, you might do this
link |
by focusing on a particular location
link |
and really homing in on that location physically.
link |
And this is a practice that a lot of athletes use in fact.
link |
And if you're say doing musical practice or math,
link |
well then you'd want to focus on something
link |
other than the task that you're trying to perform.
link |
But again, using visual focus as a way to ramp up
link |
and increase your overall ability to focus and concentrate
link |
and then applying that to whatever it is
link |
that you're trying to learn or perform.
link |
Next, I'd like to talk about compounds
link |
that can improve concentration and focus.
link |
And these are most often consumed as supplements,
link |
although some of them I should mention
link |
can also be derived from food.
link |
Again, I just want to remind you that there are things,
link |
in this case compounds,
link |
that can modulate a biological mechanism,
link |
that is can modulate focus and concentration.
link |
And there are compounds that can mediate,
link |
can directly contribute to concentration and focus.
link |
One of the key compounds that supports concentration
link |
and focus because it generally supports mood,
link |
concentration and focus and brain function in general
link |
are the omega-3 essential fatty acids.
link |
I've talked about the omega-3 essential fatty acids
link |
in a variety of contexts, in particular depression,
link |
but also ADHD, there are interesting data on that.
link |
And it's really clear that getting somewhere
link |
between one and three grams of EPA,
link |
that is one to three grams of EPA essential fatty acid
link |
per day can improve outcomes,
link |
that is can improve mood and can improve cognitive function.
link |
And while there's some debate about
link |
whether or not I can improve cardiac function,
link |
it's very clear, at least to me,
link |
that ingesting one to three grams
link |
of EPA essential fatty acids per day is beneficial.
link |
But again, in the context of focus and concentration,
link |
it's in modulating the neural circuits and brain function
link |
that are going to support focus and concentration.
link |
It's not as if taking one to three grams of EPA
link |
essential fatty acids per day is going to tap directly
link |
into only the circuits for focus and concentration.
link |
That said, and as discussed on the episode
link |
of the Huberman Lab podcast with Dr. Rhonda Patrick,
link |
and on the episode on ADHD that I did,
link |
and on the episode on depression that I did,
link |
I make it a point to ingest
link |
one to three grams of EPAs per day.
link |
You can get those EPAs from other sources
link |
besides supplements, of course,
link |
but supplements are going to be the easiest way to do that.
link |
You could do that through liquid form,
link |
fish oil, cod liver oil.
link |
Some people who are vegan opt for other sources of EPAs.
link |
You can find those out there, certainly.
link |
Some people even use prescription EPAs
link |
to get the dosage really high.
link |
Dr. Rhonda Patrick talked about this in the episode with me.
link |
That's actually something that she does.
link |
I don't take the prescription form.
link |
I get them through pill form
link |
through our supplement affiliate, which is Momentus.
link |
But there are a number of different quality sources
link |
of EPAs out there.
link |
And some of those quality sources
link |
also include things like fatty fish, algae,
link |
and things of that sort.
link |
So I'll leave it to you as to whether or not
link |
you supplement with omega-3 fatty acids
link |
in order to get that one to three grams per day,
link |
or whether or not you do it through food.
link |
But I would encourage you to try and reach that threshold
link |
because there are a number of known positive effects
link |
for mood and brain function generally.
link |
The other thing that can positively modulate brain function
link |
and that actually works as a fuel for neurons to function
link |
and can improve cognitive performance
link |
and particularly within the brain circuits,
link |
such as the prefrontal cortex that are involved
link |
in concentration and focus is creatine.
link |
I know many people are familiar with creatine monohydrate
link |
for its effects on muscle growth
link |
and strength and performance,
link |
but it's quite clear that the bulk of scientific studies
link |
have examined the role of creatine in the clinical context
link |
and as its role in improving cognitive performance.
link |
So my read of the literature has led to a practice
link |
in which I ingest five grams per day
link |
of creatine monohydrate,
link |
the sort of standard form that's available in,
link |
this is generally available as a powder.
link |
That's certainly how I take it.
link |
I take the creatine powder,
link |
I'll mix it with water or with my athletic greens
link |
or some sort of electrolyte drink,
link |
whatever liquid happens to be convenient to ingest that in.
link |
The time of day doesn't really seem to be important.
link |
Some people are strong believers
link |
in consuming creatine post-workout.
link |
While that might be beneficial,
link |
I simply take it in the morning or post-workout.
link |
It sort of depends on when I remember to take it.
link |
But that five grams of creatine per day,
link |
in my case, really isn't geared towards muscle growth
link |
or strength or performance as much as geared toward
link |
tapping into the creatine phosphate system within the brain
link |
and specifically the benefits of creatine
link |
for prefrontal cortical networks.
link |
Again, modulating, not directly mediating,
link |
but modulating and generally supporting the brain networks
link |
that are going to allow me to generate
link |
focus and concentration.
link |
So much like sleep, much like omega-3 fatty acids,
link |
creatine monohydrate, five grams a day,
link |
seems to generally support brain function,
link |
which will generally support concentration and focus.
link |
Now, in terms of compounds that more specifically
link |
mediate concentration and focus,
link |
we have to go back to that aero metaphor model
link |
that we talked about at the beginning of the episode
link |
that included epinephrine, adrenaline, acetylcholine,
link |
which acts as this attentional spotlight.
link |
In fact, acetylcholine and elevated levels of acetylcholine
link |
have been shown over and over again
link |
through beautiful work from Mike Merzenich's lab at UCSF
link |
and the Kilgard lab down in Houston
link |
and a number of other labs,
link |
including Norm Weinberger's lab at UC Irvine,
link |
again to improve or even directly gate neural plasticity
link |
by increasing focus directly.
link |
That's a lot of word soup,
link |
but basically what happens is
link |
if acetylcholine transmission is increased
link |
even transiently within the brain,
link |
there's a greater opportunity
link |
for neural plasticity to take place.
link |
And the reason there's a greater opportunity
link |
for neural plasticity, AKA learning to take place
link |
is by way of the increased focus
link |
that spiking acetylcholine can provide.
link |
As I mentioned earlier,
link |
there are a number of different foods which contain choline.
link |
You can look those up online.
link |
Choline acting as an amino acid precursor to acetylcholine,
link |
but of course there are compounds,
link |
there are supplements that can further
link |
and more acutely increase acetylcholine.
link |
And indeed I use these myself.
link |
The most effective one I've found is alpha-GPC.
link |
Alpha-GPC consumed at dosages of 300 milligrams
link |
to 600 milligrams prior to a workout
link |
or prior to a workout greatly increase
link |
one's ability to focus and concentrate.
link |
At least that's been my experience.
link |
And there are some good data in humans.
link |
So how would I use alpha-GPC?
link |
I would use alpha-GPC by taking it about 10 to 20 minutes
link |
prior to any time I want to focus
link |
or concentrate very deeply.
link |
I've taken as much as 600 milligrams at one time.
link |
Although I find that 300 milligrams is enough for me
link |
and I tend to be quite sensitive to supplements
link |
and caffeine in general.
link |
So I'll sometimes take it alongside yerba mate
link |
or with yerba mate or with coffee prior to a workout
link |
or prior to a bout of work
link |
in which I'm focusing on mental work.
link |
So it could be reading, writing, could be math,
link |
could be data analysis, could be anything
link |
where I need a lot of focus and concentration.
link |
Now, a number of people have contacted me
link |
about a recent study suggesting that alpha-GPC
link |
when taken chronically over many years
link |
could increase one's vulnerability to stroke.
link |
I've looked at those data and my read of the data
link |
is that they're not very conclusive.
link |
Although anytime you see something like that,
link |
you know, a study that's pointing to the fact
link |
that a given compound might increase the propensity
link |
for stroke, you obviously want to be concerned.
link |
So we have to ask ourselves how, by what mechanism that is,
link |
could alpha-GPC be increasing the susceptibility to stroke?
link |
And it seems to be related to increases in TMAO,
link |
which is a marker related to the cardiovascular system.
link |
And one known way to offset increases in TMAO
link |
that are associated either with alpha-GPC
link |
or increases due to other things,
link |
so ingestion of particular food compounds
link |
actually can increase TMAO,
link |
is to offset that by taking 600 milligrams of garlic.
link |
Now, I've been taking alpha-GPC pretty consistently
link |
for a number of years.
link |
I do not take it every day.
link |
I would say I take it about four days per week,
link |
again, prior to workouts or bouts of cognitive work.
link |
I have not seen my TMAO spike
link |
and I've evaluated that by way of blood tests,
link |
but nonetheless, I take 600 milligrams of garlic
link |
in capsule form anytime I eat anyway,
link |
and I do that for general cardiovascular function.
link |
And there's some interesting data
link |
on immune system function, et cetera, for garlic.
link |
So I've been consuming 600 milligram capsules of garlic
link |
for some period of time, some days I'll ingest
link |
just one 600 milligram capsule, other times I'll take two.
link |
But based on this recent study and the concerns about TMAO,
link |
I make it a point to always ingest a 600 milligram capsule
link |
of garlic anytime I take alpha-GPC,
link |
which again for me is about four days per week.
link |
So in our model of attention and focus,
link |
you can now clearly see why taking alpha-GPC,
link |
which increases acetylcholine transmission
link |
would be beneficial for concentration and focus
link |
and why taking it with a double espresso
link |
or why taking it with yerba mate
link |
would further increase concentration and focus
link |
because as I mentioned earlier,
link |
caffeine is going to increase epinephrine,
link |
it's also going to increase the density
link |
of dopamine receptors and the alpha-GPC
link |
is going to increase acetylcholine,
link |
this spotlighting for cognition,
link |
this ability to really amplify the activity
link |
of specific neural networks,
link |
which is largely what's happening
link |
when you're trying to focus and pay attention
link |
to something specifically.
link |
So if one wants to increase the amount
link |
of dopamine transmission in the brain and body
link |
for sake of increasing concentration and focus,
link |
one of the most efficient ways to do that
link |
is by ingestion of the amino acid L-tyrosine.
link |
Again, L-tyrosine can be derived from food sources,
link |
I invite you to look up those various food sources
link |
on the web, simply go to a web browser
link |
and put in foods that contain a lot of L-tyrosine
link |
and you'll get a rich array of choices to select from.
link |
But in my case, I use L-tyrosine in capsule form,
link |
I will take 500 milligrams of L-tyrosine,
link |
300 milligrams of alpha-GPC and a cup of coffee,
link |
I'm careful to do this early in the day,
link |
certainly not after two or 3 p.m.
link |
because I don't want to diminish my ability
link |
to fall and stay asleep that night,
link |
do this early in the day before a workout
link |
or before a bout of concentrated mental work.
link |
Again, I tend to do this about four days per week,
link |
so certainly not every time I sit down to do work.
link |
And I should also mention
link |
that I still tend to do the behavioral tools,
link |
I'll tend to use five minutes of binaural beats
link |
or binaural beats throughout the work session,
link |
sometimes do an ice bath or a cold shower before,
link |
I don't want to give the impression
link |
that I combine every tool that I've talked about today
link |
for a given workout,
link |
I mean, that would be pretty wild too,
link |
take a cold shower, pop an L-tyrosine,
link |
take an alpha-GPC, drink two espresso,
link |
listen to binaural beats,
link |
that to me seems like a very inefficient way
link |
In fact, I make it a point
link |
to try and use tools to increase my ability
link |
to concentrate and focus,
link |
but not to combine more than two or three of them
link |
And when I say two or three,
link |
what I mean is I will use supplements
link |
like alpha-GPC, L-tyrosine, and caffeine together
link |
before certain work bouts,
link |
I might use the visual practice
link |
of focusing on a given location for a minute
link |
before I begin that work bout,
link |
I might combine those,
link |
then another time I might take a cold shower
link |
prior to doing some work.
link |
Other days, I confess, I've slept very well,
link |
or my enthusiasm about what I'm about to work on
link |
is such that I don't require any of these tools.
link |
Again, there's no requirement,
link |
there's no pressure to use any of these tools,
link |
behavioral, supplement-based, or otherwise.
link |
It's simply a matter of using the tools
link |
that are going to allow you to achieve the states
link |
you want to achieve and to improve your ability
link |
to go into those states without any help at all.
link |
And this is what I find particularly attractive
link |
about supplements.
link |
It's not so much that they put you
link |
into the ideal state for that work,
link |
and then you accomplish that work,
link |
and then you always rely on those supplements.
link |
I prefer to look at supplements of the sort
link |
that I just described as a route
link |
into a deeper trench of focus and concentration
link |
that I use as a tool to teach myself
link |
to focus and concentrate more deeply,
link |
such that I don't need those tools every single time
link |
I try and focus and concentrate.
link |
I think this is an important point
link |
because I think that many people think of supplements
link |
as a crutch or a way of simply getting into a state
link |
for which no other tool will suffice or replace.
link |
But in that context, I want to remind you
link |
of the larger context of pharmacology,
link |
which is the vast landscape of prescription pharmacology
link |
for ADHD, for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
link |
Now, I covered that landscape in intense detail
link |
on the episode on ADHD and focus.
link |
And just to summarize, there is, of course, Adderall,
link |
Ritalin, Vyvanse, Modafinil, R-modafinil,
link |
a number of different compounds,
link |
all of which generally increase dopamine transmission
link |
in the brain, so increasing dopamine,
link |
and all of which generally increase epinephrine,
link |
adrenaline transmission in the brain and body.
link |
And many of those compounds have been of tremendous benefit
link |
to children and even some adults who suffer from ADHD.
link |
So properly prescribed at the appropriate dosage,
link |
those compounds can really help people
link |
with clinically diagnosed ADHD.
link |
The way they help those people is a bit surprising, however.
link |
You might think, well, they turn on the brain chemicals
link |
that allow those people to concentrate and focus.
link |
That's true, but they also have the benefit
link |
of teaching those brain circuits how to engage.
link |
And that's one of the reasons why,
link |
somewhat paradoxically, giving a stimulant
link |
like Ritalin or Adderall to a kid
link |
that legitimately needs it,
link |
obviously you don't want to do this without the oversight
link |
and careful evaluation of a psychiatrist,
link |
but giving that to a kid who has severe ADHD,
link |
you would think would make them more rambunctious,
link |
less able to focus, and more distractible overall.
link |
After all, Ritalin, Modafinil, R-modafinil,
link |
all these things are stimulant.
link |
So you take a kid who has attention deficit
link |
hyperactivity disorder and give them these drugs
link |
that increase transmission of dopamine and epinephrine,
link |
and you think, wow, it's going to make them
link |
even more distractible and hyperactive,
link |
and indeed it has the opposite effect.
link |
It doesn't necessarily make them feel calm,
link |
but it makes them feel that they can focus.
link |
They really can anchor their attention.
link |
And the idea is that it's teaching those neural circuits,
link |
or those neural circuits, rather, are teaching themselves
link |
to engage and to focus and concentrate.
link |
And the ideal situation is one in which
link |
the total dosage of those compounds, those drugs,
link |
can be reduced over time as those circuits
link |
learn to come online through purely behavioral tools.
link |
Now, oftentimes there's a maintenance of those drugs
link |
over long periods of time,
link |
although there is a common practice nowadays
link |
of trying to diminish the dosage overall.
link |
That's in the context of ADHD and prescription medication,
link |
and I acknowledge that a lot, indeed 80% or more,
link |
of college students, say the statistics,
link |
are using prescription drugs
link |
when they are not, in fact,
link |
prescribed those prescription drugs.
link |
So basically what I'm saying is there are a lot of people
link |
using drugs designed for ADHD and narcolepsy
link |
because those drugs will effectively increase
link |
focus and concentration,
link |
but I strongly discourage the use
link |
of powerful prescription drugs
link |
that have not been prescribed to you.
link |
First of all, it's illegal.
link |
Second of all, it's quite dangerous to hit the accelerator
link |
of those neural circuits with such vigor
link |
because it can increase dependency
link |
and they can have a number of other side effects
link |
outside the context of clinically diagnosed
link |
and prescribed ADHD medication.
link |
But in the context of supplementation,
link |
the increase in dopamine, acetylcholine, and epinephrine
link |
that one can achieve from, say,
link |
500 milligrams of L-tyrosine,
link |
300 milligrams of alpha-GPC, and a cup of coffee
link |
is going to be substantially less
link |
than one would see for prescription drugs.
link |
So you're getting a modest effect
link |
that can similarly teach those brain circuits
link |
for focus and concentration, how to engage better.
link |
But as a general backdrop to all of this,
link |
I always say, and I'll say it again and again,
link |
probably until the day I die,
link |
which hopefully is a long time from now,
link |
but regardless, it'll be the same message.
link |
I always believe that behavioral tools should come first.
link |
Behavioral tools should come first.
link |
Then focus on nutrition.
link |
In fact, I would say behavioral and nutrition tools,
link |
and of course, get excellent sleep.
link |
Then focus on supplementation.
link |
And then, and only if those are failing
link |
to bring your brain and body to the state you need to be in
link |
to perform well in school and work and life, et cetera,
link |
do I recommend that people lean on prescription drugs?
link |
Now, there's a caveat to that,
link |
which is under conditions like severe eating disorders,
link |
obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, depression,
link |
where people are truly at risk of suicide
link |
or severe mental health effects
link |
or behavioral health effects,
link |
and they're really, their lives are at risk
link |
and their overall mood and wellbeing is at risk,
link |
it's often the case that people cannot access
link |
the brain states required to shift themselves
link |
purely with behavioral tools, nutrition, et cetera.
link |
So again, for the typical person who's not suffering
link |
from one of the psychiatric disorders that I mentioned
link |
before or other psychiatric disorders,
link |
schizophrenia, et cetera,
link |
I strongly encourage you to look to behavioral tools first,
link |
nutrition, then supplementation,
link |
then and only if there's a remaining need
link |
to prescription drugs.
link |
This contrasts very much with the typical scenario
link |
I hear about these days where college students
link |
or other people will say,
link |
oh yeah, I hear that there's this drug, you know,
link |
Ritalin or Vyvanse that can immediately put me
link |
into a state of heightened focus and concentration.
link |
Now, listen, if you have ADHD, by all means,
link |
talk to a physician, talk to a great psychiatrist
link |
and figure out whether or not that's right for you.
link |
But if you don't, again, behavioral tools,
link |
nutrition, supplementation, and in particular,
link |
those behavioral tools are going to be the ones
link |
that are going to allow you to teach your neural circuits
link |
how to focus and concentrate better.
link |
And I cannot overstate the importance of that,
link |
that the behavioral tools and to some extent,
link |
the supplementation combined with behavioral tools
link |
really allow you to train up your neural circuits
link |
so that you can focus and concentrate
link |
to the depth and the degree and the duration
link |
that's going to best serve your mental and physical goals.
link |
Now there's one other compound that I've used
link |
from time to time and that I continue to use
link |
in order to increase focus and concentration.
link |
And I will use this in combination
link |
with the other supplements that I talked about before
link |
and that's phenylethylamine.
link |
Phenylethylamine is in the dopamine synthesis pathway,
link |
so it increases dopamine transmission
link |
and tends to function a little bit differently
link |
So every once in a while, I'll swap out L-tyrosine
link |
and put in 500 milligrams of phenylethylamine,
link |
or sometimes if I really want to push a little bit harder
link |
on the dopamine system,
link |
and I'm going to be doing a long bout of intense work,
link |
I will take the 300 milligrams of Alpha-GPC,
link |
the 500 milligrams of L-tyrosine,
link |
I'll generally take that with some caffeine.
link |
And I should mention,
link |
I don't go past about 100 or 200 milligrams of caffeine
link |
because I don't really like feeling too jittery.
link |
That's not really my goal.
link |
It's the goal to be alert,
link |
but not so alert that I really can't focus on anything.
link |
I'm not interested in having an anxiety attack after all.
link |
But I'll sometimes either swap in
link |
or I will add that 500 milligrams of phenylethylamine.
link |
Phenylethylamine is in the PEA pathway.
link |
I've talked about this in a previous podcast
link |
on dopamine motivation and drive.
link |
And it's a very short-lived compound,
link |
so what I'll tend to do is take it once
link |
at the beginning of the workout
link |
and sometimes in the middle of the workout,
link |
I'll take another 500 milligram capsule.
link |
But what I just described
link |
with combining all of those compounds,
link |
Alpha-GPC, L-tyrosine, phenylethylamine, and caffeine,
link |
that's a fairly rare occurrence that I'll combine all four
link |
and really only under conditions
link |
in which I have to do an intensely challenging bout
link |
of mental or physical work.
link |
I would say the frequency at which I combine
link |
all four of those things
link |
is probably about once every two weeks
link |
and typically more like once a month.
link |
Again, being careful to do that
link |
in the early part of the day,
link |
certainly before the noon hour
link |
so that I am in no way going to disrupt my sleep.
link |
I realize that many of you are probably wondering about
link |
or hoping that I'll discuss things like lion's mane
link |
or the racetams or some of the other compounds
link |
that are known to powerfully modulate
link |
the dopamine epinephrine and acetylcholine systems.
link |
To be quite direct,
link |
there are far too many of these compounds
link |
to review in a single episode,
link |
and they all generally tap into the same set of processes.
link |
Again, epinephrine, that shaft of the arrowhead
link |
that we're thinking of as focus,
link |
acetylcholine, which is the arrowhead itself,
link |
and then dopamine,
link |
which is the sort of propeller behind the arrow
link |
that allows it to continually drive forward
link |
through a bout of mental or physical work.
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There is a wonderful site,
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I've mentioned it several times before on this podcast,
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that is examine.com.
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That wonderful site that is examine.com
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has recently been updated.
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They've changed their format.
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It was terrific before.
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It provided links to relevant studies.
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It talked about specific compounds.
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It talked about the magnitude of effect.
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It talked about the human effect matrix.
link |
It really focused on human studies
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with links to those studies and on and on.
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The new revamped version of examine.com is even better.
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It's really next, next level.
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I really applaud them for doing such a terrific job
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in organizing the information.
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There are a lot of interesting pages
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that you can read there about different compounds.
link |
So you can put in any compound,
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ginkgo biloba, phosphatidylserine, alpha-GPC,
link |
and you're going to get a rich array of information
link |
about those compounds.
link |
And if you were to put in a specific goal state,
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that is focus or concentration or sleep
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or hormones like testosterone, et cetera,
link |
you're going to get a rich array of compounds, supplements,
link |
as well as links to the studies on those compounds
link |
and some details about those particular studies.
link |
It's an absolutely phenomenal site.
link |
It's one that I rely on and that I know thousands,
link |
if not millions of other people rely on,
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and I encourage you to check it out.
link |
Again, the URL is examine.com.
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So today we've talked about a number of different tools
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and to some extent, some mechanisms
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involved in concentration and focus.
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And really the goal has been to provide you
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an understanding of the neurochemical systems
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and a little bit about the neural circuits
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that can allow you to achieve states of attention and focus.
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In contrast to previous episodes
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of the Huberman Lab Podcast,
link |
where I've covered these topics in tremendous depth
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as it relates to mechanism and also focused on tools today,
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I largely focused on tools.
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We talked about behavioral tools,
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like a meditation that's 13 minutes long,
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done daily specifically to improve your ability to focus.
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And in fact, there are data to support that it will.
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Talked about hypnosis.
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We talked about visual focus, overt and covert.
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We talked about various supplements,
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such as Alpha-GPC, phenylethylamine, L-tyrosine,
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supplements that I use to directly modulate
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the neural circuits for concentration and focus.
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We also talked about creatine, the Omega-3s.
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Talked about the importance of sleep,
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which modulates our ability to function mentally
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and physically overall.
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So optimize that sleep.
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And we talked about a number of other protocols
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that you can incorporate.
link |
My hope in giving you all this information
link |
in one single location is that you will be able to pick
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and choose which of these protocols
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you would like to incorporate into your attempts
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to improve your focus and concentration.
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Again, I don't recommend doing all of these protocols
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What I recommend is picking a handful of them,
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maybe one or two, maybe three or four,
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and trying them in different combinations
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at different times of day and for different purposes,
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for mental work, for physical work, et cetera,
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and find what is best for you.
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Once again, the goal is to teach your brain,
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that is to increase neuroplasticity in the neural circuits
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that allow you not just to focus,
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but to refocus your attention.
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And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention
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that it's also critical to be able to defocus.
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I highly encourage people to take a period of time each day
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to daydream, to walk down the hall
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without looking at your phone,
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to not have to incorporate more sensory information,
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to not place increasing demands on yourself to focus,
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and see and realize how having a period
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of deliberate decompression and defocusing
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can allow your brain to focus so much better
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when you do decide to return to about a focused,
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concentrated work or physical work.
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So I want to thank you for joining me for this discussion
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about tools for focus and concentration.
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If you're learning from and are enjoying this podcast,
link |
please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
link |
That's a terrific zero-cost way to support us.
link |
In addition, please subscribe to the podcast
link |
on Spotify and Apple.
link |
That's also a zero-cost way to support us.
link |
And on both Spotify and Apple,
link |
you can leave us up to a five-star review.
link |
If you have questions for us or comments or suggestions
link |
or guests that you'd like us to consider
link |
bringing on the Huberman Lab Podcast,
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please put all that in the comment section on YouTube.
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We do read all those comments.
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Please also check out the sponsors mentioned
link |
at the beginning of today's episode.
link |
That's the best way to support this podcast.
link |
During today's episode and on many previous episodes
link |
of the Huberman Lab Podcast, we discuss supplements.
link |
While supplements aren't necessary for everybody,
link |
many people derive tremendous benefit from them
link |
for things like sleep and enhancing focus
link |
and hormone augmentation and so forth.
link |
As mentioned at the beginning of today's episode,
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the Huberman Lab Podcast is now partnered
link |
with Momentous Supplements
link |
because they are of the very highest quality,
link |
they ship internationally,
link |
and they have single ingredient formulations in dosages
link |
that will allow you to construct the best,
link |
most biologically and cost-effective
link |
supplementation protocol for your needs.
link |
If you're interested in the supplements
link |
covered on the Huberman Lab Podcast,
link |
you can go to Live Momentous, spelled O-U-S,
link |
so livemomentous.com slash Huberman.
link |
If you're not already following us on social media,
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we are Huberman Lab on Twitter
link |
and we are also Huberman Lab on Instagram.
link |
Both places I talk about science and science-related tools,
link |
some of which overlap with the contents and topics
link |
of the Huberman Lab Podcast,
link |
much of which is unique from the content
link |
and it's certainly the format covered
link |
on the Huberman Lab Podcast.
link |
Again, that's Huberman Lab on Instagram
link |
and Huberman Lab on Twitter.
link |
The Huberman Lab Podcast has a newsletter
link |
in which we provide summaries and essential protocols
link |
from the Huberman Lab Podcast episodes.
link |
You can access it totally free of charge
link |
by going to HubermanLab.com,
link |
go to the menu and click on newsletter, provide your email.
link |
We do not share your email with anybody
link |
and you'll receive our monthly newsletter.
link |
There are also examples of previous newsletters there
link |
that you can download as PDFs right away
link |
without even having to sign up.
link |
So thank you once again for joining me
link |
for today's discussion all about the mechanisms
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and especially the tools
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for enhancing concentration and focus.
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And last, but certainly not least,
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thank you for your interest in science.
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We'll see you next time.