Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is released during difficult tasks as a form of positive reinforcement, which can boost motivation and creativity. It modulates executive functions, such as mood states and regulatory focus. Low dopamine levels can contribute to creative blocks, but engaging in activities like walking, brainstorming, or dancing can boost dopamine levels and shift the creative drive.
Creativity is influenced by factors such as emotion motivation, reward, mood states, and regulatory focus. Dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson’s disease can enhance artistic creativity, while dopamine antagonists used to treat schizophrenia can reduce artistic creativity. Individual differences in trait levels of openness to experience and creativity have been theoretically linked to dopamine function, but empirical evidence for this link is limited.
Research has found a potential link between dopamine and creativity, potentially explaining the long-standing idea that truly creative “geniuses” are often mentally ill. Creativity depends on goal-driven approach motivation from midbrain dopaminergic systems, while fear-driven avoidance motivation is less helpful. Dopamine production has been linked with reduced latent inhibition and creativity, as well as mental illness.
Increased dopamine does mean an increase in energy, which can allow creativity to express itself. Numerous artists have used dopamine-dependent methods, and researchers have found that people with lower densities of dopamine receptors have higher levels of creativity.
The neurotransmitter dopamine might mediate the association between positive mood and creativity. Up-regulating striatal dopamine in individuals with high baseline levels can bias cognition and performance away from creativity. When a high amount of dopamine is released, cognitive inhibition can be reduced, and more creative ideas can flow.
📹 What is ‘dopamine fasting’ and is it good for you? – BBC REEL
In recent years, ‘dopamine fasting’ has become increasingly popular among the tech workers of Silicon Valley. But what is …
Does dopamine reduce creativity?
New research from Karolinska Institutet has found that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative individuals is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia. High creative skills are more common in those with family mental illness, and creativity is linked to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Certain psychological traits, such as the ability to make unusual or bizarre associations, are also shared by schizophrenics and healthy, highly creative people.
The study, which appears in the journal PLoS ONE, suggests that the dopamine system of healthy, highly creative individuals is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia. This suggests a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity.
Does dopamine make you less productive?
Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, can be addictive when we engage in activities that release it, such as social media or video games. This can lead to decreased productivity as we focus on pleasurable experiences instead of completing important tasks. To use dopamine effectively, set achievable goals and reward ourselves when we accomplish them. Be aware of activities that release dopamine but are not productive, such as spending hours on social media, and limit exposure to these activities to avoid addiction. Noradrenaline plays a crucial role in arousal and attention.
What happens if dopamine levels are too high?
Dopamine imbalances in the brain can lead to mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia, and psychosis, aggression, ADHD, and addiction. Low levels can decrease motivation and excitement, while high levels can cause muscle stiffness and movement issues. Parkinson’s disease, for example, is linked to insufficient dopamine in areas crucial for movement. Symptoms of a dopamine imbalance vary depending on the cause, and may include physical symptoms such as muscle stiffness and difficulty walking.
Do hobbies increase dopamine?
Hobbies can have a positive impact on our brain’s reward system by releasing neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which helps us feel pleasure. These feel-good chemicals, when initiated, can drive us to engage in the hobby again, thereby increasing our motivation. This process is being further explored in our lab. In addition to pleasure and motivation, hobbies can also improve physical fitness and brain function.
Some hobbies, like playing a musical instrument, have been found to improve memory, while artistic hobbies, like reading or board games puzzles, have been linked to preventing dementia later in life. This highlights the importance of finding time for hobbies in maintaining overall well-being.
Does dopamine affect thinking?
Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, travels along four major brain pathways, with dopamine receptors along the way. It sends and receives messages affecting movement, coordination, pleasure, and cognition. Dopamine plays a significant role in the reward system, as it releases a rush of dopamine when something feels good. This leads to the desire to repeat the good feeling, which can be harmful or positive, such as eating or binge-watching. Dopamine affects various aspects of behavior and physical functions.
Does dopamine affect intelligence?
The dopaminergic dual-state view suggests that synaptic and subcellular dopaminergic signaling is a significant contributor to variations in working memory and attentional control, which in turn contribute to variations in intelligence. The dopaminergic dual-state system is likely highly polygenic in humans, with variations regulated by many genes with small effects. Although the dopaminergic system appears simple, genes could regulate various proteins and subcellular functions, such as turnover, production, transport to the membrane, and transmitter release/reuptake.
This could explain why DNA regions surrounding dopamine genes do not show large hits in human genome-wide association studies. Twin studies and genome-wide association studies on the dual-state dopamine system may show a high genetic correlation with intelligence. However, it is not possible to propose a specific hypothesis regarding the dopamine dual-state’s role in the instantiation of the positive manifold that describes the structure of intelligence.
The working memory system, with its demands on attention, is a collection of overlapping cognitive functions, and variations in the efficacy of the aggregate working memory system only account for a portion of the variance in intelligence.
Do successful people have higher dopamine?
Intrinsically motivated individuals have higher dopamine D2-receptor levels in specific brain regions, while low levels impair effortful actions to obtain rewards. Dopamine blockade severely impairs effortful actions. Studies have shown that blocking the dopamine D2 receptor with drugs can lower social dominance in high social class primates. However, D2 receptors can only be changed by the environment before a social structure is established.
In a study on 14 human volunteers, the number of D2/D3 receptors did not differ between them prior to the establishment of a social hierarchy, but once the social structure was established, those who became dominant developed higher D2/D3 receptor activity.
Does dopamine affect personality?
Individuals with highly efficient dopamine systems are more likely to exhibit behavioral approach traits (Extraversion and Emotional Stability) due to higher perceived reward values, while those with less efficient dopaminergic systems are more likely to avoid risk. Personality traits, particularly those regulated by behavioral approach vs avoidance motivation, vary both within and between human populations across the globe. Attempts to explain these differences range from genetic to cultural hypotheses, with evidence suggesting that both genetic and cultural variation affect variation in personality.
Dopamine activity has been experimentally linked to differences in personality traits through various methods, but the relationships between genes regulating dopamine activity and global personality phenotypes have been less than consistent. This may be due to a large vector of environmental factors, such as parental support, negative life events, and resource availability, which also affect the development of personality traits. This is known as phenotypic plasticity.
Contextual factors at the population level, such as climatic demands, can also contribute to how individual personalities develop, which in turn may affect population-level patterns of personality traits. Climateic demands have been shown to affect various psychological functions and behavioral traits in modern human populations, influencing personality traits on a broader geographical scale. These broader climatic effects can differentially impact the personality development of various genotypes, causing greater phenotypic variation between genotypes in some climates than others.
In humans, there is a general recognition that personality is structured into basic dimensions, with traits differentiating broad behavioral approach vs avoidance motivation emerging in practically all personality models in both human and animal studies. Extraversion and neuroticism are distinct traits that systematically vary within and between populations. Variations in genes regulating a dopaminergic brain system modulate processing differences in the striatum, prefrontal cortex areas, and limbic system, which are centrally involved in decision-making, reinforcement learning, and risk assessment.
Dopamine is one of the main neurotransmitters within the behavioral approach system, with multiple correlational and experimental methods showing its relevance for extraversion and neuroticism-type behavioral traits. Variants of dopamine genes have been associated with variation in personality traits in both clinical and general populations, although the direction and stability of these associations are less clear.
This highlights the need to pay greater attention to environmental conditions that may influence gene expression, as dopamine is involved in regulating brain systems that control cognitive and emotional decision processes that underlie both Extraversion and Neuroticism.
What is a high dopamine personality type?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that drives behavior, personality, and executive planning in the prefrontal cortex. It is characterized by analytical, fast-paced, thinkers, highly motivated, focused, and competitive individuals. Dopamine also plays a role in addictions, as it increases the perception of pleasure and control impulses. This pathway is easily triggered by sugar, high carb foods, alcohol, caffeine, drugs, money, sex, gambling, and personal pleasurable activities.
When dopamine travels down this pathway, pleasurable feelings soar and reinforce the behavior. Individuals with higher-than-average dopamine may struggle with dietary restrictions, conquer chronic stress without “burning out”, and may be at risk for certain health problems. Dopamine is also involved in the mesolimbic “reward” pathway, which is triggered by sugar, high carb foods, alcohol, caffeine, drugs, money, sex, gambling, and personal pleasurable activities.
What happens when dopamine is high?
Dopamine imbalances in the brain can lead to mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia, and psychosis, aggression, ADHD, and addiction. Low levels can decrease motivation and excitement, while high levels can cause muscle stiffness and movement issues. Parkinson’s disease, for example, is linked to insufficient dopamine in areas crucial for movement. Symptoms of a dopamine imbalance vary depending on the cause, and may include physical symptoms such as muscle stiffness and difficulty walking.
Is dopamine related to IQ?
Wass et al. found that attentional fatigue in humans leads to a decline in cognitive performance, with low IQ individuals being less prepared to respond to this fatigue. High-IQ individuals may have a greater reserve of dopamine receptors available to respond to high cognitive demands, making them at an advantage when faced with complex cognitive challenges.
Zmigrod and Robbins assessed the performance of 1, 400 humans on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST), a task sensitive to age-related cognitive declines. Gene-gene interactions were observed between catechol-O-methyltransferase (which contributes to the degradation of DA) and the D2 receptor, suggesting that genotypes with elevated prefrontal DA performed best during rule changes, suggesting that levels of the D2 receptor were associated with cognitive flexibility.
Modulation of DA dynamics by experience and cognitive demands was also observed in mice. Extensive demands on working memory could induce an increase in the expression of D1 receptors in the PFC, and availability was positively correlated with animals’ general cognitive ability. These results suggest that a pool of D1 receptors may be available to meet the demands of cognitive challenges and that the availability of immature receptors for transport to the plasma membrane may contribute to variations in intelligence.
Experimentally imposed cognitive exercise has small and transient benefits on traits like intelligence. While broad experiences and changes in economic status can promote dramatic improvements in intelligence, relatively minor laboratory manipulations have met with very limited success. In the limited cases of typical laboratory manipulations, a few weeks of cognitive exercise is unlikely to enhance intelligence, although there have been solid, large-sample studies that have indeed found an enhancement of working memory, attention, and intelligence, sometimes lasting over one year.
📹 Time Perception & Entrainment by Dopamine, Serotonin & Hormones
In this episode, I discuss how our brain and body track time and the role that neurochemicals, in particular dopamine and …
I’ve been doing it once every 3 months for 2 weeks. Dopamine fasting is more about cutting down or stopping things what you love the most for certain period of time,just be by yourself and detach from things you love or are dependent on or enjoy the most .what I can tell you is it refreshes you quite a bit and gives lot of perspective ..
Well it seems that all those long boring Sundays I spent as a kid and teenager through the seventies in the uk probably did me some good after all. Not much in the way of a dopamine rush on a February Sunday afternoon for a 13 year old on a Yorkshire council estate in 1975. Character building I think they would call it.
i did an outward bound course before high school in 2019 and thinking back it was a major dopamine fast. For 10 days: no electronics devices, social interaction was just 14 people i never met before, hiked/canoed for majority of the day, slept outdoors, food was limited and no sweets, and to top it off 20 hour self isolation period at the end. I came back a new person.
Interesting. Many religions (including my own) recommend periods of fasting. In my own faith it’s for many reasons, but a big one is by fasting from something that is good (that is, there is nothing wrong with it in itself), you are better able to have self control to say no to things that are destructive. It’s practice in self control. It’s recommended for limited periods, not all the time.
Best way to dopamine fast is to go to a place where there is no internet and also only cook and prepare your food, and hang out with family and friends. For me this place is deep in Oaxaca, Mexico in a village where my grandparents live. Everytime I come back from a vacation there my brain feels completely refreshed and motivated.
i am 17 years old. I was addicted to anime, reels, YouTube, nonstop music and other internet related things like shopping and games. I quit all of these at the same time because I was aiming to score high in my exams. After a few days I experienced sudden stress and anxiety and was confused about what was going on with me. I had gotten anhedonia because of sudden drop of dopamine and was very very scared about my future. It’s been 1 month and I’m still having a few symptoms. I get a lot of mood swings, I don’t enjoy anything as much as I used to before, I get scared of many things, I get suicidal thoughts even though I would never do such a thing. These suicidal thoughts make me overthink and give so much distress that I disconnect from the world and just keep thinking about why all this is happening to me. There have been a few positive changes since the past month. It’s very difficult for me to handle this. I’m glad I have such wonderful parents and friends and that is why I get panicked and scared about getting suicidal thoughts. Please tell me what I can do to have a speedy recovery so I can enjoy life again. I really really hope this is temporary.
The ironic thing is that perusal youtube articles also release short term dopamine. This is why you got easily addicted to youtube, instagram, or any social media that reward anyone with short time investment. Why go to the Gym or Working on a project if you can get the same reward with 5 minute investment ?
At the end, when she said, it’s better to get the dopamine directly and paying for it upfront… Is that basically saying it’s best to get your dopamine organically like exercising being outside or reading a book? 📕 as opposed to social media scrolling article games and binge perusal TV. I feel those things are like the junk food of entertainment.
My performance has degraded since I was in my final year at school. Thanks to internet and digital devices, I have still been experiencing the issues regarding focused attention 😓 Edit: I have read Dopamine Detox by Thibaut Meurisse and applied the 48-hour rule. Accordingly, it worked well for me. I am thinking of following the rules in the book
I find pleasure in silence, meditation, immersion in nature, and withdrawal from society. I don’t know about others, but I suspect I’m not “dopamine fasting” when I do these things. I feel high at those times, maybe it’s not dopamine? IDK. Then again, I’m not a social media doom scroll kind of guy. I find little pleasure there. edit: My weekly day of silence was often my best day of the week. It’s sad I don’t do it anymore. #2 I get it now, my dopamine fast is my daily life at work. /satire
I think this helped me arrive closer to the answer to my question. “What is this “pain”?And I am now seeing this pain is just a biological mechanism. Where I keep thinking this inability to just sit still is bc I don’t want to face myself, my traumas/problems, insecurities and I’m seeking endless distraction from that. I’m the one attaching this meaning to the pain. But this pain just is
At one point in the article it says a dopamine fast of 24 hours will balance you, then later we are told it takes 30 days for the “gremlins” to get off the balance when you are avoiding behaviours that causes you problems. So which is it, balance after 24 hours or 30 days? A dopamine fast sounds like my life. I’m retired, have no family, do not leave home more than 3 or 4 times a month, have few friends (well, only one actually), a poor appetite, and the majority of my time is spent reading (I use the internet for a short time each day, and use no social media). I also write in my journal every day. My dopamine levels must be very low, but as dopamine is a natural part of the human condition, surely you can suffer from low levels as much as high. I also feel that what you do during a dopamine fast would not have an effect for many people, being outside in nature, writing, and even meditation can be so pleasurable that surely you are still being stimulated to produce the dopamine.
These DoPaMiNe DeToX articles are getting out of hand, lol. At least there are not totally wrong. If you have too little Dopamine then you’re not motivated enough, also not satisfied enough, getting lazy against your will. If you have too much Dopamine then you should be euphoric enough, you should have stronger urges, you should have a high enough amount of energy. What all of these Dopamine Detox articles say is not exactly true, not knowing well enough what exactly is the phenomenon. Actually, if you have too much Dopamine, you shouldn’t get bored of anything you do, unless your brain succeeds fast and strong enough to lower the Dopamine level, by dropping it as low as it is already high. This is the withdrawal or homeostasis reaching self-tuning action of the brain. But in this case you’ll feel much worse, not the way you feel bored everyday from constant and low enough Dopamine level, major aspect which the Dopamine Detox Theory omits, neglects. They say that you get not motivated and not satisfied enough anymore because of too much Dopamine, which clearly isn’t true. They actually refer to the period of time when Dopamine drops down, after being high enough by doing something stimulating enough, finishing that activity. Basically the brain DeToX itself of (too much) Dopamine, if it’s too high and if you stop doing something stimulating enough. These Dopamine articles mostly refer to activities which don’t motivate you as they should, when actually they just can’t motivate you more and further because it’s normal, you need to do something else.
Nice! I have a lot of healthy habits, but do like to use my phone and laptop a bit too much. I’m not sure I can reduce that much more though, because these are also my tools of acquiring new information and following my interests. I do exercise a lot, trying to eat healthy (and less food recently), go for long walks by myself and with friends… I gave up on pornography recently, after many many years of consuming it every day. It was somewhat easy, I just stopped it at once, like of done with other things before. I’m somehow able to not get too addicted to anything so far and I’ve tried many drugs out of curiosity. Guess I’m not the average case though…
Just for a bit of perspective on how electronics effect people, i am in the middle between 2 groups of people. 1. The typical, college age student in modern society. Uses their phone a lot. 2. A friend group which is primarily religious, uses their phones far less often times not at all in any social situations. I have noticed the second group is consistently happier, and more outgoing specifically because they rarely have that kind of stimulation. We could all benifit from a significant reduction or compete elimination of idle dopamine. Dopamine is meant to make us strive for more of whatever is releasing it. Why should we do an activity that only continues to release more dopamine, but only wastes time and gets you nowhere?
There are other ways to feel pleasure- connecting with nature, growing food, music, art, exercise, socializing with family and friends in person and not over social media, serving the society, etc There should not be a place for smoking, alcohol, recreational drugs, over use of technology in a civilized society
– (00:00) 🧠 Dopamine fasting explained. – (00:29) 😞 Overabundance reduces happiness. – (01:30)👍 Dopamine’s pleasure role. – (01:57)⚖️ Balancing pleasure and pain. – (02:27)📱 Modern life’s stimulation. – (03:24)🕰️ Importance of boredom. – (04:21)🔄 Resetting reward pathways. – (05:42) 🚫 Addressing addictions indirectly.
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again I am from Madhuka Software Developments, a nonfrofit organization In sri lanka . I talked about Our COVID 19 recovery plan in my earlier speaches as well and It was a wake up call for all of us to rethink . Now that world community has realized this that science based policy is the corner stone of progress and sustainable development, we have to do something with the collaboration of international community in this regard, me thinks . When It comes to biodiversity and eco-system or climate change or climate risks, How is litigation being used to pressure countris and cooperations into action ? Today we are living in a war like situation, the world is oscillating in between science and nescience, so let us get together, united .
I am perusal this article because I never had so much comfort in my life at all levels as I have now but at the same time never felt so bored and lacking aliveness before. I feel that this is due to the lack of challenges in my life and having a life with so much comfort. I do notice though that when I return after a few days out in nature for example, that my motivation to do new things is higher
what people fail to understand is that you can learn from these hacks. for example, i am super untidy. so i developed a system if i tidy my house for 20 minutes, i get a sticker 🟡 30 minutes, a different one 🔶 40 minutes, this 🟦 and finally 60 minutes a trophy 🏆 however “childish” – it’s a game. and boy it works! now I look forward to tidying up the house every day, so I can get my “dopamine fix”.
I owe my life, health and future to you and your articles. I was really close to ending my life even after perusal multiple motivational articles on not giving up. Until I saw you as a guest on a random article and then found out about your podcast a few days ago. I love you. Thank you. You are an angelic gift to humanity. You don’t just bring knowledge to us. You actually change lives and save lives. May life bless you with health happiness and greatest success. Thats the least you deserve
Me and my girlfriend love to put the Hubermann Lab on in the car while we drive between cities in Finland. We might pause the HuberLab 20 to 30 times because there is so much information packed in one episode but during these car rides we have learned more about the human body and mind than either of us did in school. Thank you Dr. Hubermann for the fantastic work you do. You have a great way of compressing complicated data but delivering it in a simple way mixed with a hint of humour.
If you’ve ever struggled with DP/DR, dissociation or depression you’ll know exactly how this feels. How time just seems to slow down, every minute feels like an hour and so on… but actually looking back on it retrospectively, it feels like life is just passing you by in the blink of an eye (maybe a pun) even though you feel almost stuck in time. It’s a completely disturbing and scary feeling that makes you question your own reality.
Great topic…I wanted to suggest a topic for a future podcast regarding the ‘speaking language’ as a way of thinking. Does learning a new language rewire the brain or how it affects brain plasticity, with emphasis on languages that use logographs. More on Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. And are some societies more ‘advanced’, because of their way of speaking.
Fascinating! I am a retired registered nurse early in my career I had the experience of working five days a week eight hour shifts. A decision was made in the healthcare system to go to 12 hour shifts. 12 hour nights 12 hour days. Initially I work the night shift. I loved nursing and it’s eight hour shifts were not a serious problem. When we shifted to 12 hour shifts my life became difficult and chaotic. Human beings as Andrew said need balance in their life and the three days of work and the four days off, we’re not good for me. The healthcare system needs a lot of work and the 12 hour shifts are ruining peoples lives and levels that we do not even understand.
But why do people want time to move quickly? One of my main problems in life is that I love to get into a hyperfocused state, but I never want to wish my life away and celebrate time going quickly. I actually love the feeling of time going slow and wish I could make it so I can focus without time speeding up.
Dang you, Andrew Huberman! I’m trying to catch up on all your podcasts since I only recently discovered your website and here you go adding another one I wanna watch LOL. It’s a good problem to have. Thank you for making something even a non-science person like myself can enjoy and somewhat understand.
How does this affect teens on a four, 80-min block schedule? I teach. Do you have any suggestions for High School teachers on how to best navigate these 90 min learning & engagement windows among 4 back-to=back 80 minute classes? What does the research say about the how far apart the 90 minutes need to be?
I’ve only experienced overclocking once and it was very strange. I always thought that the phrase “time slowed down” was just a dumb cliche, but once when my son was 3 years old he was walking by a filing cabinet that had a glass picture frame placed on top. He bumped into the cabinet and the frame started to fall. I should also add that the frame was bigger than he was. I remember the sensation of panic, then trying to get to him before the glass frame fell on top of him (I was about 5 feet away sitting at my desk in my home office), and it really did seem as if time slowed down, but not the activity in my mind, only the physical world. It was like I was trying to push through some horrible resistance, almost like I was underwater, and the harder I pushed the more it resisted. Fortunately the frame didn’t fall on him, and it didn’t break anyway, but it was a very tense few seconds.
It’s amazing everything we have learned this year thanks to Andrew and his team! We are 2 months away from the anniversary of the Hubermanlab! I think about how slow time seemed to pass with the pandemic. I can only speak for myself, but life after these lessons is so much better! I am superpowered by sunlight. I thought it was a South American thing, but it is a HUMAN thing! 7 miles of hiking in the desert yesterday and feel like a million bucks!
Dr. Huberman, what can you say to people who mainly operate nocturnally? Those who with graveyard shifts, who work mainly in the evening and sleep just before the afternoon. What are your recommendations for those who has to maintain that lifestyle for their work but wants to maintain a good body health and mental health? Does getting as much sun in the eyes before sleeping applicable for graveyard shift folks?
I’m starting to love cold showers and it’s almost winter here in Spain. I take one before going to work, so that’s sometimes in the morning sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes twice a day. It takes all laziness out of you and you no longer feel cold when others do. Edit: I phrased that weirdly, it sounds like I used to feel cold when others did, what a level of empathy 🤣 The superpower of knowing when someone feels cold, super useful if we get invaded by aliens who look like us but are used to hotter temperatures. You all laughed at me, but now it’s my time to shine! (and freeze)
Looking forward to yours and David Spiegel’s breath study. Anything you can share yet? (tentative findings, data, etc.). I’m conducting a meta-analysis (RCTs only) on the effectiveness of breathwork for mental health and well-being in collaboration with Oxford. If so, I’ve emailed you in the past using my UC Berkeley address. The information provided here is second-to-none. Just as an aside note: it might be useful for you to address OCD, as it could be easy for someone with this condition who listens to this podcast to view the protocols in an obsessive-compulsive way. I know you say continuously state not to be neurotic about them, but just a thought which could prove beneficial to others!
@Andrew Huberman How does entrainment work for women like myself in menopause? In this stage of reproductive life, our estrogen is in a very static, fixed state, barring hormone replacement. Many, many women suffer insomnia and sleep disruption after menopause. I’m curious about how this day/light dynamic as well as circadian cycles get affected in menopause. Since all women will eventually experience this, it’s an important research topic.
I understand from your podcast that in terms of light exposure at the end of the day, blue light glasses are not effective since it is light in general that prevents melatonin not just blue light. Obviously what’s preferable is to just avoid light, but is the better alternative to blue light, sunglasses? I have read some sleep researchers use sunglasses at the end of the day to limit unwanted light exposure. Thoughts? Of course, thank you for your podcast. I would be lost without it.
dear Andrew, big thanks on all the great content you have been putting out there! 😊 Could you please also do an episode on infertility (male and female) and pregnancy loss (recurrent and first time)? There is very little information on this. Much of the information out there is unscientific or unreliable. Besides, this issue is such a taboo and nobody wants to talk about it, so people going through this mainly suffer on their own. That would be greatly appreciated, if you could bring some light on these subjects.
This perfectly explains the seemingly contradictive feeling of passage of time during the Covid year! Would love to know how this, or maybe some other mechanism, explains the dream stage. Is it scientifically true that what’s experienced as a longer period of time while dreaming is actually much more brief in real? If so, what accounts for it? Thank you.
This has an interesting correlation with ADHD, where an ADHD individual experiences issues with time perception. I wonder if this time perception distortion is caused by the same factors as the proposed dopamine transmitter density levels. Common experiences could be perceived as different in duration each time they occur due to different dopamine levels at the time.
Great article. Could you consider interviewing BJ fog Ph.D., who is also a professor at Stanford, about his work in behavior design and the use of what he calls “tiny habits” in his book called “Tiny Habits: Small Changes That Change Everything”? I’m reading and using his book right now and it’s amazing.
Question: Why is it that when we are excited, time seems to pass faster? Since excitement would cause dopamine release, won’t that mean our experience will be more fine-sliced and thus, slower? My initial thoughts on this is that; yes, the dopamine increase will cause slower time perception, but the activity that one then engage in, acts as the distraction that divorce the experience from the slowed time perception – similar to how singing during cold submersion makes time “go faster”. Feel free to chime in.
I find the part with dopamine and blinking confusing. You said higher dopamine is associated with higher spontaneous blink rate. But I do remember, that when you suggested to visually focus on point, to blink LESS. So the question then – when I’m concentrated on a point visually, normal reaction is that I should want to blink more and more, because of dopamine increase. But you suggest otherwise, why?
Dear Professor Huberman, as all your audience I thank you for this episode, which was brilliant as usual. If you are going to talk about trauma in the future, please answer my question. Many years ago, in an accident, I lost consciousness for 2 or 3 minutes just when I realized that I was no longer in control of the car. I do not remember that the car rolled over across the road and overturned in the ditch, or that my mother managed to get out of the vehicle and take the kids out. My question is: did my brain recorded anything and if so, what about my levels of dopamine and epinephrine? I thank you in advance. Denise
Quiz for aficionados: Changing from 9am to 6am by choosing morning light time re: temp minimum, and by targeted adjusting exercise time, especially given darker evenings (for example sunrise 7am, dark at 5pm).. So temp minimum would be 9 minus 2.. = 7am.. and we want to change wake time back 3 hours but need to be careful to avoid wrong side of temp minimum for light exposure.. Given the above.. Ideal morning light time = Answer1 Ideal evening light time = Answer2 Ideal exercise time = Answer3 Ideal feeding time = Answer4 (Andrew feel free to answer or verify answers if you want to clarify this for us)
Mr. Huberman, I highly respect you. I respect you because I see, you got it together. Exactly 2 years ago I had an emergency surgery, since then trying to find my circadian rhythm which succeeds only for a few days. I am very aware that live can be much shorter than I think, but I am no longer scared of that very moment. The solution is acceptance. When that emergency happened I knew I would have to confront myself with what happened to overcome the trauma freeze, so I took pictures of myself of the hospital bed, of the heart beat and oxygen monitor, so I would know, that was not a bad dream. I am not without any emotion when I write this, but I am not crying, it moves me a little bit, but it is ok. Well, I had that scaring situation 4 times before already, I needed some repetition before I learned how to handle it. Now I can understand people when they talk about such topics and that is really precious to me. I have never been a morning person, mum had to wake me up always 2 times, before I would make it out of bed (she was singing me out of bed with a sweet cherishing song), then of course the daily running to the school bus. That being said, since that last experience 2 years ago my day cycle is out of the usual rhythm and time perception on some days is extremely good but on other days I almost have no time perception at all. Being punctual without precise time perception is my biggest struggle right now. In Switzerland, where everybody is perfectly punctual, that really is a problem.
I had a horrible car accident last December and have been challenging with time / reality perception for months. Hearing the rationale and mechanics behind the dopamine spikes and time perception make complete sense! As I’ve been listening to your podcast I’ve been trying new habits to better manage sleep and dopamine and have had good results! EMDR has also been very helpful. Looking forward to the trauma episode. Thanks so much for the information!!
I don’t know if David Goggins will agree on the circadian timing since he is frequently challenges like sleeping 4 hours per night then waking up in the midle of the night when its still dark outside and going for a very long distance running … then he goes back to sleep and so on – he disrupted so many biological in his body and he has more energy and power than almost any other human on earth – so why is he the exception ?
My whole life I’ve struggled to get to sleep before 1am or wake up before 11am. Even when I had to get up for school I still went to sleep late and just didn’t get sleep. I’m currently leaving my job to start freelancing because I can’t get up on time anymore. Is this just how I am, or do I need to try harder to get to bed earlier?
Dr. Huberman, could you consider doing a segment on neurolinguistic programming? Some of their techniques to overcome trauma and phobia include what seems like what you described as “over-clocking” with the dopaminergic system. I’m just curious how neurolinguistic programming (NLP) created by John Grinder, Phd and Richard Bandler is looked at by the scientific community, particularly neuroscientists like yourself. Is it considered “real science”?
How much time a day is okay to spend on lifting weights and playing article games without losing motivation in other things because of the dopamine getting under the baseline? Should i balance them (only working out on specific days and only gaming on the other) or is there a way to combine them in a day?
This dopamine release serving as the start of a time bin, could be the reason of why we tend to search new dopamine hits after some trouble events. Say that you broke up with your partner, is a dopamine hit, the negative one, so..we want another dopamine hit that starts a new time bin, in order to forget the previous one. ¿Could we be Dopamine junkies?
Hi proff andrew ..Iam avertinary student from sudan in africa …. I start do mindfulness for 4 month And I have afile about medtioan in my mobile and you are the best last vedios I found is from you I Devolop atechnice in witch I can clear my mind and stop any thoughtes in my mind to treat negative emotion and thinking Does stop thinking can make me stubeid and drumb ?????????? 99 % of my thought is negtive My training is to stop think with out any help just turn off I have jumping and not meaning thoughtes about 95 % from 99% negative thinking ….. What the neuro effect on stop thinking just be like stone?????????? in not motivation state and work “”””when Iam alone “”” Before this I was all time thinking jumping not usful thinking with ability to stop —-2 th does stop bad thinking decrease the amygdela Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhelp
Dear Andrew, I can’t thank you enough for all of the information you provide, the brilliant structure of the content, and the eloquent delivery… you’ve helped me understand how to help my daughter live a happier life, and have given me countless tools to become a better human. I honestly hope I can meet you one day and thank you in person.
This is very interesting! I’m a Spaniard living in Scotland, during summer time I feel very confused about time. I don’t feel like eating or sleeping I just want to do things all the time. Yesterday it was 10pm and all that light in the street made me feel awake, I can’t sleep. I also feel more energetic and social, I feel more from my country 😂. Since I moved to the UK my character has changed I’m more introspective. The cold weather and the lack of light during the long winter has modified my behaviour. Every time I travel to Spain I feel that the ‘active’ part of the day is much longer there and I don’t like. The days in Scotland feel shorter and I start my hibernation at 6pm every day hahaha.
This applies as much to episode 43 as this one but they overlap. I just got my Spotify Top 5 of 2021 and my wife got hers. No surprise they were all from the original Lion King soundtrack by Hans Zimmer which my young daughter can’t get enough of. Interestingly, my wife’s was the Frozen soundtrack. I tend to take care for my daughter first thing in the morning and my wife in the late afternoon after a busy day at childcare. I wonder how much circadian rhythm, neuro-modulators, and perception of time (tempo), not to mention glucose, might impact her music choice (and vice versa) beyond the obvious fact that my wife and I are two different people with whom she has different relationships and interactions. Both are children’s movie scores that have a range of moods. But my subjective opinion is that the Lion King is a bit more dynamic and peppy and the Frozen score is more emotional and moody. Those descriptions could just as easily apply to my daughter’s personality in the morning vs late afternoon as well. It would be a fascinating topic to look at the interplay between music (though it might be outside your visual-system wheelhouse) and a person’s internal state. Personally I often wake with a song in my head. My favorite music is down-tempo indie, alt-country, folk, and jazz but my wife needs pop or show tunes to stay awake. I listen to aggressive hip-hop, rock, and metal only while doing super-threshold workouts but will settle into a heady podcast or my slow music for workout intervals below threshold walking or easy Z1-3 cycling.
I am a third in and loving this Episode! It was great to learn that one can choose when to start an ultradian cycle when awake. Before this, I wondered how you’d know where you’re at in the cycle as it wouldn’t be ideal starting a learning bout when you are 2/3 into a cycle if that makes sense. Knowing that you can choose when to start it is a game changer for me. Thanks Andrew
Great Job! the article is awesome! I only suggest posting the link of all mentioned papers and publications in the description since one may have further interest in reading them, and, of course, is a form of giving credit to the authors by highlighting their effort and making the publications more accessible.
It’s very interesting the topic of Ultradian cycle. As a system developer we have a technique named Pomodoro, and this allow us to focus for longer periods of time. Can your talk about the science behind this technique? and if we can use it for other activities that require a high level of focus. Thanks a lot
Thank you very much, Dr. Huberman! For all you do, and for this episode. I am a professional in mental health. I always recommend your podcast/protocols to my patients (of course, with credits to you). This podcast has helped me and my patients before, but today it helped me to understand something very important. Just this morning, I saw a patient, who was blinking at a much slower rate than their usual, and I was puzzled, trying to understand why and what this phenomenon could represent. They were quite triggered by the Memorial Day. Thanks to your comment on blinking, I can understand what was happening. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Have been pondering the effects of individual differences in baseline dopamine levels; have definitely noticed how medication has “shortened” the perceived time path between intention & goal acquisition. Days seem to fly by (although being filled with intense activity). This increase in speed, ironically does seem to be driven by an unremitting sense of a ticking clock, where as you say time is super finely sliced & every next moment is keenly sensed as imminent. was wondering if you’d address cannabis. am baffled by the underestimation of time; yes, have had that experience, but more often it’s overestimation that seems to happen (for me). With the experience of time slowing, one feels as if one has more time to breath, more life & thus more time packed into any given unit of time. Thusly, minutes can give/feel like hours worth of refreshment.
This podcast was EXTREMELY interesting. So much new information I haven’t heard of so far. Great job. Do these 90-min. cycles have anything to do with deliberate practice? Angela Duckworth mentioned that you can only do max. 4-5h of deliberate practice a day and you mentioned that you can do 3 90-minute cycles max (so all in all 4.5h) – is there a connection?
Hey Dr. Huberman! I’m an avid listener to your podcasts, but I’ve got a question for you about your last episode with Dr. Duncan French, and I’m afraid I missed your response window on your last upload… Understanding that the “ideal training protocol to stimulate testosterone release: 6 sets of 10 repetitions with 120-sec rest between reps”, what number of exercises should be done per body group per workout without negatively affecting testosterone stimulation? Thank you so much!!
Why is it that when we go through a time change, like spring forward, or fall back an hour in the fall, it seems like a disorientation of time. It’s not the actual time that affects me, but my eyes, and something in my brain tells me that it’s much later. I get more anxiety, because I see the day changing faster and I was intrigued by the idea that some people use tanning beds to get more light. I researched and found that they have red light beds that are not used for tanning, but for health benefits. Can red light help?
THANKS for another STELLAR lesson Andrew!!! You got me thinking that dopamine seems to be a more masculine trait, whereas serotonin seems to be a more feminine trait (as in a duality sense, not gender Per se). And, I can definitely say that time perception is not a strong suit of mine, I can be a bit sloth-like when it comes to accomplishing this 🤣
The comment about cannabis causing an underestimation of how much time has passed is totally contrary to my own experience and that of just about every other cannabis user I know. The classic “time dilation” experience with cannabis is one of feeling like a much longer time has passed than actually has. I have vivid memories of the first few times I smoked pot in college and it felt like an eternity had gone by, but when we looked at the clock it had only been a couple of minutes. I still feel this effect now, although it’s less intense. e.g. if I play a article game where one match is a fixed amount of time, a match will feel significantly longer when I’m under the influence of cannabis than when I’m not. I wonder if Andrew inadvertently got the results of that particular study backwards.
Great website! Super high quality content, clearly presented, and always with actionable information. I really appreciate the literature citations instead of the “science shows that…” hand-waving that accompanies so much of the bro-science in these areas. There are a couple of guests that I would be super interested to hear you talk with. FIrst, Dr. Andrew Hill regarding neurofeedback, QEEG, and a host of other topics. And Ray Cronise — he first got some notoriety via mention in the 4-Hour Body, but he’s done a lot of work since then, and he publishes. His concept of the “metabolic winter” is really interesting. Plus he’s probably got a lot of Penn Jillette stories… Both scientists rather than perhaps better known “popular bio-hacker enthusiasts.” I think it would be fascinating — you’ve got so many great guests.
Thank you so much Dr. Andrew Huberman for this informative and helpful podcast! I was wondering if slicing and dopamine have a major role to play in the brain of a person with really good memory? I not only remember a lot of events in my own life and of those around me, I remember these seemingly insignificant events in a very detailed manner. I cannot forget them even if I wish to. Could you give more insight into why some people seem to have a better memory than others? Thanks! 🙂
“The sky was darker now, with a purplish, greenish cast. The color of a turning grape. But it still looked high, with worlds of air under it. A gull crossed, very high, directly above me. Against the sky it was whiter even than the sail had been. It passed clear across all the sky I could see. I wondered if Anne had seen the gull. When I looked at her, her eyes were closed. Her arms were still spread out wide, and her hair wavered out free on the water from around her head. Her head was far back, her chin lifted. Her face looked very smooth as though she were asleep. As I lay in the water, I could see her profile sharp against the far-off black trees. I got an image in my head that never got out. We see a great many things and can remember a great many things, but that is different. We get very few of the true imagines in our heads of the kind I am talking about, the kind that become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality but, year by year, drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed, for there are not enough years, but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increases that the brightness is meaning, or the legend of meaning, and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters. The image I got in my head that day was the image of her face lying in the water, very smooth, with the eyes closed, under the dark greenish-purple sky, with the white gull passing over.
That was Awesome! I always learn so much. I majored in accounting in college 🙃. So your podcasts are definitely in my 90 minute hyper-focus/productivity ultradian entrainment but some of the episodes are over 2 hours. I have to break up sometimes into 2 sessions because brain overload. My question is, how about selling merchandise? I want a Huberman lab logo sticker on my car. I tell lots of people about your free accurate science on YouTube. So it’s time to buddy up with red bubble or teepublic and let your fans spread awareness. I think half of society’s problems would be solved if everyone listened to your podcast and followed your recommendations. Thank you from a science beginner
I really enjoyed this episode! Loved it! 😍Soooo interesting! Makes me feel more aware of myself and how my mind perceives time. Beautiful and empowering stuff! I find as I get older, time (months/years) feels like is going by faster and faster, which I hate! 😔 💔 I’m constantly telling myself to “be more present and to enjoy my youth” in a Woody Allen kinda way lol 😆 I think an episode on memories would be interesting, how accurate are they and how our brains decide what to store etc. ? Why do some people have a good memory and others don’t? Thank you! 🙏🏼 💗
I’m That One, That When It’s Going To Be A Cloudy Day. I’ll Be In Bed With Depression. My Type Of Depression, Wanting To Be Alone And In Bed. As Today, Very Cloudy Outdoors. I’m Glad I’m Not The Only One Out There. And I’m Glad, It’s Not A Permanent Feeling. Tomorrow If The Sun Shines, I’ll Be All Well Again. 🙂
I stoped time completely for what felt like 3 minutes when i fell out a tree to what would of been my death if i hadn’t stopped time to discuss with myself how to survive. i am looking for ansers overclocking sounds cool 😎. For me overclocking is like becoming one with yourself waking and sleeping state. In the dream state im immortal and time means little.
So faster processing time equates to slower time perception and slower processing time equates to faster tim perception. This is interesting how chemicals really create our own perception of reality. Multidimensionality comes to mind. Seems as if hyper awareness can really alter this to n fro by choice. It does seem like it can be controlled. Mutant ability? Maybe. This is fascinating to learn about. Thanks!
Dr. H., I really wish I could become a patient of yours. I’ve seen several doctors, and after 2 years of doc appts. They can’t tell what happened. Free Testosterone level was 22. Now, with TRT, I’m at 1200. Im beginning to think that I’ve never had a doctor actually examine me, fully and properly. I was told my whole life, “you’re fine, you’re heathy”…. Always knowing that wasn’t true. It’s been difficult. I have lost all faith in the doctors that I can access, here in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. My hormone levels are still out of whack, and I’m certain that I have a dopamine and serotonin deficiency issue. I feel broken, and feel like I can’t find proper help.
Night worker. 3 am, I am on my way for a nice weekend away, in my 1 ton truck (pre-airbag days) after full day of good sleep. Motorcycle light approaching on 55 mph 2-lane. Seatbelt on. OMG! Not motorcycle! Driver side headlight out! Car is half in my lane! Everything started happening in slow motion except my thoughts were very rapid: breaking sharply ; Will die if hit head on, go in ditch, no, cannot, big trees just as deadly and likely to roll, nowhere to go, break #1 rule and cut hard to left to be T-boned instead. Driver woke up at last second and pulled sharp right. We caught corners of our vehicles and each spun in place in complete 360. Neither of us hurt in any way. Off-duty EMT/fireman in car well behind me set up flares, checked us out, called HP. All good (ok, my truck was a mess and the tow company stole everything in it including the radio, but that was not important cause I could replace it). Obviously my brain had no intentions of dying that night and fine-sliced beautifully. I remember it as very slow motion, including wondering when that seat belt was going to kick in when we collided, all the way up to it stopping me and I folded around the steering wheel with the wheel about a millimeter from my face and my thighs and elbows slamming into the wheel. Everything from there is remembered in “normal” time. Now, very, old, time races along….so, too much dopamine in an old brain? I think it is batching time in ever longer intervals. One thing about living a safe, healthy, orderly old age is that few surprises come your way, and that is how you like it.
Dear Dr. Huberman, in podcast #37 on ADHD, you said increased dopamine — and medicines that increase dopamine — lead to less blinking. You stated that it’s like being wide-eyed with excitement. But here, you stated that dopamine leads to a fine-slicing of time — and that this includes more blinking. So, do increases in dopamine increase blinking or reduce it? Thank you!
1. light -> melatonin -> testosterone & estrogen & sleep & energy & mood 2. light to skin(two hours a day) -> more estrogen & testosterone 3. disruptions in circadian rhythms cause obesity, health & mental problems, increase risk of cancer, decrease wound healing, physical, and mental performance, disrupt hormones. 4. view 10-30 mins of sunlight within an hour after you wake up. Engage in physical activity and eating regularly. 5. when these rhythms disrupted, people underestimate longer time periods. Your ability to perceive time precisely determines how well you do that task. 6. 90 mins of ultradian cycles that can help us to laser focus on a mental & physical work. (rest-activity cycle) 28:00 41:00 7. cold bath – seems long- dopamine high- time sliced more -later seems short 8. fun and varieties of those activities – runs fast – later seems long 9. more novel places/ people we interact with, the time seems more long 10. dopamine also released when it’s a negative surprise(in perusal sports)
1818 what I’m thinking is if I had someone else’s kids I would know that I was doing wrong by holding them for ransom. What I’m thinking is if I had someone locked in a cage I would know I was doing something wrong because I wouldn’t want to be in the cage. What I’m thinking is if I had guns I would know not to go to someone’s house and take everything they’ve got because I could. What I’m thinking is everyone that has been pretending they can’t understand what I’m saying while continuing to steal my money and brother and house and children needs to get into the same circumstances. I’m in without my money without my kids with out my house without my vehicle so they could figure out why I would be saying no. I don’t want to pretend I’m Jeremiah (My ex-husband that I have a divorce decree and orders of protection and custody that are being violated) and Heather (My ex partners ex-wife that was discharged from the military in the same insurrection versus exorcism problem) “anymore” I didn’t want to in the first place
4808 it’s still happening. I can’t buy what I need because of everyone laughing about raping an extorting me using my brother, my children, my vehicle, my house. The equipment I need for work. I’m serious. There needs to be a way to say no to them raping me and my kids while promising to take my brother like he’s Jesus Christ that I’ve been serving my entire life even before he was born helping my mom with my sister
There is this Russian fasting specialist Dr. Yuri Nikolaev that says that if you put anything else than water (even tea or else) you automatically Brek you fast because the digestive system starts to produce digestive enzymes. (Sorry for my English) Thanks for all those articles, that’s Soooo interesting!
4340 yeah but what happened to me happened to me alone. We’ve got how many people trying to convince me of what happened? Just like taking care of Gavin, I am the one that was on scene begging for his wheelchair and lift while they stole my vehicle and house and more than 36 million of labor providing him behavioral therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, medical and non-medical transportation assisting with all daily living skills and community access as well as interpreting from American sign language to English and back while investigating state, federal and international affairs to resolve the draft to war he was forced to sign up for at 18
Mr. Huberman, I greatly appreciate and thoroughly enjoy your articles. I’ve learned more from your articles than I have “learned” in the last 15 years. I have a question I think you could shed some bright light on. When I was younger I was brought to believe that my (our) brain has the ability to predict the future….Hear me out! I was sleeping, and as many do while they sleep I was dreaming, in my dream I was in a place similar to grand central station, large and open with a large circular center, I believe I was alone with one other person In the room, a petite older woman dressed in the comically long tight dress, the type that hides the shoes but makes them waddle, a big bird like extra large hat with a comically large hand bag. On her hand was a large ring as well. She waddled up to me and SMACKED me on top of my head (how she reached my head as a 6’ 3″ man I have no idea but you know, dreams are dreams) Now to the interesting part! When she hit my head I woke up to some legit pain where she hit me…giving myself a few seconds to come to I realized that the lamp that sat above my head on the wall directly above my head had fallen from its attached point and cracked me on the head…..AT THE EXACT TIME SHE HIT ME! So I walk away from that experience feeling fairly certain that my brain (or I suppose whatever controls dreams) knew that lamp was going to fall…..so it played out a sequence in my dream that lead to me being woke up as she hit me/ as the lamp fell. I’d love your thoughts on this as it’s intrigued me for decades now.
So what you’re saying is, that if you live near the equator and you wear few if any clothes (eg African tribes) your skin is going to be in daylight for more hours per day and therefore you will have have higher testosterone and oestrogen than people who live in the north and who wear a lot of clothing all year round?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but your statement that “if you want to slow down your perception of time, you’d blink less” seems to contradict what you said before. A dopaminergic state = higher frame rate = overestimating how much time has passed = time slows down for you (1 minute feels like 5, a car crash happens in slow motion). So if blinking more is associated with increases in dopamine and more fine-slicing of time, wouldn’t you want to blink more, not less, to slow down your experience of time and increase the frame rate? And looking at the Terhune study, that’s what they found: after subjects blinked, they perceived time to pass more slowly. Also: the study doesn’t show blinking caused the time dilation, it was just associated with it / with a more dopaminergic state. So would it be fair to say using blinking as a tool is somewhat speculative?
5057 exactly. I don’t want forced in to do anything or they’re taking my children. Do anything to get them back. My brother is like one of my children and then I have to listen to everyone else. Try to convince me of my rapist’s messages and I’m like no. I don’t want to spend my money on that because then you get this big old stack of paperwork that you’re lugging around and they’re still just laughing about. They don’t know how to get rid of it and they wouldn’t want to. That’s what one of the people said if they had my money they wouldn’t give it back anyway. And I’m like what is wrong with you. Is that what you would want? Child’s birth doesn’t feel like nothing when you’re the one doing it just like with pregnancy
Thank you for this article. Can you make a article going more in depth about micro dosing psilocybin? My brain feels in a constant fog, sometimes I feel like I’m not even participating in reality. It has impacted my ability to make friends, have a relationship and my performance at work and in personal goals. I have tried micro dosing and on the ways when I micro dose the change is crazy, I can focus so easily, I get my work done early, I’m open to conversation with people, things just generally go better. But I’m worried that I will interfere with my brain chemistry long term if I rely on this, I don’t want to create a bigger problem down the line. And of course I’d prefer not to rely on a drug at all to function but so far it’s been the best solution. Please help.
Could you discuss in an upcoming podcast of the effects of anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers on hormones and dopamine and serotonin. I have been listening to the podcast for a number of weeks and found it extremely informative for my university studies. I’m taking a course in Coaching and sports performance with a major in strength and conditioning and sports psychology. And will be working with people with severe mental illnesses and the negative effects these drugs have on diabetes, weight gain, motivation and apathy following drug therapy of atypical anti-psychotics. Thanks Brendan from Ireland.
Please do a session about serotonin syndrome. Last year I experienced what, by all accounts, appeared to be serotonin syndrome. My spouse was taking anti anxiety meds as prescribed as she had been for 2 years. Within 3 days she went from a state of normalcy to ‘psychosis’ No doctor, nurse, or therapist believed she was experiencing a reaction to medication or that it was an isolated incident. She was tested multiple times within a 3 week span for illicit drugs. Ultimately she was hospitalized twice and diagnosed as bi polar despite never having previous symptoms or history of manic episodes. Over the 6 months following the hospital stay she was precribed 20 different drugs ranging from antipsychotics, to mood stabilzers. Now, 18 months later, after mustabilizers. On our own we can only determine that this psychosis was induced and triggered by prescribed medications. She is no longer medicated nor needs to be. This misunderstanding of drugs and their reactions and interactions cost her her job, and nearly her life
I have a question: you said dopamine increases framerate. Then you said if dopamine is active and an experience goes by fast, you’ll remember it as a longer in retrospect (kid in the amusement park). Does this mean that when measuring the framerate by asking how long the last minute or last two minutes went by, the over estimation of how much time went by is also caused by retroactive time-perception, even if it’s just minutes we are talking about? Thanks