Science and Cocktails - Andrew Humberman
Humberman is a neurobiologist from Stanford University. In recent years he has started a podcast called “The Humberman lab”.
His ability to distill science into practical application is incredible. If you’re interested in how your brain and body works you should check it out.
Anyway, last night he was speaking at DR Koncerthuset.
I was asked to distill the salient points, so off the top of my head:
Every single cell in the body has a 24 hour clock inside of it. The eyes are actually brain, they grew out of it in order to help us navigate the outside world but also to help set this 24 hour clock and align ever cell in the body (that is an important as it sounds.)
The yellow blue light of the sun low in the sky both in the morning (most importantly) and in the evening is what sets this 24 hour clock and it’s easily disrupted.
5 minute on a clear day
15 if cloudy
If we miss more than one morning exposure to morning light this clock gets messed up.
It determines our energy during the day and the quality of sleep at night. If you’re waking in the night this is likely involved.
Huberman’s mission is to help us understand how our brain and nervous system works so that we can own our state of arousal.
Can we be calm but alert rather than panicked and reactive. Can we be deeply asleep at the right times and stay there?
Fix this and life gets way easier.
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of morning light in maintain health and optimal health and arousal states. It impacts dopamine, Serotonin, Cortisol, Adrenaline and nor-adrenaline secretion a balance which is crucial in both energy, reactivity and stress. Basically happy hormones and reactive hormones, we want them balanced.
If sleep is messed up, especially the second half of the night then you’ll be an emotional reck in pretty short order.
Once Andrew had explained the eyes he moved on to the nose and the fact that it is for breathing.
Bad breathing cause high carbon dioxide in the blood with is a primary ingredient in stress. (I’ve been assessing this for 10 years, 9 or of 10 people I encountered have this issue to some degree).
Nose breathing Gooood
Mouth breathing baaaad
He even shared some images from a colleagues book of peoples whose entire facial structures changed simply by switching from mouth breathing to nose breathing.
Note: I’ve had some pretty amazing results with my clients using mouth taping at night to help make this switch.
He then offered the most scientifically proven technique for engaging the parasympathetic nervous system under stress (to calm down).
•A sharp long breath in through the nose
•A short sharp breath in through the nose
•A long exhale
Ratio 1-.5 - 2
He then went on to compare meditation, Wim Hoff breathing (many other names too that I won’t list) and box breathing. They are all pretty cool but with different benefits and they all help. Wim Hoff breathing helps with resilience under stress ie staying calm but alert.
Get 11 minutes of full immersion cold exposure per week. Not so cold you are shocked to death, cold enough that you want to get out. Susanne Søberg
NSDR - non- sleep deep rest, what is this? It’s not doing and feeling as a-posed to thinking and doing. 10-30 minutes of this relaxed state per day will go a long way towards supporting optimum states as well as enhancing learning.
Some really interesting findings around learning:
Random 10 second deep rest pauses enhance learning. In fact the brain will complete 20 mental reps of what you have just been learning during this time.
We learn best in 90 minute intervals (which is why I make my coaching sessions this long).
Adults require focus for learning (neuroplasticity). This is an important aspect of coaching, neutralising distractions to create habits.
Random rewards as well as withholding rewards helps too.
Celebrate all the time and the brain will become demotivated by the task/s.
Creating an alert state before learning and adrenaline after can significantly enhance learning too. 3 rounds of 25 deep rapid in breaths followed by “letting go” out breaths with a 15 minute gap will do that. For bonus points you can learn to become more resilient (calm and alert under stress) by remaining mentally calm during this practise.
Biggest takeaway
The brain is a prediction machine. It makes its predictions based on experience in order to respond in the present.
Stress is caused when we live out of alignment with our brain and nervous system.
(What he didn’t cover, the quality and accuracy of those predictions is what determines how we act and our body responds from digestion to how we talk to our posture and beyond. This is the premise of my work.)
He did allude to it at the end when he mentioned this most interesting research by Dr Alia Crum
People who believe stress is good, physiologically response as if this is true.
People who believe stress is bad for them, are right too. (Crazy hey)
When drinking the exact same drink if one person is told it is calorific and the other is told it is low cal those peoples bodies will respond accordingly being fuller for longer or shorter and all the hormones that are required to make that so.
Our belief not only affects our actions but how our brain and nervous system responds to the world inside and outside.
There was more, much more, as I said this is just off the top of my head. His podcast is an incredible resource. Never before has science been made so accessible. Check out that and much more here https://hubermanlab.com/
You’ll also find all the appropriate accreditations here too, I’m not so good with remembering names but I did my best.
Ps walking down regulates the threat centre of the brain - the amygdala. This makes it great for restoring calm and for creating good quality conversations.
