Andrew Huberman: Leveraging Dopamine
Andrew Huberman, professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine, hosts the weekly Huberman Lab podcast. He breaks down hard-to-understand topics, making them easy to understand for everyone. Recently, Huberman discussed how dopamine plays a crucial role in reaching and achieving goals. Below, you will find highlights to help better understand how to leverage dopamine to combat procrastination.
Key takeaways:
Dopamine is a chemical that modulates the electrical activity of other neurons and signals things such as hunger, pursuit, and happiness.
Dopamine sits at a base level and “peaks” and “troughs” depending on the event and activity.
It’s essential to have consistent levels of dopamine. You can achieve this with proper sleep, sunlight, nutrition, and activity.
To overcome procrastination, you must put yourself in a position of discomfort, motivating you to pursue the necessary task.
What is dopamine?
Dopamine is a neuromodulator, meaning it’s a chemical that modulates the elector activity of other neurons. The brain and spinal cord connect to all body organs and help to regulate signal transmission.
Dopamine releases from five different circuits of the brain, and each circuit has a separate but related function. One of these essential circuits is the mesocortical circuit pathway, which projects to the prefrontal cortex and helps plan and execute actions. This circuit pathway is the main attributing factor that plays a part in how one can reach and achieve goals and learn how to stop procrastinating.
How does dopamine work?
Dopamine sits at a base level for all individuals and peaks (spikes) and troughs (dips) depending on the task or pursuit of a desired outcome. This can be thought of as a wave pool. Dopamine, like waves, will spike and also dip.
Huberman discusses that these spikes and troughs in dopamine levels can help people learn to leverage dopamine to pursue tasks rather than procrastinate in achieving goals.
For example, take the desire for a sandwich. Thinking about the sandwich causes a spike in dopamine levels above the individual’s baseline level. That peak, driven by desire, will then drop below the baseline (the trough), triggering the urge to go out and get that sandwich in order to stabilize dopamine levels.
After consuming the sandwich, the dopamine levels return to the individual’s baseline levels within about an hour.
"Dopamine is the single molecule that causes craving, pursuit, and experience."
Andrew Huberman
How to achieve optimal baseline levels of dopamine
Starting with a healthy baseline dopamine level is essential, and this will set the individual up for success when trying to combat demotivational habits, such as procrastination.
The best ways to achieve optimal baseline dopamine levels according to Huberman are:
Healthy sleep. A good, 8-hour sleep “literally restores baseline dopamine levels,” states Huberman. He proceeds to discuss that this is essential to proper dopamine regulation.
Non-sleep deep rest. This method in which one would reach a deep, relaxed state. It is a state of calmness that is obtained when the body is relaxed, but the mind is still awake.
Nutrition. A healthy, balanced diet helps to synthesize dopamine levels. An essential part of dopamine production is consuming amino acids sourced from many healthy foods. These amino acids from foods help aid in the production of other amino acids made within the body.
Sunlight. Five to ten minutes of morning sunlight on a sunny day will increase cortisol early in the day. This relationship between the cells in the eye that sends sunlight to the hypothalamus and endocrine organs sets in motion a dopamine-related cascade of neuromodulators and hormones that boost dopamine and, therefore, increase mood and feelings of happiness.
Movement. Exercise, sports, physical activity, walking and cardiovascular activity will help elevate and maintain baseline levels of dopamine. This can be achieved through regular, everyday movement and does not have to be strenuous.
Another topic Huberman discusses is having a growth mindset. Although Huberman does not consider this to be one of the main attributes to combating procrastination, having a growth mindset is important in growth and self-development.
A growth mindset is the ability to adopt the mentality that “if you can’t do something well, you can’t do it well yet.” Although the activity or goal was not achieved, there is still the belief that one can achieve that goal through tangible steps in the future.
Understanding procrastination
Procrastination is a way for people to deliberately avoid doing a task that needs doing. Huberman describes that by utilizing dopamine to understand the "reward, prediction, error" mechanism, we can understand how to leverage dopamine to quit procrastinating.
The reward prediction error is the brain’s ability to learn what happens between wanting and getting something. The brain is constantly trying to figure out what happened or what didn’t happen before getting a reward.
Human beings always look for cues that prove they are on the right path and will achieve their goals or get what they want. The brain will subconsciously review the steps taken in order to get the reward after the goal is achieved and will then use those cues for future reference.
Huberman does warn, “Be cautious of stacking dopamine peak-causing activities,” as this can create an undesirable effect.
Stacking dopamine peak-causing activities refers to too many dopamine peak stimulators, such as coffee and pre-workout drinks. Dopamine peak-stacking will amplify dopamine during workouts and can cause an increase in performance however, it can also cause a deeper dip in dopamine post-workout.
Keep activity and stimulants separate from one another to avoid high peaks and shallow troughs.
How to combat procrastination
According to Huberman, you must "put yourself in a state of being that is harder than the activity you are procrastinating" in order to combat procrastination. One can reach goals and achievements through tangential activity by placing the body in a state of pain or discomfort.
Huberman notes this is not physical or mental pain but a way to trick the body into feelings of discomfort for a short time in order to optimize peaks and troughs in dopamine levels.
If baseline dopamine activates have all been met, and there is still a sense of decreased motivation, putting the body and mind into a more uncomfortable state is said to cause a quick, heightened dopamine response that will trigger increased levels of dopamine followed by a larger trough in dopamine after the uncomfortable activity is performed. Huberman states that during this trough, one would then be more motivated to complete a specific task.
Huberman suggests the following activities can achieve a short burst of pain or discomfort in the body that can trigger dopamine peaks:
Deliberate cold exposure. Exposure of the body up the neck to very cold water or an ice bath has been well documented as a way to increase levels of dopamine for upwards of 4–5 hours.
Meditation. Planning and executing time to meditate is effortful. Often, a brief five to ten minute meditation can be challenging and push someone to a state of discomfort and therefore increase dopamine levels.
Quick and intense workout. Planning a quick, intense workout can help achieve the goal of combating procrastination as it puts the body in a state of peak dopamine levels. This could be a 5-minute weight lifting or cardio burst that will motivate you to get moving.
Huberman also notes that these methods can vary for each individual, and some might find more effective ways to raise dopamine levels to combat procrastination in their own unique way.
By activating these quick ways to combat motivation, one can quickly find a way back into a motivated state that not only teaches that doing hard things is possible but allows that individual to tap into a neurochemical system that will enable them to feel motivated to pursue the initial goal they were seeking to do in the first place.
Resources:
Huberman Lab Podcast. Leverage dopamine to overcome procrastination and optimize effort.
European Journal of Applied Psychology. Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures.
Nature Neuroscience. Pain modulates dopamine neurons via a spinal–parabrachial–mesencephalic circuit.
