Do Binaural Beats Increase Focus & Attention? | Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | [Silence]
00:00:03.280 | If right now someone pulled a fire alarm in this building,
00:00:06.180 | or if we had a fire in this building,
00:00:07.480 | my attention would drift.
00:00:09.480 | It would not be on recording this podcast.
00:00:11.560 | It would be on something else.
00:00:13.140 | But would I say that the fire alarm mediates attention?
00:00:16.460 | I mean, fire alarms are not really involved in attention.
00:00:18.860 | No, rather they modulate my attention.
00:00:22.000 | The noise in the room modulates my attention.
00:00:24.260 | That's quite a bit different
00:00:25.680 | than a tool that I'll provide later.
00:00:27.000 | And I'll just give you a little hint of now.
00:00:28.560 | In fact, I'll give it to you now.
00:00:29.940 | Which is that 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:00:33.040 | have been shown in a number of peer-reviewed studies
00:00:35.380 | to increase focus and concentration.
00:00:37.760 | And if you'd like to access 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:00:40.680 | in order to improve your focus and concentration,
00:00:43.080 | you can do that.
00:00:43.920 | You can actually get it at zero cost.
00:00:45.520 | You can go into the App Store,
00:00:47.560 | for instance, the Apple App Store.
00:00:49.360 | This is also available for Android phone.
00:00:51.000 | There's an app called Brainwave, and you can go there.
00:00:53.280 | You can dial in 40 Hertz,
00:00:54.920 | and it'll play these binaural beats.
00:00:56.840 | It's been shown in multiple quality peer-reviewed studies
00:00:59.240 | that playing a pattern of sound waves to one ear,
00:01:01.640 | do-do-do-do-do, and the other ear,
00:01:03.380 | which is slightly offset in frequency,
00:01:05.000 | meaning not quite the same frequency,
00:01:06.320 | so more like do-do-do-do,
00:01:07.920 | that that combination of frequencies
00:01:09.600 | played to the different ears
00:01:11.680 | actually get integrated within deep brain centers
00:01:14.640 | and can increase focus and concentration
00:01:16.760 | in part by increasing levels of the neurochemical dopamine
00:01:20.840 | and acetylcholine, which we talked about a little bit
00:01:22.720 | earlier in this arrow model of focus.
00:01:25.240 | So we'll provide a link to that app.
00:01:28.200 | I don't have any relationship to that app,
00:01:30.080 | I should mention, but it's an excellent one.
00:01:32.120 | It's one that I've used for many years.
00:01:33.520 | There are also additional functions within the app,
00:01:35.920 | such as for sleep and for other things,
00:01:38.060 | but the 40 Hertz, 40HZ, is the way it reads out.
00:01:42.800 | 40 Hertz stimulation has been shown
00:01:44.760 | to improve focus and concentration.
00:01:46.880 | Here is my recommendation in the way that I use it.
00:01:48.960 | I would not use 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:01:51.720 | every time I'm doing a bout of work.
00:01:54.000 | What I tend to do is use it
00:01:55.280 | for about five minutes prior to that work,
00:01:58.440 | and then turn it off and then do the work.
00:02:00.520 | And I'll talk about other tools to use during that work,
00:02:03.160 | whether or not it's reading or math,
00:02:04.360 | or even just emailing or something
00:02:05.720 | where I require a bunch of focus for a while.
00:02:08.760 | However, there are times in which I'm in an area
00:02:11.720 | or I'm in a state of mind
00:02:12.760 | where I'm feeling very distractible,
00:02:14.000 | and then I'll keep the 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:02:15.800 | on the entire time I'm doing that bout of cognitive work.
00:02:19.640 | I'll also sometimes use the 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:02:21.760 | prior to a workout, in particular weight workouts,
00:02:23.760 | where I really want to be able to focus on
00:02:25.240 | and contract specific muscles.
00:02:26.800 | So it's a very useful tool.
00:02:28.360 | Again, supported by quality peer-reviewed science,
00:02:30.960 | zero cost available out there,
00:02:32.960 | not just in the Brainwave app, but in multiple apps.
00:02:35.880 | I think many of you will benefit from it.
00:02:38.320 | Some of you might not experience it immediately
00:02:40.660 | as a total dropping into a tunnel of focus
00:02:43.760 | in the same way that you might with, say,
00:02:46.680 | the sorts of neurochemicals that we'll talk about later,
00:02:48.540 | like alpha-GPC and some of these other things
00:02:50.640 | that change neurochemicals directly.
00:02:52.920 | But nonetheless, 40 Hertz binaural beats
00:02:55.320 | are a very powerful tool.
00:02:56.640 | Again, zero cost, non-pharmacologic tool
00:02:58.920 | that tap into your own endogenous, meaning within you,
00:03:02.160 | or exists within you physiology,
00:03:04.400 | in order to increase acetylcholine
00:03:06.000 | and some other neurochemicals.
00:03:07.320 | And they have been shown to work quite well.
00:03:09.920 | Okay, so assuming that you are sleeping well
00:03:11.960 | 80% of the nights of your life,
00:03:13.360 | or at least working on the various protocols and tools
00:03:17.080 | to sleep well and sufficiently long,
00:03:19.880 | 80% of the nights of your life,
00:03:21.840 | and you are interested in additional tools
00:03:24.760 | that are sound-based
00:03:26.380 | in order to improve your ability to concentrate and focus,
00:03:29.800 | there are quality peer-reviewed studies
00:03:32.200 | supporting the idea that white noise or pink noise,
00:03:35.640 | and believe it or not, there is something called pink noise.
00:03:37.440 | It has to do with the specific frequencies of sound
00:03:40.520 | that are in the noise.
00:03:42.900 | Well, white noise and pink noise
00:03:44.680 | have been shown to not improve concentration per se,
00:03:48.700 | but to improve people's ability
00:03:50.320 | to transition into concentrated states.
00:03:53.240 | So I don't tend to use white noise and pink noise
00:03:55.400 | while I work, but I know a number of people that do.
00:03:57.720 | I know people that also use what's called brown noise.
00:04:00.760 | Folks I know from the engineering and computer science side
00:04:03.840 | get really into these details of white noise,
00:04:05.720 | pink noise, brown noise.
00:04:07.000 | You can find white noise, pink noise, or brown noise
00:04:09.480 | and listen to it through headphones or in the room.
00:04:12.600 | There is indeed some data to support the fact
00:04:15.820 | that white noise, and to some extent,
00:04:17.580 | pink noise and brown noise,
00:04:18.920 | can support the release of particular neurochemicals,
00:04:20.960 | but more data showing that they can amplify the activity
00:04:24.640 | of neurons in the so-called prefrontal cortex,
00:04:27.280 | this front area, sort of the bumper behind your forehead,
00:04:30.240 | that is directly related to your ability
00:04:33.360 | to direct your own focus
00:04:35.000 | and remain focused on certain things.
00:04:37.280 | So you have the option of either using binaural beats before
00:04:41.880 | but not during your work, that is 40 hertz binaural beats,
00:04:44.680 | or 40 hertz binaural beats
00:04:46.400 | throughout your attempt to focus.
00:04:49.320 | You also have the option of not using binaural beats,
00:04:52.220 | but using white noise, pink noise, or brown noise.
00:04:54.760 | Again, there are a lot of zero cost apps.
00:04:56.840 | You can find also white noise, pink noise,
00:04:58.960 | and brown noise on YouTube.
00:05:00.680 | Again, these are tools that really have been shown
00:05:03.400 | over and over in humans to allow people to focus
00:05:06.800 | with more depth and to decrease
00:05:08.780 | the transition time into focus.
00:05:10.880 | This is a really key point.
00:05:11.960 | A lot of people are challenged
00:05:13.400 | with getting into a mode of focus.
00:05:16.000 | None of us, however, should be expected to just sit down
00:05:19.220 | and drop directly into a state of focus.
00:05:21.080 | I think that's completely an unfair request of ourselves.
00:05:24.920 | I mean, for instance, you wouldn't expect yourself
00:05:26.440 | to go out on the track or go out for a run and not warm up.
00:05:29.580 | You might jog for a few minutes or even walk
00:05:31.320 | before you would jog and then jog before you would run,
00:05:33.720 | right, I would hope you would do that.
00:05:35.360 | And if you're doing resistance training,
00:05:37.080 | I doubt that you go over and load up the bar or the machine
00:05:39.120 | with the maximum amount of weight that you can move
00:05:40.720 | and then just drop right into that.
00:05:41.600 | You always do a warmup.
00:05:42.480 | And I think it's very important to understand
00:05:44.400 | mental work, focus, and concentration
00:05:46.120 | as requiring that warmup.
00:05:47.960 | What is that warmup?
00:05:49.480 | Well, you know what that warmup is.
00:05:51.680 | That warmup is the ramping up or the increase
00:05:55.440 | of epinephrine, adrenaline, acetylcholine, and dopamine.
00:06:00.440 | The way that neurochemicals work is we don't just get
00:06:03.640 | to flip switches in our brain because we decide to.
00:06:05.680 | That's a fantasy.
00:06:06.520 | That's sort of the limitless movie or, you know,
00:06:09.760 | movies and ideas that suddenly, you know,
00:06:11.200 | you're going to flip a switch on your arm
00:06:12.340 | and all of a sudden you're going to be in a laser focus.
00:06:14.200 | That is just not the way that your nervous system works.
00:06:16.760 | There's a gradual dropping into any state,
00:06:19.160 | whether or not that state is sleep, right?
00:06:20.560 | You go from shallow sleep to deep sleep
00:06:22.080 | and then out eventually.
00:06:23.880 | Focus too, you go from shallow focus
00:06:27.200 | to increasingly deep focus.
00:06:29.080 | That is in our metaphor of the arrow, it's very broad.
00:06:34.040 | It's pointed at a lot of things.
00:06:35.120 | And over time, as we drop into focus,
00:06:36.840 | that arrow is narrowing and narrowing and narrowing.
00:06:39.560 | In fact, probably better to think about it narrowing
00:06:42.140 | and then sometimes oscillating and getting wider again.
00:06:45.280 | You know, we might hear something down the hallway
00:06:47.040 | or more typically our phone will buzz or we'll think,
00:06:49.600 | oh, I wonder what so-and-so is doing
00:06:50.840 | or I hadn't contacted them about something.
00:06:52.940 | Your focus is dynamic.
00:06:55.260 | It is not what we call a step function.
00:06:57.040 | It's not like you go from unfocused to focus
00:06:58.960 | and then you drop into your maximal focus.
00:07:01.240 | By understanding that it's dynamic,
00:07:03.380 | by understanding that you are going to be
00:07:05.000 | continually going in and out of progressively
00:07:08.280 | but varying levels of focus,
00:07:11.220 | you will greatly release the pressure on yourself
00:07:14.240 | to feel focused all the time when you want to be.
00:07:17.500 | This is very key.
00:07:18.340 | People who are very good at focusing understand this
00:07:20.860 | and understand that they can't expect themselves
00:07:24.620 | to just immediately focus
00:07:25.900 | and then snap into or out of focus.
00:07:28.380 | Okay, so be patient with yourself
00:07:29.980 | and also understand that focus is an ability
00:07:33.140 | that you can improve your ability to focus
00:07:35.260 | by engaging the neural circuits responsible for focus,
00:07:38.020 | repeatedly over time through so-called neuroplasticity,
00:07:40.960 | the ability of your nervous system to change
00:07:43.120 | in response to experience.
00:07:44.160 | And that has a couple of different components,
00:07:46.000 | but put very simply,
00:07:47.320 | what we repeat gets etched into our nervous system
00:07:50.040 | and becomes easier over time.
00:07:51.840 | And the more emotionally important
00:07:55.320 | or vital something feels to us,
00:07:57.000 | the more likely it is to trigger neuroplasticity.
00:07:58.900 | We're going to talk a little bit more
00:07:59.840 | about how to increase neural circuits for focus later,
00:08:01.940 | but right now what you have in hand
00:08:03.640 | is the key importance of sleep.
00:08:05.260 | And I, again, will direct you to hubermanlab.com
00:08:08.020 | and the Neural Network Newsletter
00:08:09.160 | to really work on optimizing your sleep.
00:08:12.760 | We've also got two auditory sound-based tools
00:08:16.420 | for improving focus.
00:08:17.260 | There's 40 Hertz binaural beats used before
00:08:19.500 | or during bouts of focusing concentration.
00:08:21.920 | And if you don't like those, or even if you do,
00:08:24.640 | you might alternate them with or occasionally use
00:08:26.740 | white noise, pink noise, or brown noise,
00:08:28.400 | also readily available at zero cost.
00:08:30.940 | [upbeat music]
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00:08:36.940 | (upbeat music)