Optimal Protocols for Studying & Learning

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing how to study and learn. That is, what the scientific data say is the best way to study in order to remember information and to be able to use that information effectively in different areas of your life. So, for those of you that are still in school, this could be any stage of school, today's discussion will be very useful for you. However, even if you are not formally enrolled in any kind of school at the moment, today's discussion will also be extremely effective for you to be able to study and learn better information from, say, the internet or podcasts or any area of your life where you are seeking to learn and use new knowledge. Now, one of the most important things that you're going to learn today is that learning, that is, the best learning practices, are not intuitive. So before we dive in, keep in mind that whatever you believe about how best to learn for you is probably incorrect. And I confess this was humbling for me as well when I started to dive into this literature because as somebody who was a student for many years and in some sense still considers himself a student of science and health information because of this podcast, and certainly as somebody who still teaches university courses, both to medical students and graduate students and to undergraduate students at Stanford, I thought I understood the whole teaching and learning process. But I too learned that it is anything but intuitive. In fact, most of what we believe about the best ways to study are absolutely false. Fortunately, today you will learn the best ways to study. It turns out there's a rich literature on this dating back well over a hundred years. And the data are absolutely fascinating and incredibly actionable. It's incredibly interesting how the fields of education, the fields of psychology and the fields of neuroscience have now come together to define the optimal strategies to study and learn. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is 8 Sleep. 8 Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating and sleep tracking capacity. I've spoken many times before on this podcast about the critical need to get sleep, both enough sleep and enough quality sleep. Now, one of the key things to getting a great night's sleep is that your body temperature actually has to drop by about one to three degrees in order for you to fall and stay deeply asleep and to wake up feeling refreshed, your body temperature actually has to increase by about one to three degrees. One of the best ways to ensure all of that happens is to control the temperature of your sleeping environment. And with eight sleep, it's very easy to do that. You program the temperature that you want at the beginning, middle, and the end of the night, and that's the temperature that you're going to sleep at. And it will track your sleep. It tells you how much slow wave sleep you're getting, how much rapid eye movement sleep you're getting, which is critical. And all of that also helps you dial in the exact parameters you need in order to get the best possible night sleep for you. I've been sleeping on an 8 Sleep mattress cover for well over three years now, and it has completely transformed my sleep for the better. 8 Sleep recently launched their newest generation pod cover, the Pod 4 Ultra. The Pod 4 Ultra cover has improved cooling and heating capacity, higher fidelity sleep tracking technology, and the Pod 4 cover has snoring detection that will automatically lift your head a few degrees to improve airflow and stop your snoring. If you'd like to try an 8 Sleep mattress cover, you can go to 8sleep.com/huberman to save $350 off their Pod 4 Ultra. 8 Sleep currently ships to the USA, Canada, UK, select countries in the EU and Australia. Again, that's 8sleep.com/huberman.
Today's episode is also brought to us by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. Initially, I didn't have a choice. It was a condition of being allowed to stay in school. But pretty soon, I realized that therapy is an extremely important component to overall health. In fact, I consider doing regular therapy just as important as getting regular exercise. Now, there are essentially three things that great therapy provides. First of all, it provides good rapport with somebody that you can trust and talk to about the issues that are most critical to you. Second of all, it can provide support in the form of emotional support or directed guidance. And third, expert therapy should provide insights. With BetterHelp, they make it very easy for you to find an expert therapist with whom you have these critical components of therapy. Also, because BetterHelp allows for therapy to be done entirely online, it's very time efficient and easy to fit into your busy schedule with no commuting to a therapist office or looking for parking or sitting in a waiting room. If you'd like to try BetterHelp, go to betterhelp.com/huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman.