Time Perception & Entrainment by Dopamine, Serotonin & Hormones

**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 talking about time perception. Our perception of time is perhaps the most important factor in how we gauge our life. That is, whether or not we think we are being successful, whether or not we are failing, whether or not we live in fear, whether or not we live in relation to things in a way that's positive. And the reason for that is that our perception of time is directly linked to the neurochemical states that control mood, stress, happiness, excitement. And of course, it frames the way in which we evaluate our past. So whether or not we think of our past as successful or unsuccessful, it frames our present. Whether or not we think we are on track or off track, and it frames our sense of the future. Whether or not we think we have a bright future, a dim future, or whether or not the future is very uncertain or not. Today, we are going to talk about the science of time perception. And we are going to talk about tools and protocols that you can use that can enhance your ability to dilate and contract time. What do we mean by dilate and contract time? We can control the speed at which we experience life. We can slow things down or we can speed our experience of life up and we can do that in a very direct and dynamic way. It's actually not that hard once you understand how time perception works. So that's where we're headed. I think you're going to come away from today's episode with a lot of new knowledge and certainly with many tools that you can try in your daily life, whether or not that's work, sport, relational, emotional, and so on. Before we begin our discussion about time perception, I'd like to answer some questions that I received related to the episode on fasting and time-restricted feeding. If you haven't seen that episode, this information should still be of use to you. Time-restricted feeding involves eating for a particular period of time in each 24-hour cycle that's fairly regular. So this would be an eight-hour most often or a 10-hour block. Some people do shorter feeding windows. But regardless, that feeding window is supposed to fall at more or less the same period within each 24-hour day. This has a number of positive effects on gene expression that regulate a number of positive effects on the different tissues of the body. And for some people, not all, but for some people makes weight loss easier because of the way that they are not eating for large periods of each 24-hour cycle. In any event, one of the major questions I got after that episode was, do supplements break a fast? And during that episode, I talked about what breaks a fast is highly contextual. It basically boils down to whether or not something you ingest, whether it be liquid or food, increases your resting blood glucose, how much it increases that resting blood glucose, and how long that increase lasts. So you can check out the episode for more about what breaks a fast. But to address this issue about supplements and whether or not supplements a particular break a fast, many of the questions were about Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is a sponsor of this podcast. It is also a terrific supplement that I had been taking for more than a decade before this podcast launched. And many people have been using and continued to use Athletic Greens. Does Athletic Greens break a fast? Well, that will somewhat depend on whether or not your resting blood glucose tends to run high or low. But for most people, including me, because I've measured it, ingesting Athletic Greens does not break a fast. And if it happens to break a fast, it would be a very transient break in fast. So without knowing your resting blood glucose levels on an individual basis, there's no way I can say for sure that it doesn't break a fast. But chances are it does not because it doesn't contain much carbohydrate or sugar. And it doesn't tend to therefore pull you out of the molecular milieu associated with low blood glucose states. The other question I get is whether or not things like fish oil break a fast. And once again, this will be contextual, but because fish oil is a fat, mainly of essential fatty acids, in particular, EPA and DHA, those don't tend to raise blood glucose very much. In my case, having measured using a continuous glucose monitor, my resting blood glucose, fish oil does not in any way change my resting blood glucose. Chances are it won't do that for most people as well. So does fish oil break a fast? Chances are it does not. And of course, people wanted to know about pill type supplements, you know, caffeine and things that raise dopamine and their vitamins and minerals. In general, if something doesn't contain sugar or much carbohydrate of any kind, it's not going to raise blood glucose very much. Now, of course, protein can raise blood glucose and fat can too as well, although to a lesser extent. So again, this is all contextual, but at least by the logic that I just spelled out, athletic greens, fish oil and most forms of supplements provided they don't have any sugar or protein content should not quote unquote break a fast. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and 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 Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all in one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs. It makes up for any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome interacts with your immune system, with your brain to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body. With Athletic Greens, I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need, and the probiotics to support my microbiome. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. There are a ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3. And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body, and so on. Again go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are an element and those are sodium, magnesium and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells and all the tissues and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly and all our bodily systems can be optimized. If the electrolytes are not present and if hydration is low, we simply can't think as well as we would otherwise. Our mood is off, hormone systems go off, our ability to get into physical action, to engage in endurance and strength and all sorts of other things is diminished. So with Element, you can make sure that you're staying on top of your hydration and that you're getting the proper ratios of electrolytes. If you'd like to try Element, you can go to drinkelement, that's lmnt.com/huberman and you'll get a free Element sample pack with your purchase. They're all delicious. So again, if you want to try Element, you can go to elementlmnt.com/huberman.