learning is a two-stage process and the
learning I'm referring to is
specifically deliberate learning
language learning skill learning
learning knowledge of any kind learning
how to navigate the emotional dynamics
of a relationship anything two phases
one is active engagement and focus uh
much of the trigger for neuroplasticity
is a process is engaged by dopamine and
norepinephrine in a molecule called
acetylcholine which is liberated from
multiple sources that we always talked
about how acetylcholine controls the the
contraction of muscles but in the brain
acetylcholine is mainly comes from two
sets of neurons one in the brain stem
and another in the basal forebrain and
it serves as a kind of a highlighter
marking particular connections or
neurons that later stand a chance to
become stronger let's say I decided I
was going to learn conversational French
I would learn some nouns or some verbs I
would I would focus on this and the
greater degree of focus that I bring the
greater amount of acetylcholine is
released at the particular locations in
the brain they're involved in
enunciating the words and writing the
comprehension you know multiple spots
within the brain that kind of marks
those or Flags those areas as changing
later but the actual rewiring of the
nervous system happens during states of
deep sleep or sleep-like states and so
so when we say neuroplasticity the
brain's ability to change in response to
experience that's a two-part process
it's a process it's not an event we
always think about things as events but
in biology almost everything is a
process so the the takeaway from this is
in order to learn at any age the most
critical thing is that you bring as much
focus and active engagement to the
learning the the encoding of the
information bringing in the information
and then that you get into a state of
deep rest as quickly as possible
typically that would be the night after
you learn there are some beautiful
studies published in cell reports last
year and the year before showing that
people who take a 20-minute nap within
the four hours after these uh triggering
learning or people that do a non-sleep
deep rest type protocol even just
sitting there quietly and not doing
anything they learn much faster in other
words the brain rewires much faster
that's interesting it's very interesting
and what's happening is very interesting
we've long known that during sleep
there's a replay of the neurons in the
same sequence that they were played
during the activity in the uh earlier in
that day sometimes even backwards for
some reason it's like the songs played
backwards at night who knows why I don't
think we should focus too much on that
right now but that replay is the
consolidation of the information you
learn this is why you try something
physically try it physically you can't
do it you can't do it and then you come
back a week later and voila you can do
it these non-sleep deep rest are these
shallow naps of 20 to 30 minutes also
create a replayer of firing of the
neurons there's a tool which is get as
focused as you can but then relax as
deeply as you for how long generally
after about 90 minutes exist on these
so-called 90-minute ultradian Cycles
everything in sleep is a 90 minute cycle
everything waking is a 90 minute cycle
people think that the expectation is
that you're going to be like a beam of
focus for 90 minutes that's not the case
you can flicker in and out you're gonna
get distracted you bring yourself back I
mean focus is an active process of
bringing that Spotlight of attention
back and that anxiety sometimes that we
feel is adrenaline
it's supposed to be stressful to learn
it's this idea that we just sit back and
learn or that you know movies have
really destroyed the notion of learning
the idea that you're going to like pick
up the sword and suddenly have the
skills you know forget it it's like this
just doesn't work that way some days are
good and some days are worse if you
slept better generally it's better
people are always trying to optimize how
much caffeine background noise yes noise
yes music no music you have to tweak
things according to your circumstances
but you nine after about 90 minutes
should really take a break and let your
mind go idle somewhat ideally you would
take a 20 minute nap or a 30 minute nap
or do a non-sleep deep rest protocol
within the first hour to four hours
after that sleep that you get that night
is going to be the most powerful tool
for wiring the nervous system but
there's another thing that you can do
which is that there's a beautiful
literature on what's called Gap learning
effects and this has been looked at for
physical skill learning for music
learning math Etc where if every couple
of minutes just randomly during your
intense learning or Focus you pause and
you just take 10 seconds and do nothing
just let your brain idle eyes open your
eyes closed doesn't matter what happens
is your rates of learning actually
increase and the reason is now they've
done neuroimaging on this really
excellent studies publish in great
journals show that during those little
gaps that you're taking there's a replay
of the neurons very fast at something
like 10 or 20x the speed that the
normally they would be rehearsing is
you're getting more repetitions during
the by by stopping every once in a while
now and how many of these to insert and
it should be random just every once in a
while while you're writing or trying to
do something you just pause and do
nothing and I think that the the science
on this dates back about 20 years but
it's only now that there's an enough of
what I call a kind of center of mass
around these studies that really point
to the fact that Gap learning effects
are really strong so it's Focus rest
Focus rest Focus rest and that can be
done on the micro level like within that
90 minute block let's just make up a
number for fun so people have something
to to Anchor to if you're gonna sit down
and do an hour of work let's say for
every 60 Minutes of focus or learning
that you try and do introduce
um 30 30 gaps of 10 seconds at random
and and truly at random not on a regular
interval and then sometime later that
day if you can do an nsdr non-sleep deep
breaths and if you can't okay no big
deal you won't learn as fast but you'll
still learn provided that you get into
deep sleep that night and you let's say
you have a lousy night's sleep you'll
still learn but you'll won't learn as
well and maybe the next night you stand
a chance of encoding that information so
neuroplasticity involves a very strong
trigger and then deep relaxation is when
the actual rewiring occurs when you
think about the the tools that people
use to enhance Focus Ritalin Adderall
l-tyrosine excessive amounts of caffeine
nicotine
those all help with the trigger part but
they don't help with the relaxation part
and so a lot of people don't learn they
just get really good at doing but they
don't actually learn so very effective
people in regardless of workplace or
activity sport or cognitive work or
otherwise
perform very well because they're very
good at regulating the Seesaw of focus
relax
Focus relax and in the long term it also
is very health enhancing as opposed to
health depleting I mean I know a dozen
or more people who have done very very
well in business or Academia who are a a
mess they I mean they they're physically
amassed they're emotionally a mess
they're mentally messed their
relationships are a mess people that I
you know consider successful are people
that are very successful in multiple
domains of life and that almost always
correlates with an ability to engage and
disengage deliberately engage and and
deliberately disengage it's a fact that
in order to get good at anything unless
you're just an absolute
Talent you need to apply yourself and
and work hard and sometimes work longer
and harder than you feel like working or
is healthy for yourself and that's
that's a reality but sleep is important
for Learning and a number of other
aspects of Health I think that
that the ability to toggle back and
forth between engaged and disengaged
States and to see that whole process
engage and disengage in the dynamic
control of that and deliberate
self-control of that that is a
superpower and we tend to only look at
one side of the equation the leaning in
the way I like to think of it is in so
much as a seesaw is you can either be
back on your heels flat-footed or
forward Center of mass forward Center of
mass is great but it's it's
energetically demanding and you need to
learn how to come up to just you know
flat footed every once in a while now
when you're back on your heels
that's a sign that likely you were doing
too much time forward Center of mass no
one wants to talk about this but people
who grind grind grind rarely succeed and
then just take you know take off and do
something else I think people humans
have mastered this process of engaging
and disengaging on a longer time scale
Work Hard Play Hard or they'll take a
long vacation but what I'm talking about
doing this is across the day I'm talking
about regulating your nervous system
within the unit of the day or even
within the unit of the morning or you're
within the unit of the afternoon and I
think that that's much more useful time
bin to conceptualize this because the
idea that you're gonna you know sell the
company or launch the thing and then
then you'll rest
okay but you can be so much more
effective if you know how to dynamically
control your nervous system in real time
and great athletes know how to do this
great musicians know how to do this even
Within
the playing of a piece of music or
within a race they know how to reserve
energy so that then they can kick at the
end Ford Center of mass can be done if
you wanted through drinking caffeine the
main way to do it is to get in that kind
of inspired and motivated Pursuit but
then physiological size non-sleep
depressed all of that is very useful but
the foundation of that whole process
there's a third layer which is sleep
when you've when you're well rested
you're able to engage this forward
Center of mass flat-footed thing at will
much more easily when sleep suffers
everything suffers we want to always
start with sleep great sleep makes
everything better