How do you use Ultradian Cycles in your daily work?
You've mentioned before that you try to include at least 1 90 minute focus block per day as part of your work and overall mission. What is your max number of blocks you can perform sustainably? Do you take vacations or extended breaks? If you knew you needed to drastically increase the amount of focus you do daily, how would you schedule that focus and recover from it? Thank YOU for your interest in science!
Subjective signals
At about 1:24:40 in your video about brain health (youtube.com/watch?v=E7W4OQfJWdw&t=5908s) you mentioned this idea of almost "summoning" dopamine response via intentional attention. Is this a generally available mechanism for behaviors ... or does it relate specifically to food behaviors? And do you happen to have a citation? I think you called them "subjective signals" or somesuch. Thanks!
Setting goals for creative work
I have watched a minimum of 15 of your podcast appearances, where you talk about Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset and how you especially combine it with your deep understanding of the underlying dopaminergic pathways, which has absolutely blown my mind. I took many pages of notes from your various podcasts, like “getting the dopamine from effort and friction, effort being the right path, focussing on the process rather than the outcome etc.”. But I really struggle to understand how to set long- and short-term goals properly, in order to really focus on the effort process, while still having a concrete goal in mind at the same time (which confuses me a bit). Especially when you work in fields, where you simply can not really set actual measurable goals like in e.g. math (i am a music producer for a living and setting an exact goal like “creating 1 song per day (or week)” isnt hardly ever going to work out because its creative work and the process and timespan is always different per production). So the question is: Are goals neccesary for it and how do i set the best short and long term goals for the growth mindset (as a music creative), so that i can really give my absolute best effort to enjoying the process consistently, if i can’t define career goals clearly? Thank you so much!
Caloric restriction in fertile women?
Hi - I know we hear about the benefits of caloric restriction for lifespan/telomeres etc. But I wonder how that applies to women in their fertile years. Anecdotally, I've seen many cases of young women losing their cycle while undereating or dieting. I have also seen some (contested?) data that says intermittent fasting is not the best idea for women preparing to conceive. I'd love to hear more about healthspan data in the context of women's hormonal health (though I'm sure that can get convoluted!).
Light sensitive exposure levels
I would like to know how or if light exposure, as you recommend, changes if someone is highly sensitive due to a traumatic brain injury or some other issue? This could make it challenging to get the recommended light exposure without pain. Same with triggering migraines. Thank you!
Effect on intensive exercise on sleep as aid to learn – supporting or unfavorable
Hy, after 7 year of working I have just returned to university full time to pursue a challenging degree in computational science. Being away so long I have to process quite a lot of new concepts and fill some gaps very fast and therefore I really prioritize good sleep and eating habits (getting up with the sun, spread out learning sessions, post meal walks, fasting, no blue screens after 8pm, meditation). For medical reasons I could not exercise the last year, I can do so now. However, every time when I start to exercise again It has an strong effect on my sleep demand (+2hrs a night for the first couple weeks) and so I really wonder if starting to intensively exercise again in parallel to this intensive learning time would be counterproductive. To put in in a simple question: does the rest & sleep I need from exercise even favor my learning since it aids me sleeping long and deep or is this in competition to me learning and processing a lot of new concepts. Being able to keep up and have a good start at Uni is important to me, so I could postpone the exercise until this is more settled. Many thanks for taking the time to read this and maybe share some insight. Footnote: I am very average in my fitness and asthmatic, so intensive exercise to me is a daily run for 5-10km or joining the gym again.
The science of yawning
Why we yawn? How yawning works at different levels - blood flows, muscular and skeletal aspects, neurological pathways, social (being rather contagious), etc. - and how those mechanisms help achieve the goal of yawning. It looks like there are no single definitive answer to "why" question and myths about regulating the CO2-vs-O2 balance have been dispelled several years ago, so very interested to hear your thoughts on this topic. Also, interested to know why we DON'T yawn when we sleep.
Perimenopause and Menopause
Could you dedicate a whole episode to this? I know it's been talked about in some eps. But one specifically about HRT, benefits, dangers, and supplements that can get you through. I am 49 with no symptoms yet, except irregular periods. Is this something I should be considering soon? Is starting when symptoms appear the best choice? Or perhaps preventing the symptoms is more beneficial? Preventing instead of treating is what I would prefer. Thoughts? We hope to still have many productive years ahead of us, any help is appreciated.
Cognitive Load Limits
I work as an attorney and a lot of people struggle with burnout/hitting their hours. Assuming everyone is taking care of themselves (big assumption), is there any "cognitive load" reasons as to why someone can work 2400 billable hours and other people only can work 1800 billable hours before burning out, or is it a mixture of training, enthusiasm for the work, rewards, intensity, etc.?
Science of successful treatments / services
Scientifically why are success rates of some service providers (psychologists, financial advisors, life coaches, physios etc all around 30-60%) when the science of habits, goal setting and knowledge in all these areas has drastically improved over the last few years On the opposite side end Surgeons are able to execute successful surgeries by 96%+ In business these kinds of success rates would mean an unsuccessful company So what do clients and providers need to do differently to increase the successful outcomes… what science why so low and is there any science to improve
Cross episode index
It would be great to provide a cross episode index - not of every passing mention, but where the topic was discussed to some extent. It should have a topic, episode name, and link to the specific place within the episode where it was discussed. And I'd bet this would pay for itself with the increase in subscribers you'd get.