SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS BECOME A SUPERLEARNER SECTION REVIEW SECTION 8 LECTURES ● Sleeping and Learning: Why Sleep is So Crucial ● The Proper Learning Environment ● How Exercise Influences Learning ● Choosing a Diet That Benefits Your Brain ● On Nootropics, Stimulants, and other “Smart Drugs” ● Teaching, Simplification, and the Feynman Technique ● Using Meditation to Improve Cognitive Performance SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 2 SLEEPING AND LEARNING: WHY SLEEP IS SO CRUCIAL ● During sleep, we solidify the things that have been offered up to our long term memory. ● Sleep is an essential function in clearing out toxic metabolic waste from the brain. ○ Because SuperLearners create more memories than most people, our brains create metabolic waste at a much faster rate ● Power naps are great for learning because it means that your brain has multiple opportunities throughout the day to do some maintenance and construction work on your long term memories. ○ You can improve your learning pace just by taking naps immediately after intense learning sessions ● Taking power naps of 20 to 22 minutes every day after your most productive learning periods can be very beneficial ● Other sleep hacking tips for optimal performance: ○ Go to sleep and wake up at the same time ○ Sleep in increments of 90 minutes ○ Avoid blue or white light 3 hours before bed ○ Make sure that you sleep in a very dark, cold room ● Check out the supplemental resources because sleep is one of the most important things you can do as a SuperLearner! SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 3 THE PROPER LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ● Your environment has a big influence on your ability to learn effectively ● State-based learning → if you learn in the exact same environment you exercise the information in, you’ll be more effective at remembering. ■ Conscientiously design your study environment and conditions to match the conditions in which you’ll use the information. ● Design both your home and your work and study environments ○ Avoid the noise in both of those situations ■ Jonathan likes the silicon malleable ones made by MACKS or noise-canceling headphones such as those offered by Bose ○ Avoid laying down or sitting down on our bed ○ Keep the body physically active to keep the brain alert ■ You can create or buy a standing desk or treadmill desk to help with this ● Changing your position is great for your brain, back, and your joints. ○ Make sure your room has sufficient light ■ Bright, white sunlight color is going to tell you to be alert ■ Yellow or orange lights will tell your body that it needs to start feeling tired ■ Too much light will make you overly alert and eventually tired, though, so balance is important. ■ It’s always better to have natural sunlight in the form of a window, if possible, ○ Get proper oxygen ● Take long deep breaths if you can, especially when you review your markers. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 4 HOW EXERCISE INFLUENCES LEARNING ● Exercise boosts your levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which repairs your brain, can boost neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, creates stronger neural connections, and improves the density of your brain’s white matter ● Exercise can even cause your hippocampus to grow ● Saying that you “don’t have time” is not an excuse, because the most effective form of exercise for your body and brain is high intensity intervals of 15 to 30 minutes ○ Also, short, fast-paced bursts of exercise such as those found in CrossFit are great, and you only need to do a minimum of 2 sessions a week to see the benefits. ● Ideally, you want to elevate your heart rate significantly for 15 to 30 minutes every day ○ This can mean jumping rope, biking to work, doing some fast-paced combinations of pushups and squats, or even chasing the dog around the yard. ● Research has shown that significant changes to the brain’s neuroplasticity and cognitive function occur after just 30 minutes of exercise, and they last for at least 15 minutes - and possibly much longer. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 5 CHOOSING A DIET THAT BENEFITS YOUR BRAIN ● The first place you should look if you’re suffering from a lack of focus or memory issues should be your diet ○ Avoiding fats in your diet is actually causing your brain to suffer, and “healthy grains” may be causing brain fog and chronic inflammation in your body. ● A diet based primarily on fresh vegetables and lean proteins is extremely healthy for the brain ○ Eating high-quality fats from things like avocados, fatty fish, olives, coconuts, and various types of nuts and seeds can help your brain and nervous system tremendously ● Many of the products we eat today are actually flooding our brains with glucose, causing insulin resistance, obesity, hormonal imbalance, Alzheimer’s, and a lot of other nasty stuff. ● Nobody needs gluten, or the similar types of anti-nutrients found in quinoa, or other grains ● The brain is often much more effective and healthy when the body is burning healthy fats instead of carbohydrates in order to make the glucose that your body uses as fuel. ● Ditching the processed garbage in your diet and replacing it with healthy, green vegetables is a really good idea — nothing revolutionary there ● Lowering our overall sugar intake, even from sources like fruit, that is not a bad idea. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 6 ON NOOTROPICS, STIMULANTS, & OTHER “SMART DRUGS” ● Jonathan personally feels that stimulants and nootropics are highly individualized, so what works for him may not work for you ● Coffee is probably your worst choice. Better alternatives include Yerba Mate or even raw cacao, which have two other types of xanthines ● Tea contains a L-Theanine, which, when consumed with caffeine, has been shown to improve cognitive function and memory ● A combination of Gingko Biloba and Ginseng, when added to your coffee or tea, can provide a lot of improved cognitive performance, which is backed up by a small number of scientific studies. ● For less natural / more processed nootropics, proceed with caution and consult with your doctor ○ Potential nootropics to research can include: Huperzine-A, Forskolin, Paracetam, Anaracetam, GABA, Alpha-Lipoic acid, Vitamin D-3, Taurine, and much, much more. TEACHING, SIMPLIFICATION, AND THE FEYNMAN TECHNIQUE ● When we teach another person information, we gain a great deal of benefits: ○ When we decide that we will teach a subject that we are currently learning, we are immediately motivated to improve our own understanding ○ Because other people have different learning styles, curiosities, and levels of understanding than we do, teaching them requires us to take a more thorough and comprehensive approach to our own learning. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 7 TEACHING, SIMPLIFICATION, AND THE FEYNMAN TECHNIQUE ○ Attempting to simplify a subject well enough to explain it results in a much deeper understanding ○ When we teach other people, we are presented with unique questions that are far outside our own scope of focus, but are nonetheless crucial and important to our own understanding. ■ The people we teach help us understand what we do and do not know ● One of the most notable supporters of this strategy was Noble Prize winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, who is known for his 4-step model of learning, which goes like this: ○ 1. Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Write down everything you know about the topic on a notebook page, using illustrations wherever possible to simplify the understanding and portrayal of the subject. Add to that page every time you learn something new about it. ○ 2. Pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Make sure you're able to explain the topic in simple terms. ○ 3. Go back to the books when you get stuck. The gaps in your knowledge should be obvious. Revisit problem areas until you can explain the topic fully. ○ 4. Simplify and use analogies. Repeat the process while simplifying your language and connecting facts with analogies to help strengthen your understanding. ● One of the best things you can do to reinforce everything you’ve learned about memory and neuroscience is to get out there and teach it to others. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 8 USING MEDITATION TO IMPROVE COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE ● Meditation has been proven to alter both the structure and the function of your brain. Research has shown that... ○ 30 minutes of meditation per day over 8 weeks produces changes in areas of the brain associated with learning and memory ○ Long-term meditation leads to more folds in the neocortex which is believed to cause superior focus and decreased distractibility ○ Meditation can lead to increased blood flow to the brain, showing promising evidence of enhanced cognition and brain plasticity ● Meditation is about an intense state of focus wherein you learn to observe your thoughts and gently let them go so that you can focus on whatever the object of your attention is. ○ Learning to take a step back and to observe these distractions and then peacefully and calmly bring our focus back ● Over time you'll experience less and less distraction in your meditation sessions will be characterized by longer periods of intense focus ● Meditation basics: ○ Sit in a comfortable position with your spine erect — make sure it’s comfortable for you ○ Close your eyes and breathe normally in and out through the nose ○ You also want to tuck your chin and extend your spine so that it's in one straight line ○ Simply observe the breath ■ Very quickly you'll realize that your mind is wandering — when that happens don't get upset. Just let go let go of the thought observe that you've been thinking and then bring your mind back to the breath ● Experiment with different kinds of meditation — most important thing for you to do is to sit down and try it out yourself! SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 9 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM SECTION 9 ● During sleep, we solidify the things that have been offered up to our long term memory, and eliminate waste from the brain. Try power napping or implementing the sleep hacking tips to get more out of your memory. ● Your environment has a big influence on your ability to learn effectively. Be aware of state based learning and try some of the different ways that you can optimize your home and work study environments for an optimal learning environment ● Exercise is closely tied to a healthy brain. Make it a goal to elevate your heart rate significantly for 15 to 30 minutes every day by trying things like CrossFit or high intensity interval training. ● Take a close look at your diet if you’re suffering from a lack of focus or memory issues. Experiment a diet based on fresh vegetables and lean proteins and avoid excessive sugar or other processed garbage. ● Nootropics are highly individualized. You can try experimenting with some more natural choices like Yerba Mate or raw cacao, but make sure you ask a doctor before trying less natural nootropics. SECTION 9 SUMMARY SECTION 9: GOOD LEARNING HABITS 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM SECTION 9 ● Nootropics are highly individualized. You can try experimenting with some more natural choices like Yerba Mate or raw cacao, but make sure you ask a doctor before trying less natural nootropics. ● One of the best things you can do to reinforce everything you’ve learned about memory and neuroscience is to get out there and teach it to others. ● Meditation has been proven to alter both the structure and the function of your brain. Experiment with different kinds of meditation and give it a shot!