AMA #4: Maintain Motivation, Improve REM Sleep, Set Goals, Manage Anxiety & More

This is an "ask me anything" (AMA) episode from the Huberman Lab premium subscriber channel, hosted by Andrew Huberman, who introduces himself as a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. He says the premium channel exists to support the free standard podcast, which still comes out every Monday, and to fund human research at Stanford and other universities aimed at protocols for mental health, physical health and performance. A subscription costs $10 a month or $100 a year, and there is also a lifetime option. Non-subscribers get roughly the first 15 minutes of the episode as a sample.

The first question comes from a listener named Martin Zokov. He describes switching between two states that each last from a few weeks to a couple of months. In one, his motivation is extremely high and he juggles side projects and music along with his main work. In the other, he can barely do anything and only looks for short-term entertainment. The host guesses this means things like video games and social media, and adds that everyone does this from time to time. The listener's question is:

What would be the best set of protocols to normalize those extremes into a more stable and consistent state?

The host calls this a question he hears often. Many people want to know how motivated they ought to feel, and many feel less motivated than they'd like. Before answering, he makes a caveat. As with anxiety, happiness or sadness, "we as human beings don't have an objective window into how other people experience motivation," and often we don't really know how we experience it ourselves. What we do notice is whether the barrier to starting work feels high or low.