In this episode 23 protocols
▶ 6:35 Morning Sunlight Exposure Behaviors “I've talked many, many times before on this podcast and on other podcasts and on social media about the critical value of getting regular bright light, ideally sunlight in your eyes within the first hour of waking, or if the sun isn't out when you wake up in the morning, to turn on a lot of bright artificial lights and then get sunlight in your eyes for anywhere from five to 20 minutes, depending on how cloudy it is in the early part of the day.” ▷ 7:06 Avoid Bright Artificial Light at Night Behaviors “Now, there's another sort of central tenet of getting great sleep and improving mood and focus throughout the day, and that's to avoid bright artificial light exposure to your eyes between the hours of about 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.” ▷ 8:53 Bright Artificial Indoor Lighting During the Day Behaviors “So a very simple yet powerful solution that's supported by peer-reviewed research in humans is to try and make your indoor working and or home environment during the day as bright as possible. So it's been shown that if you simply increase the amount of bright artificial light that you are exposed to during the day, and remember, this is not an excuse to not get your morning sunlight viewing.” ▷ 9:48 Dim Evening Indoor Lights Behaviors “You want to make sure that you're not getting much dimmer from the hours of 6 p.m. until bedtime. Or if you can't do that, then maybe as soon as you get home from about 8 p.m. until bedtime.” ▷ 10:27 Sunset Light Exposure Behaviors “Now there's an even simpler solution, which is to get some bright sunlight in your eyes right around the time of sunset. It doesn't have to be exactly at sunset. It could be in the late afternoon and evening, but it's been shown now in studies on humans, and I'll provide a link to at least one of those studies, that by getting some bright light in your eyes, ideally from sunlight in the late afternoon and evening, and of course the timing will vary.” ▷ 41:02 Get Sufficient Deep Sleep Behaviors “That would be getting sufficient deep sleep at least 80 of the nights of your life and ideally the remaining 20 you're not getting deep sleep or as much of it because of positive events.” ▷ 41:28 Quality Nutrition Diet “We have sleep we have nutrition we have social interactions we have purposeful work whether or not it's paid work or non-paid work and of course there are things like exercise.” ▷ 41:35 Exercise Behaviors “And of course there are things like exercise and maybe relationships to pets and things of that sort and there are a few others as well all of those are known to increase your overall state of well-being.” ▷ 53:41 Avoid Smoking Nicotine Behaviors “This study from the Harvard Happiness Project really has strong data supporting the fact that avoiding being a nicotine smoker, right? There are positive health effects of nicotine that are discussed in the episode on nicotine, but smoking nicotine in particular is counterproductive for people's at least self-reported happiness and certainly overall health.” ▷ 54:08 Limit Alcohol to Two Drinks per Week or Less Diet “And that alcohol consumption, in particular, alcohol consumption beyond two drinks per week, two drinks being the typical volume of, you know, a beer, a glass of wine or a cocktail, et cetera, is detrimental for various aspects of health.” ▷ 1:16:30 Aquaria Tools “One of the things that was really critical that I had as a postdoc and in my own laboratory, when I first started my lab was I love Aquaria. So I had multiple fish tanks.” ▷ 1:16:57 40 Hertz Binaural Beats Tools “I do also use the 40 Hertz binaural beats.” ▷ 1:16:57 Headphones Tools “Music is a complicated thing in laboratories because it's a shared space. So headphones are the general. It's a requirement, but having either silence, if you love silence and I happen to like working in silence or listening to certain forms of music, I do also use the 40 Hertz binaural beats or I particularly like listening to Glenn Gould while I work or listening to whale song, believe it or not, while I work because it doesn't have any structure that I can follow.” ▷ 1:25:30 Spend Money on Others Behaviors “The title of the paper is Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness. And I know a number of you probably hear that title and think, oh boy, here we go. He's going to tell us that giving away all our money is going to make us happier than receiving money.” ▷ 1:37:04 Daily Meditation Behaviors “And the practice that's known to be beneficial for increasing our ability to focus is, among other things, a short meditation practice.” ▷ 1:43:22 See Faces Regularly Behaviors “There's a quite extensive literature pointing to the fact that when we see faces, especially faces in the morning and in the late afternoon, there is a positive impact on the emotional circuitry, or I should say the circuitry of the brain that underlies emotional wellbeing.” ▷ 1:53:23 Close Eyes Briefly to Listen Better Behaviors “It turns out when we are listening very intently to somebody and trying to remember the information they're telling us, we will often close our eyes. And that's not a form of lack of attention. That's actually a form of attending in.” ▷ 1:54:09 Physical Contact Behaviors “Physical contact is also important for social connection and not just romantic or sexual type connection.” ▷ 1:55:00 Interact With Dogs Behaviors “The basic takeaway is that these so-called AAAs, animal assisted activities, represent a really potent way to increase people, including children's feelings of wellbeing. Brief unstructured interactions with an unfamiliar dog, after exposure to a moderate stressor showed higher positive affect.” ▷ 1:58:18 Allogrooming Behaviors “Allogrooming is a pattern of behavior that's observed in essentially all mammals... where individuals within a species touch one another, and this is non-sexual touch. So this would be someone brushing somebody else's hair, or combing their hair, or even using a lint roller on them for instance, or someone grooming somebody else.” ▷ 2:08:56 Non-Sleep Deep Rest Behaviors “That's a limited resource that can be reset by things like sleep and non-sleep, deep rest, or idle time or letting your mind wander.” ▷ 2:08:56 Idle Time Behaviors “That's a limited resource that can be reset by things like sleep and non-sleep, deep rest, or idle time or letting your mind wander.” ▷ 2:09:03 Positive Mind Wandering for Reset Behaviors “Or idle time or letting your mind wander. In that case, a positive mind wandering, too, at least, to allow your brain to reset its ability of focus.”