welcome to a podcast summary of Dr huberman's episode on meditation in this episode of The hubman Lab podcast Andrew huberman dives into all things meditation how and why we should meditate biological changes that occur through meditation different types of meditation protocols and much more at the end we will also explore a special open-eyed perception-based meditation that huberman invented to enhance focus and relaxation whether you're new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner this episode offers valuable guidance on selecting the best techniques and timing for your needs as always if you enjoyed this episode please comment and subscribe to receive more podcast summaries like this one science of meditation in your brain exists a network of neurons called the default mode Network these are a collection of brain areas that are responsible for mind wandering when your brain dozes off the the purpose of most meditative practices is to control this brain area and prevent it from wandering off huberman references a highly praised scientific paper called a Wandering mind is an unhappy mind this study took a randomly selected group of participants and would message them at random times during the day and ask them if they were fully focused on the tasks they were doing at the time of the message the study found that during most activities people were not focused on what they were doing then they asked the subjects to report their level of Joy people reported being less happy when their minds were wandering during the task they were doing even if their mind was daydreaming about something positive the subjects still reported that not being focused on the current task showed higher levels of unhappiness this study shows that your level of Consciousness was a better predictor of your state of happiness than what you were thinking most meditative practices include mindfulness which is the practice of of being present in our bodily Sensations breathing and thoughts in the moment unlike many other animals humans have the ability to perceive the past and the future which has helped us survive predators in the past our brain can change the state of our being in the present moment as a result of our thoughts of the past or future for example if you have an important test or deadline approaching your brain might enter a state of anxiety in the present moment even though nothing in your present environment is making you anxious essentially your internal State could influence your mindset to make you joyful or anxious or sad regardless of your external environment around you the purpose of meditation is to get you to be present and control your brain from wandering there are two types of perception interception and exteroception interception is everything that you sense inside your body think of things like muscle pain or your stomach signaling that you are hungry exteroception is when you perceive things outside of you like your visual or auditory stimulus closing our eyes for meditation removes one of the major exteroceptive stimuli which is Vision some people are more built for exteroception and some are better at interoception huberman gives a simple test to tell which side of the spectrum you are on close your eyes and sit down and count your heartbeat for 1 minute without feeling your pulse if it is easy to do this then you have high interceptive awareness if it's difficult then you have more exteroceptive awareness deciding on which meditation practice is right for you it helps to figure out which side of the interoception exteroception Continuum you fall on figuring it out can help you curate the optimal meditative practice for you if it's hard to figure out where you are you are probably someone who shifts along the Spectrum depending on your setting for example you are more likely to be exteroceptive when you are in a social setting test whether you are interoceptive or exteroceptive at the moment Stop close your eyes and assess whether you are focused on an internal state or something external to you this will change throughout the day so you should test before each session then choose the meditation that allows you to practice working against the current state so if if you are more exteroceptive in the moment do an interoceptive meditation you want to train the thing that you do less easily hubman recommends this method because it promotes less mind wandering and forces you to train your brain harder almost like doing a new exercise routine that your body is not used to the hardship in doing the opposite of what your brain currently feels allows you to enhance your neural cry and enhance neuroplasticity how to meditate here is how to do an exteroceptive bias meditation pick a focus Point outside your skin like a point on the wall or an object far away your visual system will fatigue after some time every once in a while your eyes will move away from the point the purpose of the meditation is to refocus your vision on one point you can do this for sounds as well an intercept bias meditation the more common one focuses on the internal State and breathing as your brain wanders your goal is to refocus back to your breath as you meditate more it will become easier to refocus your attention third eye meditation your brain is the one organ in your body that has no Sensory neurons you can perceive other senses in your stomach when you are hungry or your skin when you feel the wind but your brain does not have have any receptors this is why you can do open brain surgery on someone who is awake without giving the patient anesthesia the pineal gland however otherwise known as the third eye is the one part of the brain that can feel sensation it is located slightly above your eyebrows in the center of your forehead by focusing on that third eye center we are essentially focusing our attention on the one organ in which we have no sensation if you sit back and watch the one part of your brain that focuses on attention itself and has no receptors you can start to focus on your thoughts when you put all your perceptions into your thoughts you will see how intrusive and disorganized they can be breath work another key component of meditation is the pattern of breathing that you Embrace focusing on the pattern itself can be a meditation most meditative practices tend to slow one's breathing or control one's breathing breathing meditation techniques are also interoceptive when you are focused on your breathing patterns that requires a significant portion of your attention to focus internally this means that breath work is a form of meditation so how long should a meditative practice be a popular one is a daily 13-minute interception done for 8 weeks to improve mood sleep cognitive ability and much more huberman's lab found that a 5minute daily meditation can get those benefits fundamentally the Stanford biologist recommends doing what you truly believe you can stick to consistently for a long period of time even a 3-minute daily meditation practice is beneficial you do not have to do the same duration every session so how does meditation affect your mood well there is another critical Spectrum to consider which is the dissociation versus interoception Spectrum when you are interoceptive you are fully focused on your body's internal State dissociation on the other hand is the phenomenon characterized by a Detachment or disconnection between a person's Consciousness and their bodily Sensations or emotions simply put it is when you struggle to feel attached to your body it often occurs in response to overwhelming stress trauma or distressing experiences an example of this is victims of sexual assault or a fatal car crash reporting a s of paralysis or an out of body sensation during the traumatic event so on the one side of the Continuum you have interception which is feeling everything versus the other side of the Spectrum which is feeling nothing the optimal place to be is in the center of the Continuum being too introspective means feeling intensely and reacting strongly to every emotion or sensation while it's essential to acknowledge and process emotions being overly reactive can lead to heightened stress anxiety and even being easily swayed by external influences on the other hand being too dissociated can mean emotionally numbing oneself making it difficult to connect with your feelings or empathize with others so where does meditation play a role in this imagine that this Continuum is like a line and your internal state is like a ball that is moving along the Spectrum a practice of meditation takes the edges of this line and starts to round it up almost like a u-shape so that your internal States naturally biases towards the ideal state in the middle meditation for sleep meditation specifically practices like Yoga Nidra and non-sleep deep breast or nsdr are often explored because people have heard that it can potentially replace or reduce the need for sleep this notion prompted Research into the topic one study showed that a 13-minute daily medit ation session had positive effects on attention memory mood and emotion regulation however they noted that meditating too close to bedtime could interfere with sleep some Studies have suggested that two 20-minute meditation sessions per day might reduce the need for sleep this is however a controversial claim as sleep needs vary greatly among individuals and it's challenging to generalize the amount of sleep people require since every person is different some argue that meditation stress reduction benefits help reduce the cortisol increases associated with reduced sleep your body naturally produces a healthy amount of cortisol when you wake up to help get your day started and this wears off by night time to help you fall asleep however disruptions in this cycle could ruin your sleep practicing meditation essentially reduces stress which can establish healthier cortisol release patterns improving Your Sleep Quality there there is a set of meditation practices called Yoga Nidra and nsdr that one can do to improve sleep these practices are less of a focused meditation and more of a body scan and deactivate certain areas of the brain they have shown promise in replenishing dopamine and reducing cortisol levels better than regular meditation Yoga Nidra and nsdr should be utilized for people who are primarily looking to use meditation to improve their Sleep Quality Andrew huberman recorded his own guided nsdr meditation the link to it will be in the description below hubber men's meditation finally Dr Andrew huberman introduces a meditation technique that he invented called space-time bridging that combines all the various meditation practices that were discussed in this video space-time bridging involves a simple but insightful meditation technique that balances interception and exteroception while also considering the concept of time by shifting your attention between these aspects you learn to be more adaptable and present in different situations the meditation practice involves several steps start by closing your eyes and concentrating on either your third eye or your breath fully immersing yourself in your inner experience after three breaths open your eyes and focus on an object nearby then continue this process gradually extending your focus to objects farther away all while still being aware of your breath finally you'll zoom out to a cosmic perspective acknowledging your tiny existence in the vast Universe then you start over and repeat the process the goal of space-time bridging is to help you move your awareness along the interceptive exteroceptive Continuum and the associated time domains this flexibility can be beneficial in daily life allowing you you to switch between tasks and environments with ease key takeaways a Wandering mind is an unhappy mind being fully engaged in what you're doing is the strongest predictor of Happiness choosing the right meditation for the moment test whether you are in an interoceptive or exteroceptive state then choose the meditation that allows you to go against your current state if your goal is to increase focus and mood and deliberately controlled shifts in interception or exter reception traditional meditation is beneficial meditation tip instead of dwelling on your ability to remain focused think about your ability to focus that's where the training and Magic happens how long should you meditate just like exercise the best form of meditation is the one you do consistently turning focus on breathing pattern can in itself be a form of meditation practice to get better at falling asleep or manage lost sleep try Yoga Nidra or non-sleep deep rest at some point during the day key question to ask before meditation do you want to be more relaxed or more alert through the meditation practice if you're inhales are longer than exhales you will shift into more alert state if you focus on longer more vigorous exhales you will relax three main considerations of meditation practice number one exteroceptive versus interceptive Focus number two breathing pattern number three Continuum between interception and dissociation the practice of space-time bridging is a good meditation for focusing on rapid task switching thank you for watching this video if you have any questions about meditative practices please write them down below and we will make sure to respond as soon as possible please also comment on which podcast we should summarize next and if you would like to see more videos like this please subscribe to get the best conversations from leaders scientists and entrepreneurs summarized into short animated videos like this one