How to Improve Memory & Focus Using Science Protocols | Dr. Charan Ranganath

(uptempo music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Charan Ranganath. Dr. Charan Ranganath is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California Davis. He is one of the world's leading researchers in the topic of human memory. And memory, of course, is an essential component to our entire lives. Memory isn't just important for remembering things that we learn, it's also vitally important for setting the context of our entire life. Meaning, only by understanding where we come from, who we were, and who we are currently can we frame what we want to do in the next moments, the next day, the next years, and indeed, for the rest of our life. This is why, for instance, that people who have deficits in memory, either due to brain damage or due to age-related cognitive decline or diseases like Alzheimer's dementia, suffer so much. Not just in terms of not being able to remember things for sake of daily tasks, but also for sake of placing themselves in the larger context of their life. Recognizing family members isn't just about being able to relate to those family members on a day-to-day basis, it's also about understanding the full context of all one's memories with those people and what meaning a given interaction brings to any of life's experiences. So today you're going to learn how memory works. You're going to learn about things like deja vu. You're going to learn ways to offset age-related cognitive decline, what the research really says about that, and ways to prevent things like Alzheimer's dementia. We also talk about ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Dr. Ranganath shares his own experience with ADHD, how it relates to memory, and the tools that he has used in order to combat his own ADHD. Doctor Ranganath has an exquisite ability to describe research studies in clear terms and to combine that with his own narrative and life experience in a way that really frames for you practical tools that you can apply in your daily life. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is David. David makes a protein bar unlike any other. It has 28 grams of protein, only 150 calories, and zero grams of sugar. That's right, 28 grams of protein, and 75% of its calories come from protein. This is 50% higher than the next closest protein bar. These bars from David also taste incredible. My favorite bar is the cake-flavored one, but then again, I also like the chocolate-flavored one and I like the berry-flavored one. Basically, I like all the flavors. They're all incredibly delicious. Now, for me personally, I try to get most of my calories from whole foods. However, when I'm in a rush or I'm away from home or I'm just looking for a quick afternoon snack, I often find that I'm looking for a high-quality protein source, and with David, I'm able to get 28 grams of high-quality protein with the calories of a snack, which makes it very easy to hit my protein goals of one gram of protein per pound of body weight, and it allows me to do so without taking on an excess of calories. Again, I focus on getting most of my food from whole food sources throughout the day, but I typically eat a David bar in the late afternoon when I get hungry between lunch and dinner. Sometimes also mid-morning if I get hungry then, and sometimes I'll use it as a meal replacement, although not a complete meal replacement. It can get me to the next meal. So if I need to eat in a couple of hours but I'm really hungry, I'll eat a David bar. As I mentioned before, they are incredibly delicious. In fact, they're surprisingly delicious. Even the consistency is great. It's more like a cookie consistency, kind of a chewy cookie consistency, which is unlike other bars, which I tend to kind of saturate on. I was never a big fan of bars until I discovered David bars. If you give them a try, you'll know what I mean. So if you'd like to try David, you can go to davidprotein.com/huberman. Again, the link is davidprotein.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Levels. Levels is a program that lets you see how different foods affect your health by giving you real-time feedback on your diet using a continuous glucose monitor. Now, one of the most important factors in both your short and long-term health, and your energy levels each day, is your body's ability to manage blood glucose. To maintain energy and focus throughout the day, you want to keep your blood glucose levels steady without big spikes or crashes. Now, I first started using Levels about three years ago as a way to understand how different foods impacted my blood glucose levels, and it's proven incredibly informative for determining what food choices I make, when best to time my food intake around things like workouts, both cardiovascular training versus resistance training, and when and what to eat close to sleep or not so close to sleep, when I wake up in the morning, if I'm fasting or breaking a fast, et cetera. Indeed, using Levels has helped me shape my entire schedule so I have more energy, more cognitive focus, my workouts are better, my sleep is better. Everything got better when I understood how different things, especially food, were impacting my blood glucose levels. So if you're interested in learning more about Levels and trying a CGM yourself, you can go to levels.link/huberman. Right now, Levels is also offering an additional two free months of membership. Again, that's levels.link, L-I-N-K, /huberman to try their new sensor and two free months of membership. Today's episode is also brought to us by Waking Up. Waking Up is a meditation app that offers hundreds of guided meditation programs, mindfulness trainings, yoga nidra sessions, and more. I started practicing meditation when I was about 15 years old, and it made a profound impact on my life. And by now, there are thousands of quality peer-reviewed studies that emphasize how useful mindfulness meditation can be for improving our focus, managing stress and anxiety, improving our mood, and much more. In recent years, I started using the Waking Up app for my meditations, because I find it to be a terrific resource for allowing me to really be consistent with my meditation practice.Many people start a meditation practice and experience some benefits, but many people also have challenges keeping up with that practice. What I and so many other people love about the Waking Up app is that it has a lot of different meditations to choose from, and those meditations are of different durations. So it makes it very easy to keep up with your meditation practice, both from the perspective of novelty, you never get tired of those meditations, there's always something new to explore and to learn about yourself and about the effectiveness of meditation, and you can always fit meditation into your schedule even if you only have two or three minutes per day in which to meditate. If you'd like to try the Waking Up app, please go to wakingup.com/huberman where you can access a free 30-day trial. Again, that's wakingup.com/huberman to access a free 30-day trial. And now for my discussion with Dr. Charan Ranganath. Dr. Charan Ranganath, welcome.