The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.
Essentials: Understanding and Using Dreams to Learn and to Forget
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the important role that sleep and dreams have in learning, regulating emotions, and recovering from trauma.
I discuss how dreams during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep contribute to emotional learning and the processing of traumatic experiences. I also discuss the similarities of REM dreams to clinical treatments like ketamine and EMDR therapy. I explain how non-REM dreams function differently to support other types of learning. Additionally, I describe science-backed strategies to optimize both types of sleep for improved learning, mood and emotional regulation.
Huberman Lab Essentials are short episodes (approximately 30 minutes) focused on essential science and protocol takeaways from past Huberman Lab episodes. Essentials will be released every Thursday, and our full-length episodes will still be released every Monday.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman
Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman
Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman
Timestamps
00:00:00 Huberman Lab Essentials; Dreaming, Learning & Un-learning
00:01:04 Types of Sleep
00:02:57 Slow-Wave Sleep, Motor Learning
00:06:23 Sponsor: AG1
00:07:30 REM Sleep, Paralysis, Unlearning of Emotional Events
00:12:29 Lack of REM Sleep, Emotionality
00:15:02 REM Sleep, Learning & Meaning
00:18:54 Sponsor: Joovv
00:20:08 EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) Therapy, Trauma
00:26:48 Ketamine Therapy, PCP, Trauma
00:29:52 Sponsor: Eight Sleep
00:31:23 REM Sleep as Therapy, Emotions
00:33:40 Tool: Improve Slow-Wave & REM Sleep
00:37:05 Recap & Key Takeaways