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.
Today we are discussing how to study and learn.
That is what the scientific data say is the best way to study in order to remember information and to be able to use that information effectively in different areas of your life.
So, for those of you that are still in school, this could be any stage of school.
Today's discussion will be very useful for you.
However, even if you are not formally enrolled in any kind of school at the moment, today's discussion will also be extremely effective for you to be able to study and learn better information from, say, the Internet or podcasts or any area of your life where you are seeking to learn and use new knowledge.
Now, one of the most important things that you're going to learn today is that learning that is the best learning practices are not intuitive.
So before we dive in, keep in mind that whatever you believe about how best to learn for you is probably incorrect.
And I confess this was humbling for me as well when I started to dive into this literature, because as somebody who was a student for many years and in some sense still considers himself a student of science and health information because of this podcast, and certainly as somebody who still teaches university courses, both to medical students and graduate students, and to undergraduate students at Stanford, I thought I understood the whole teaching and learning process.
But I too, learned that it is anything but intuitive.
In fact, most of what we believe about the best ways to study are absolutely false.
Fortunately, today you will learn the best ways to study.
Turns out there's a rich literature on this dating back well over 100 years, and the data are absolutely fascinating and incredibly actionable.
It's incredibly interesting how the fields of education, the fields of psychology, and the fields of neuroscience have now come together to define the optimal strategies to study and learn.
Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching 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 eight sleep.
Eight sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating, and sleep tracking capacity.