Enhance Your Focus & Productivity with 90-Minute Ultradian Cycles

By: Emily Orscheln 

Whether you’re a student, employee, freelancer, or something in between, the ability to focus is an essential skill of life. Although some individuals are able to sit down and crank out a bout of work at any given moment, the majority of people, myself included, face difficulties when trying to focus. In order to improve our attention and concentration skills, we first must understand what this vital skill actually is. 

Attention is not constrained to one singular definition, nor is it a clear or unified concept. In the neuroscience field, attention is defined as “the important ability to flexibly control limited computational resources” (Lindsay  2020). Dr. Andrew Huberman, professor of neurobiology at Stamford School of Medicine, explains the mechanism of focus using three main neurochemicals: epinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine. Epinephrine, more commonly known by its name adrenaline, is a neurotransmitter and hormone that plays an important role in the body’s “fight or flight” reactions. Once released, epinephrine increases energy and alertness, both key components to attention and focus. The second key component for focus is acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter released from numerous parts of the brain. Professor Huberman explains acetylcholine as a spotlight on specific nerve cells that should be more or less active than the other neurons in that environment. High levels of acetylcholine allow you to focus very precisely on a specific task. The final aspect of this focus mechanism is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter typically associated with pleasure and satisfaction, but, according to Huberman, is the “molecule of motivation”. 

In summary, dopamine allows us to be focused for a duration of time, epinephrine jumpstarts our levels of alertness and ability to concentrate, and acetylcholine determines the level of precision involved with our focus. All three of these components are crucial for attention, yet no singular neurochemical on its own will improve and increase attention. However, there are specific tools and protocols one can follow to increase levels of dopamine, epinephrine, and/or acetylcholine that will improve focus. 

Before explaining how to improve focus, it’s important to take note of a few factors that negatively impair one’s ability to focus. One of the biggest inhibitors is lack of sleep. Sleep gives your brain and its neurons a chance to reset and recharge. A lack of sleep throws off your brain’s chemistry, including the three neurochemicals explained above. According to research done at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, “alertness and vigilance also appear to be the cognitive capacities most consistently and dramatically impacted by insufficient sleep” (Killgore 2010). Furthermore, “prolonged sleep restriction or disruption ultimately reduces hippocampal cell proliferation and generation of new neurons” (Kreutzmann 2015). The hippocampus plays a vital role in learning, memory, and spatial navigation. States of sleep and restfulness are when your hippocampus can recharge. A lack of sleep therefore disrupts your ability to engage in neural regeneration, resulting in impaired mental functioning, attention included. Other common inhibitors to focus include chronic stress, dehydration, malnutrition, and a sedentary lifestyle (Harvard Health, 2020). 

The first step towards optimizing focus is optimizing the factors listed above. That is, trying to mitigate stressors, get more sleep, drink more water, eat a more balanced diet with real foods, and move often. Optimizing all these factors will improve your quality of life overall, your ability to focus included. Yet an incredibly useful tool exists that is zero-cost to you and already known to your body. This tool is the utilization of your daily ultradian cycles. 

 Whether it be women’s menstrual cycles or the REM and NREM cycles that conduct sleep, human bodies operate in cycles. Ultradian cycles, also referred to as ultradian rhythms, are the recurrent periods repeated throughout the 24-hour day. Examples of ultradian cycles include blood circulation, hormonal secretions, heart rate, appetite, bowel activity, and thermoregulation (Goh, 2019). When utilized correctly, ultradian rhythms can enhance focus and concentration. The human brain operates in 90-minute cycles of alertness during the day. During the course of those 90 minutes, the brain and body move from high to low levels of alertness. At higher levels, we are more productive and able to focus. Yet as the end of the 90 minutes approaches, our cognitive functioning and ability to stay on task drops off significantly. Typically, this is the point where we turn to stimulates such as caffeine, processed sugar, and simple carbohydrates to inflate our energy levels and “push through”. 

An important note to make is that caffeine is not always bad. In fact, when utilized in proper dosage and consumption at an appropriate time, caffeine is beneficial towards attention. Caffeine increases dopamine levels, and dopamine is a vital neurochemical for attention. Yet caffeine is never beneficial when used to blunt our body’s innate signals of needing a break. Daily guidelines for caffeine consumption vary, yet the general consensus is that ideally no more than 400 mg should be consumed per day (Temple, 2017). Furthermore, caffeine should not be consumed late in the day, as it will alter the architecture of your sleep and impair cognitive function. 

Research shows that at the start of utilizing these cycles, the typical person can do one to two cycles of concentrated work a day. Once that person has gotten into a routine and become comfortable with the protocol, three, potentially four, cycles can be performed. It’s also recommended that cycles are not done back to back, but instead are spread out throughout the day (Huberman, 2022). Other work can most certainly be done between cycles, yet this work should be more mundane and require less focus. Examples of this work include responding to emails, attending Zoom meetings, typing up written notes, and other tasks not requiring as much brain power. 

In order to properly implement these cycles, distractions must be minimized. I either put my phone on “do not disturb” or power it off completely. Sometimes I’ll even send a text beforehand to people I frequently text saying “dropping into a 90-minute concentration bought, but I will be back after!”. This ensures that I’m not thinking about social matters and can direct my brainpower to the work at hand. 

Implementing these ultradian cycles into my day has significantly increased my productivity. When I “drop into a concentration cycle”, as I like to say, I commit myself to those 90 minutes, knowing that I’m going to get a break after. Once committed, I’m able to direct my full attention at the task at hand and can typically work through it more efficiently. 

Referencec List:"

Goh, G. H., Maloney, S. K., Mark, P. J., & Blache, D. (2019). Episodic Ultradian Events-Ultradian Rhythms. Biology, 8(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology8010015

Harvard Health. (2020, February 1). Focus on concentration. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/focus-on-concentration

Huberman, A. (2022, September 14). Focus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration [Podcast]. Huberman Lab. https://hubermanlab.com/focus-toolkit-tools-to-improve-your-focus-and-concentration/

Killgore, W. D. (2010). Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition. Progress in Brain Research, 105–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-53702-7.00007-5

Kreutzmann, J., Havekes, R., Abel, T., & Meerlo, P. (2015). Sleep deprivation and hippocampal vulnerability: changes in neuronal plasticity, neurogenesis and cognitive function. Neuroscience, 309, 173–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.04.053

Lindsay, G. W. (2020). Attention in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Machine Learning. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2020.00029/full

Temple, J. L., Bernard, C., Lipshultz, S. E., Czachor, J. D., Westphal, J. A., & Mestre, M. A. (2017). The Safety of Ingested Caffeine: A Comprehensive Review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 8, 80. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00080