The Science of Making & Breaking Habits

Key Concepts

• Habits: Learned behaviors that become reflexive through neuroplasticity.
• Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to change and adapt by forming new neural connections.
• Limbic Friction: The effort required to overcome internal resistance (anxiousness or lack of motivation) to perform a behavior.
• Linchpin Habits: Enjoyable habits that make other, more challenging habits easier to adopt.
• Habit Strength: Determined by context dependence and the amount of limbic friction required.
• Automaticity: The state where a habit can be performed without conscious effort.
• Procedural Memory: Remembering the sequence of steps required to perform a task.
• Task-Bracketing: The neural activity that occurs at the beginning and end of a habit, framing its execution.
• Reward Prediction Error: The difference between expected and received rewards, influencing dopamine release and motivation.
• Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): Strengthening of connections between neurons through repeated co-activation.
• Long-Term Depression (LTD): Weakening of connections between neurons when they fire asynchronously.

1. Introduction to Habits and Their Biology

• Habits are valuable because they automate behaviors, reducing the need for conscious thought.
• Habits can be beneficial or detrimental to our goals.
• The discussion will focus on the neuroscience and psychology of habit formation and breaking, providing actionable steps.
• Up to 70% of our waking behavior is habitual.
• Learning, the basis of habit formation, is neuroplasticity, which involves changes in the connections between neurons.
• Neurons communicate through electrical and chemical signals, forming neural circuits.

2. Types of Habits: Goal-Based vs. Identity-Based

• Immediate Goal-Based Habits: Focused on achieving a specific outcome each time they are performed (e.g., 60 minutes of zone II cardio).
• Identity-Based Habits: Linked to a larger, overarching theme or identity (e.g., becoming "a fit person").
• The distinction is important because different schedules of dopamine release affect habit adherence.

3. The Variability of Habit Formation Time

• The common belief that it takes 21 days to form a habit is a myth.
• A 2010 study by Lally found that habit formation can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days, even for the same habit (taking walks after dinner).
• Habit formation was considered achieved when the behavior was performed about 85% of the time with minimal mental effort.
• The variability is likely due to differences in how people manage limbic friction.

4. Understanding and Measuring Limbic Friction

• Limbic friction is the effort required to overcome anxiousness or lack of motivation to engage in a behavior.
• It relates to the autonomic nervous system, which controls alertness and calmness.
• High limbic friction means more activation energy is needed to initiate a behavior.
• The degree of limbic friction can be used to gauge the likelihood of forming or breaking a habit.

5. The Role of Linchpin Habits

• Linchpin habits are enjoyable habits that make other habits easier to execute.
• Example: Regular exercise can lead to better sleep, hydration, and food choices.
• Linchpin habits shift other behaviors by controlling and biasing the likelihood of performing harder-to-access habits.

6. Assessing Habit Strength: Context Dependence and Limbic Friction

• Habit strength is determined by:
  • Context Dependence: How likely you are to perform the habit regardless of the environment.
  • Limbic Friction: How much effort is required to perform the habit.
• The goal is to achieve automaticity, where habits are performed reflexively.

7. Leveraging Procedural Memory for Habit Formation

• A review article, "Psychology of Habit" by Wood and Ruenger, highlights the importance of procedural memory.
• Procedural memory involves holding in mind the specific sequence of steps needed for a particular outcome.
• A simple visualization exercise of mentally stepping through the sequence of actions required to perform a habit can significantly increase the likelihood of adopting that habit.
• This exercise shifts the brain towards a mindset of doing things in a particular sequence, reducing limbic friction.

8. Hebbian Learning and NMDA Receptors

• Hebbian learning ("neurons that fire together, wire together") strengthens connections between co-active neurons.
• NMDA receptors play a crucial role in this process by making neurons more responsive to future input.
• The procedural memory exercise sets in motion the same neurons required for the actual habit, lowering the threshold for performance.

9. Task-Bracketing and the Dorsolateral Striatum (DLS)

• Task-bracketing involves neural circuits in the basal ganglia that frame the events before and after a habit.
• The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) becomes active at the beginning and end of a habit, marking its execution.
• Task-bracketing determines whether a habit is context-dependent and strong.

10. The Importance of State Over Time in Habit Formation

• While specific schedules can be helpful in the short term, the state of your brain and body is more important for long-term habit formation.
• Anchor habits to particular phases of the day based on their associated biological underpinnings.

11. The Three Phases of the 24-Hour Day for Habit Formation

• Phase 1 (0-8 hours after waking):
  • Neurochemical signature: Elevated norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine.
  • Ideal for habits requiring high limbic friction.
  • Activities to further support alertness and focus: Sunlight viewing, exercise, cold exposure, caffeine, tyrosine-rich foods, alpha GPC, or L-tyrosine supplementation.
  • Creates task-bracketing by associating the nervous system with leaning into limbic friction.
• Phase 2 (9-14/15 hours after waking):
  • Neurochemical signature: Decreasing dopamine, norepinephrine, and cortisol; rising serotonin.
  • Ideal for habits requiring less conscious override of limbic friction (mellow activities).
  • Activities to support calmness and relaxation: Tapering light exposure, NSDR (meditation, Yoga Nidra, self-hypnosis), heat (sauna, hot baths), ashwagandha supplementation.
• Phase 3 (16-24 hours after waking):
  • Focus: Supporting deep sleep for neuroplasticity and habit consolidation.
  • Activities: Low light, low temperature, appropriate eating schedule, magnesium threonate/bisglycinate, theonine, apigenin supplementation.
  • Avoid: Caffeine, bright light, stress.
  • If waking up: Minimize light exposure, use NSDR to fall back asleep.
• By placing particular habits at particular phases of the day, those neurochemical states start to be associated with the leaning in and the process of beginning and ending those particular habits.

12. Reward Prediction Error and Habit Formation

• Reward prediction error is the difference between expected and received rewards, influencing dopamine release and motivation.
• Dopamine release is greatest when a reward is unexpected.
• If a reward is expected but doesn't come, dopamine levels drop below baseline.
• Leverage reward prediction error by positively anticipating the onset and offset of a habit.
• Reward task-bracketing in addition to the execution of the habit itself.
• Expand the time bin around the habit and positively associate dopamine reward with that larger envelope.
• Dopamine is not about feeling good, it's about feeling motivated.

13. A 21-Day System for Habit Formation

• Perform 6 new habits per day for 21 days, but only expect to complete 4-5.
• Built-in permission to fail, focusing on the habit of performing habits.
• No compensation for missed days (avoid habit slip compensation).
• Chunk the 21 days into 2-day bins for a sense of accomplishment and reset.
• After 21 days, stop the deliberate schedule and assess how many habits have become automatic.
• In the following 21 days, maintain the existing habits rather than adding new ones.
• Repeat the process as desired, only adding new habits once the previous ones are reflexive.

14. Breaking Habits: Long-Term Depression (LTD)

• Long-term depression (LTD) weakens connections between neurons when they fire asynchronously.
• To break a habit, disrupt the synchronous firing of neurons involved in the habit.
• Foundation practices (stress reduction, good sleep, quality nutrition, positive routines) support habit breaking.
• Notifications to either engage in habits or to not engage in habits actually were not very effective over time.

15. The Key to Breaking Habits: Replacement Behavior After Bad Habit Execution

• The key to generating long term depression in these pathways is actually to take the period immediately following the bad habit execution.
• Engage in a replacement behavior immediately after performing the unwanted habit.
• This creates a temporal mismatch and disrupts the closed-loop nature of the bad habit.
• The replacement behavior should be positive and easy to execute.
• This approach rewrites the neural circuits associated with the bad habit.

16. Conclusion

• The episode covered the biology and psychology of habit formation and breaking.
• Two programs were presented: the three-phase daily cycle and the 21-day system.
• The Huberman Lab Podcast Neural Network Newsletter will provide a written version of these systems.
• The goal is to establish adaptive habits and dismantle maladaptive ones.
• Addiction requires a more comprehensive approach, as discussed in the episode with Dr. Anna Lembke.