Protocols like coffee or specific breathing techniques can increase alertness through short-term plasticity.

“Well, for instance, short-term plasticity might be, you wake up earlier than you would like to catch a flight. You're not feeling particularly alert, and you want to use a protocol, or you decide to use a protocol which could be coffee or it could be a certain form of breathing or it could be some other tool, to become more alert at a time of day when normally you aren't that alert.”