During the first 5-10 minutes of a 90-minute ultradian cycle, the brain and neural circuits are not optimally tuned for learning or new challenging behaviors.

“If you've heard previous episodes of this podcast, you may have heard me talk about ultradian rhythm, which are these 90-minute rhythms that break up our 24-hour day. They help break up our sleep into different cycles of sleep like REM sleep and non-REM sleep. They break up our day in ways that allow us to learn best within 90-minute cycles, et cetera.”

“So that at the beginning of one of these 90-minute cycles, maybe you sit down to learn something new or to engage in some new challenging behavior, for the first 5 or 10 minutes of one of those cycles, it's well known that the brain, and the neural circuits, and the neuromodulators are not going to be optimally tuned to whatever it is you're trying to do.”

“But as you drop deeper into that 90-minute cycle, your ability to focus, and to engage in this DPO process, and to direct neuroplasticity, and to learn is actually much greater.”