Boost your language learning fitness with brain science, part 3

Testing, sleeping, enhancing focus with mindfulness

The previous 2 parts to this series explored the results from a recent excellent Huberman Lab podcast on a research review on how to optimize your learning of anything, including communication and language skills which is the application I have been focusing on. He shared over 15 protocols, but I organized them into the top 10 protocols that will give you the biggest impact on your ability to learn and remember information.  

10. Manage Stress with Mindfulness, Cold Exposure, and Caffeine  

 9. Minimize Distractions and Use Attention-Enhancing Tools  

8. Set Goals and Connect Learning to Personal Interests 

7. Engage in Active, Challenging Learning 

6. Interleave Information and Embrace Desirable Difficulties  

5. Adopt Structured, Active Study Practices 

4. Test for Mastery, Not Just Familiarity  

The first part of this 4-part series explored protocols 10-7 and the second part protocols 6-4. In this final part of the series, we will focus on the top 3 protocols to give you the biggest return on investment:  

3. Enhance Focus with Mindfulness and Structured Breaks 

2. Prioritize Sleep and Use NSDR for Recovery 

1. Offsetting Forgetting with Testing 

The last part of this series will be an outline for a 90-minute language learning session that will apply all of these protocols.  

Ok, Let’s get started.  

Protocol 3. Improve focus with mindfulness and breaks 

Studying without focus is useless. But we have all struggled with this.  Try mindfulness meditation and structured breaks (like the Pomodoro Technique). These help you concentrate better and reduce stress. 

Why is it important? You need to focus to learn well. Improving your focus helps you engage more deeply with what you're learning. 

What’s the Research?  Even short mindfulness exercises can boost attention and reduce mental clutter. Mrazek et al. (2013) found that college students who did mindfulness training improved their working memory and focus, and this led to better academic performance. 

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? Try a quick deep breathing meditation before tackling a tough reading or listening exercise in English or Chinese. And before writing an important email or prepping a presentation, take a mindfulness break to clear your head and organize your thoughts. 

Protocol 2. Get enough sleep and try NSDR to help build memories 

Most people do not realize that when you consciously learn something, your memories are not formed yet. This happens when you sleep. So, not enough interferes with your learning. The solution is simple: prioritize sleep. When you can't sleep enough, try Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) like Yoga Nidra. It helps your brain recover and store what you've learned. 

Why is it important? Sleep is crucial for your brain to work well and remember things. Without good sleep, other learning tricks won't work as well. 

What’s the Research?  Sleep, especially REM sleep, helps cement memories. Stickgold (2005) demonstrated that people who don't sleep enough failed a lot more to remember and use new info. Relaxation techniques like Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) and Yoga Nidra can mimic some of sleep's restorative effects. 

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? After studying new vocab or grammar, make sure you get a good night's sleep. It will help you remember better. 

Protocol 1. Test yourself to prevent forgetting 

The obstacle to learning is that we forget. So, the key problem is more about how to stop forgetting. The fix? Test yourself regularly, especially right after learning something new. This helps you remember much better than just studying more. It's called the "testing effect" and it's backed by science. 

Why is it important? Testing is the most effective way to learn. It actively strengthens your memory and fights forgetting. 

What’s the Research? Students who tested themselves remembered more in the long run compared to those who just studied more. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who took repeated tests had much better long-term retention than those who only studied, even when tested immediately and after a delay. 

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]?  If you're learning English or Chinese, test yourself on new words or grammar by using GenAI to create bilingual wordlists and then copying and pasting in flashcard programs like Quizlet. I wrote a more detailed post here about this last week. For communication fitness, practice answering interview questions by anticipating questions they might ask and then getting GenAI to come up with more questions after you input the job ad and your resume to ChatGPT or Claude. You can then ask GenAI to be the interviewer by first asking text questions and later use voice mode functions on ChatGPT to practice answering the questions orally. 

Brain workout  

We started this series by asking the question why we put so much emphasis on our physical fitness but pay almost no attention to our mental fitness. This is because only recently has science found out more about how the brain works and how we can use certain protocols to improve its functioning. Improve its fitness. 

These protocols are like routines that improve physical fitness. If you want to improve your ability to learn and remember, you should mindfully create routines for your brain exercise.   

Before a workout, you should warm up and stretch your muscles. Well, practicing techniques to improve your focus for learning is like warming up and preparing your brain learning systems.  

After your workout, you need to get enough good quality rest and sleep to let your muscles recover and build. The same is true for learning. 

Finally, whatever physical fitness you are training for—strength, power, flexibility, endurance—requires continual pushing and testing your limits. If you can’t test yourself like this, you will not make progress in physical fitness. This effort and discomfort are also required for learning. 

So, now it’s up to you to put your communication and language learning on track for success. I’d recommend spending a couple of weeks incorporating the first three protocols in your regular study practice and incorporate more protocols across time when you have already made the previous protocols part of your regular “brain workout”.  

Learning a language can be as scientific as learning anything else. If you use the right study protocols, you will improve your communication-and-language fitness faster and more effectively than ever before.   

If you are curious how to use these ideas for a learning session, in the next article, I will apply these protocols in a 90-minute learning “workout” session. Stay tuned. 

References

If you want to go deeper into the science behind these protocols, check out:  

• Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science, 24(5), 776-781. 

• Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. 

• Stickgold, R. (2005). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Nature, 437(7063), 1272-1278.