EXPERT Article: Dopamine Domination

Dopamine Domination

The Profound Impact of Dopamine and How to Regulate it 

By Ryan Melsness

Figure 1, (Plano 2022)

You’re already tired and it’s one ‘o’clock in the afternoon. Your classmates or coworkers are full of energy, but you just want to take a nap and can’t explain why. You slept eight hours, you had your morning espresso, and you ate a nutritious breakfast, so what’s the problem? Well, other than those intrusive thoughts about how your date cancelled on you once again for tomorrow night, it might be that you have an imbalance of dopamine. Dopamine has a big impact on your daily life in more ways than one. Not only can it shape your perception of life, but it has a huge impact on your motivation, drive, and cravings.

 

So, what is dopamine after all? Dopamine is a hormone and critical neurotransmitter produced in the brain that plays a key role in reward and movement regulation. Why does that matter? Well, an imbalance of dopamine can result in a host of mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia. In addition, low levels of dopamine can cause you to feel tired, unmotivated, and moody. I am going to tell you how you can take control of and manage your dopamine levels to better your life.

 

 

Why Dopamine Demands your Attention

Not understanding the significance of dopamine can undermine your health in various ways. Dopamine is a key determinant in how you feel both physically and mentally. If you don’t understand the paramount effects it can have, you may suffer the consequences without knowing why.

 

Dopamine is a molecule in the brain that is closely linked to our sense of motivation (Huberman 2022). Not only that, but it impacts how we perceive things, how we perceive ourselves, and our emotions. It is a neurotransmitter that lies at the center of all harmful addictions. Dopamine is imperative in the regulation of behavior, cognition, movement, reward, mood, attention, memory, learning, and sleep (Olguín et al. 2015).

 

Moreover, it is necessary to take all the steps possible to ensure you are regulating your dopamine to your advantage. The good thing is, there are several things you can do to control your dopamine.

 

How You Can Take Control

There are two main levels of dopamine: tonic and phasic. The tonic level of dopamine is also known as the baseline, or optimum level. This is coupled with the phasic level, which is the peak level. It is important to avoid increasing your phasic level too often, as this can lead to an increase in your tonic level over time. If your tonic, or baseline level of dopamine is too high, it can diminish the dopamine that is experienced from reaching milestones over time. 

 

Establishing a healthy baseline level of dopamine is your key to success. This can be done in many ways. Some of the ways you can do this include viewing early morning sunlight for ten to thirty minutes daily, taking a cold or contrast shower in the morning, eating tyrosine rich foods, avoiding melatonin supplements, avoiding viewing bright lights between 10pm and 4am, and avoiding caffeine after 2pm (Huberman 2022).

 

While it may seem agonizing, taking a cold or contrast (hot and cold) shower has a huge impact on your dopamine levels. It increases your baseline dopamine for hours, which is a great way to start off your day. Second, eating tyrosine rich foods can improve dopamine naturally. These foods include (but are not limited to) red meats, nuts, and hard fermented cheese. Third, you can establish a healthy level of dopamine by avoiding melatonin supplements. These supplements decrease dopamine levels and disrupt normal sleep patterns (Huberman 2022).

 

While it is critical to establish a healthy dopamine baseline, it is just as vital to manage peaks in dopamine. Peaks in dopamine typically occur when a milestone is reached or a goal is achieved. This can be managed by using randomly intermittent reward timing, spotlighting (focusing attention on specific points to maintain focus), not laying too many sources of dopamine, and supplementing dopamine to micro spike (Huberman 2022). Randomly intermittent reward timing consists of celebrating your wins, but not every win. This is important as you must associate winning with the process itself and not just the reward that comes from it. Second, layering too many sources of dopamine can result in post-activity crash that undermines long term motivation and drive. An example of this is working out with a pre-workout supplement, your favorite music, and your best friend all at once. Lastly, it is possible to supplement to micro spike in dopamine. Two of these supplements include L-tyrosine, which increases focus and motivation, and Alpha-GPC, which focus acetylcholine.

 

What it all Means

Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter than has a huge impact on your health. While some people have dopamine levels that are too low or too high, the key is to regulate these levels to your advantage. Genetics influence dopamine levels to a certain extent, however, factors you can control such as behavior, sleep, and nutrition are crucial to regulating dopamine.

 

There are several things you can do to influence your dopamine baseline and peaks such as change your eating habits, adopt a new morning routine, or prevent laying too many sources of dopamine at once. While it is impossible to do everything I suggested in this article, try doing one. Then two. And eventually three.

 

If you change up some of your behaviors and carve those bad habits impacting your dopamine levels, I guarantee you will see a difference. Will you still be searching for your third espresso to make it through the rest of the day? Make a change and find out.

 

 

Works Cited

 “Dopamine: What It Is, Function & Symptoms.” Cleveland Clinic, “Dopamine: What It Is, Function & Symptoms.” Cleveland Clinic, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine#:~:text=Dopamine%20is%20a%20type%20of%20neurotransmitter%20and%20hormone.,mental%20health%20and%20neurological%20diseases.

Huberman, Andrew. “Tools to Manage Dopamine and Improve Motivation & Drive.” Huberman Lab, 6 Oct. 2022, https://hubermanlab.com/tools-to-manage-dopamine-and-improve-motivation-and-drive/.

Juárez Olguín, Hugo, et al. “The Role of Dopamine and Its Dysfunction as a Consequence of Oxidative Stress.” Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684895/.

Plano, Catherine. “7 Ways to Boost the Happy Hormones in Your Brain.” Everyday Power, 28 Nov. 2022, https://everydaypower.com/boost-happy-hormones-brain/.

Suraliya, Sonia. “Key Takeaways: Controlling Your Dopamine: Huberman Lab Podcast #39.” Your Mental Health Pal, 9 Dec. 2022, https://yourmentalhealthpal.com/dopamine-and-motivation/.