Shadowing Practice: Neuroscience confirms: This simple habit rewires your brain - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If your focus sucks, the reason why may be a lot stranger than you think.
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In fact, I spent weeks going through this giant stack of research papers on the science of focus
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and uncovered something most people aren't talking about.
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It has to do with your mind, but it's not about brain rot or too much distraction.
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It's actually much weirder because there's actually several simple mistakes you're making right now
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that quietly sabotage your brain's performance and even in some cases may lead to brain damage.
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First mistake is this, you may be shrinking your brain.
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According to this University of Oxford study on almost half a million people, the highest cognitive performance was found at 7 hours of sleep a day.
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Any hour below or above and your brain has worse memory, worse reasoning and slower reaction speed.
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But wasn't just performance, those that didn't get 7 hours had crappier and smaller brains.
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Reduced gray matter and a smaller orbital frontal cortex, This is the part of your brain
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that tells you perhaps sniffing crack off some random strippers thigh is not a good idea
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And for those that slept too much they had much smaller cerebellums
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and more white matter hyperintensities which is just fancy speak to say
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that there are spots in the brain where the brain's wiring is Fraying
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because the tiny blood vessels feeding those wires are either leaky
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or partially clogged now This isn't a randomized control trial And
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so we don't know for sure that's bad sleep that specifically damages your brain
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But it does make you wonder right perhaps your ability to focus isn't a willpower
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or discipline issue Perhaps you're simply outside of your own personal
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optimal cognitive window this other study tracked 1.4 million people some as long as 25 years
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Basically waiting for them to die and they too found that both sleeping under seven hours or over eight
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Independently predicted dying earlier not just dying dying horrible deaths like being burned alive
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or having your toes eaten by zombified goats Oh, but I'm one of the lucky ones, you tell yourself.
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I don't need that much sleep, and all the ghosts around me aren't really into feet.
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Oh, but there are two problems with that.
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One, statistically, that's probably not true.
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All goats love toes.
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Because while there is a real genetic inherited trait that does let some people run on four to six hours,
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it's caused by a genetic mutation that only shows up in a tiny percentage of the population.
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So unless you're saying you're one of the X-Men, i.e. you have mutant sleep powers, you're probably dealing with something I call sleep-dead ignorance.
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This is mistake number two.
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There's this Harvard experiment, right?
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Where people are forced to get four to six to eight hours of sleep for two weeks in a row.
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No caffeine, no naps, just constant camera surveillance.
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Throughout the experiment, they track people's ability to focus.
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Sure, your brain's performance is going to take a hit, but it's probably just going to settle at some new normal, right?
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But that's not actually what happened.
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Over 14 days, the dumbness level and damage just kept on growing.
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But the most fascinating thing about this is how people felt because the feeling of sleepiness did in fact stop.
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Meaning you felt a bit sleepier in the first few days, but then you quickly got used to it.
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In fact, test subjects reported only feeling slightly sleepy, even though they were at peak impairment levels.
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In other words, your dumbness grows in a straight line while your sense of tiredness stops, leaving you in a state where you are confidently impaired, but you have no idea.
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Also, if you'd rather not fight all this on your own.
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Join the best productivity accelerator ever.
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I'll teach you the core system, the exact method I use to accomplish anything.
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Getting to Harvard, becoming a doctor, scaling this YouTube channel part-time.
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You can do it too.
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In fact, I'm so confident here's my offer.
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Show up, do the work, follow the system, and if you don't make insane progress with your goal, we keep working with you for free until you do.
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And if you're one of the first 24 people to sign up, we'll include the BOSS system for free.
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This is a real human being chasing you 24-7 every single day.
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You tell us when you want to do something, like I want to wake up at 7am and be at the gym by 10, and if you don't give me proof you're doing it,
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someone like me will literally be calling you up on the phone asking, yo, what's up?
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What's going on?
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Why aren't you at the gym?
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If that sounds cool, link in description.
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So what that means is just because you feel okay, doesn't mean your brain is actually okay.
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It just means you can't rely on how you feel
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because the internal gauge of how sleepy I am basically gets broken when you don't get enough sleep.
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It's a catch-22.
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According to this paper, one of the most cited reviews in sleep science, sleep loss doesn't break the brain evenly.
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It primarily breaks sustained focus, the ability to stay locked on, and reaction speed.
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But because attention underpins almost nearly everything else, the rest of our cognition decays too.
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And no, you can't just fix it by sleeping in on the weekend.
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Balinski and his team studied exactly this.
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Even people with just mild sleep deprivation, 6.3 hours a night for a week, didn't bounce back easily.
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Three full nights of recovery sleep in a row and their cognitive performance still hadn't returned to baseline.
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The brain seems to adapt to chronic sleep deprivation in a way that postpones genuine recovery.
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They call it the slow allostatic process.
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The best way to understand this is to think of energy as a gas tank.
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When you sleep, you recharge the tank, but when you're awake, you use it up.
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Across many days, it looks like this.
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Use energy, recharge energy.
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Use energy, recharge energy.
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This is the fast homeostatic process.
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But if you start to build chronic sleep debt, the slow allostatic process kicks in and lowers the refill ceiling.
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Every night of short sleep nudges the cap down a little bit.
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So even a full night now tops you off, say 80%, then 75%, then 70%.
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The ceiling keeps sinking the longer your sleep debt remains, which is why impairment accumulates.
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It's like your old crappy phone battery that never gets back to a full charge.
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Sure, it says 100%, but in two hours it's at 10% and you're like, what the heck, man?
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That was only like three feet pics.
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The perfect way to see this is with a visual.
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Oh, how did that get there?
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Anyway, each night that goes by, your gas tank dips lower and lower, and it doesn't get refilled despite the fact that you're sleeping.
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This is your focus and attention declining over time.
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This orange line is how rested you feel, which again, doesn't keep on going down, it plateaus, leaving this big gap.
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This is your blind spot, which is especially dangerous if you're a surgeon, a pilot, a truck driver, or drug dealer, because as the central workers of the world,
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we need you to be in tip-top shape.
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And for everyone else watching, if you want to get smarter and better focus, perhaps the next best move isn't to try out a new productivity system,
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it's to cuddle more with Mr. Bearsley.
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Not just a few extra hours here and there a crap ton.
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How long it takes to recover your focus likely depends on how chronically sleep deprived you've been.
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This leads us to our third mistake.
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According to a 2008 study by University of Chicago, people were actually really bad at knowing how much sleep they got.
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While everyone on average believed they got almost 7 hours, they actually only slept around 6.
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And for short sleepers, it was even worse.
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Those who thought they got around 6.5 hours of sleep actually only slept for five.
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I don't know about you, but it takes me a while to fall asleep.
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My wife has to read me a bedtime story, and then she has to give me a glass of warm milk, tuck me in with Rekka Kuni.
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I then spend the next 10 minutes thinking about what I would do if I had to fight a bear.
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This is something called sleep efficiency.
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According to research, sleep efficiency for a typical healthy adult is around 90%.
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The older we get, though, the lower this efficiency becomes.
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So as a general rule, if you want 7 hours of actual sleep, you should probably be in bed for 8.
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That's why I use a Manta Sleep Mask, this video's kind sponsor, which gives you 100% blackout experience.
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The C-shaped cups put zero pressure on your eyes so it doesn't even feel like you have anything on.
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And if you really want to increase sleep efficiency, I'll use the Sound Mask with Bluetooth speakers built right into the fabric to put on some relaxing nature sounds.
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I'll combo this with a Mantis white noise machine to create a 100% optimized for sleep audio experience.
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They also have silk masks, which feels like a tiny spa in your face.
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Anyway, use the link in the description and use code SPOONFEDSTUDY for 10% off.
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You know that weird thing when you're reading the same thing three times in a row, but at the end of it, you have no idea what you just read?
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Or when someone says something to you, but you're just completely blank.
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You may know it as a brain fart, But in neuroscience, it's called local sleep.
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You know how dolphins sleep with only half their brains
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because the other half stays up so they don't drown or get eaten by a sea monster?
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Well, your brain does something similar.
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In 2019, a bunch of evil scientists forced people to do a single boring task like ironing tiny hamster shirts.
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The longer you focus on the boring task, the more likely different parts of your brain would fall asleep, despite the fact that you were still awake.
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And the type of brain region falling asleep would determine the type of brain fart you'd have.
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If the frontal cortex fell asleep, you'd make impulsive errors and become less patient, more restless.
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If the posterior cortex fell asleep, this is the part of the brain that renders consciousness itself, your mind would then blank and freeze.
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What that means is you can sort of force focus to happen, but if you inherently don't care about what you're focusing on,
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i.e. you're bored, your brain may then go take a nap.
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But it's not just boredom.
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Focusing too hard can actually screw you over too.
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In this other experiment, another group of evil scientists forced people to focus for 24 hours.
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F-MRI imaging showed the overused brain's wiring literally losing coordination over time.
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The authors call it network disintegration, which means if you spend all day forcing yourself to focus,
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ironically, it'll be the focusing part of your brain that'll be the first to fall apart.
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So what can you do?
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Let me boil it down to a few practical moves.
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One, get more sleep.
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You can't rely on how you feel, nor how much time you spend in bed.
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Sleep debt is invisible and paying it back takes a lot more time than you think.
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2. A boredom is not just a feeling.
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Your brain may be taking micro-naps and becoming less efficient.
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And so whenever a task is boring, don't white-knuckle it.
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Make it fun.
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In his book Play Anything, Ian Bogus explains, fun isn't about pleasure or enjoying.
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It's novelty.
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It comes from imposing constraints.
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For example, you're not just mowing the lawn the game is to mow it in one continuous pass with no overlaps.
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Next time you do it is to beat your score by doing it faster. And naked.
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Because why not?
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And just like that, you're now playing and your focus gets sharper as a result.
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Actually, that's a great rule.
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Anytime you want to lock in, just do it naked and your brain wakes the crap up.
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Three, schedule what I call brain blocks.
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Sometimes having trouble focusing means you've exhausted a specific part of the brain.
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So switch to a different task to give that part of the brain some rest.
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I used to do one task for the entire day, like I have a writing day every Monday or whatever.
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But now I break up my day for better focus.
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First block is writing, second block is doodling, third block is filming.
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Three different blocks, three different brain regions, each one like a fresh fighter tagging its tired buddy out out.
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Point is, when you're zoning out, don't blame yourself or feel guilty.
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This isn't you being lazy.
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Realize there's all these invisible things happening that impact your ability to focus.
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With that said, if you do want to train raw focus and level up your attention span, I have a four-part neuroscience back system for how to do that right here.
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I'll see you there.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Neuroscience confirms: This simple habit rewires your brain”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sleep, brain, focus, hour. This video has 161 sentences and 2219 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:58. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bore verb | /boɹ/ | To inspire boredom in somebody. |
| recharge verb | /ɹiːˈtʃɑː(ɹ)dʒ/ | To charge an electric battery after its power has been consumed. |
| cortex noun | /ˈkɔɹtɛks/ | The outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain. |
| sleepy adjective | /ˈsliːpi/ | Tired; feeling the need for sleep. |
| cognitive adjective | /ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/ | Relating to the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective which deals with emotions. |
| allostatic adjective | Relating to allostasis. | |
| boredom noun | /ˈbɔɹ.dəm/ | The state of being bored. |
| deprivation noun | /ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/ | The act of depriving, dispossessing, or bereaving. |
| frontal adjective | /ˈfɹʌn.təl/ | Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front. |
| neuroscience noun | The scientific study of the nervous system. | |
| refill noun | /ˈɹiː.fɪl/ | An additional helping of food or drink at reduced cost. |
| impairment noun | /ɪmˈpɛəmənt/ | The result of being impaired. |
| nap noun | /næp/ | A short period of sleep, especially one during the day. |
| goat noun | /ɡoʊt/ | Any ruminant of the genus Capra. |
| toe noun | /təʊ/ | Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| break up verb | To break or separate into pieces. |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. |
| get around verb | To move to the other side of (something, such as an obstruction) by deviating from a direct course or following a curved path. |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. |
| sign up verb | To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- In fact, I'm so confident here's my offer.
- Why aren't you at the gym?
- This isn't you being lazy.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If the frontal cortex fell asleep, you'd make |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | hyperintensities which is · remains, which is · spot, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was found · being burned · are forced |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've been · you've exhausted |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 62 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: deprivation /ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/, cognition /kɑɡˈnɪʃ.ən/, disintegration /dɪsˌɪnd.əˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/, sabotage /ˈsæb.əˌtɑʒ/, mutation /mjuˈteɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: deprivation /ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, accelerator /əkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪ.tɚ/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bore, recharge, cortex.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.