Are you the type of person who sets goals or daily activities? Who plans the day to make everything run smoothly in the workplace or at home?
However, there are days when you do not want to get out of bed to go to work or do the daily tasks, like exercise, cleaning the house, learning new skills, and others. There are moments when you feel you are losing the drive or motivation, but you know it will cause a problem in your lifestyle.
So you start searching for help, medication, products or supplements to boost your energy and motivation. That’s where nootropics for motivation come into the game.
Nootropics are a family of medications that can enhance brain function. They are also referred to as substances, brain supplements, and other cognitive enhancers that improve our memory, focus, creativity, or motivation [1]
In addition, Nootropics on prescription are medicines with stimulating effects that can balance the signs or symptoms of medical disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, narcolepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
How Can It Help?
Nootropics for motivation boost the production of important neurotransmitters in the brain. Brain Chemicals, also known as Neurotransmitters play a vital role in sending messages to your body. These messages help you move, feel, regulate your heart rate, and receive and respond to all information your body receives.
According to research, Dopamine controls the brain’s pleasure and reward centers. [1] Serotonin sparks pleasurable emotions or feelings while epinephrine boosts energy levels and optimism. [2]
Among these, dopamine is the key player in boosting motivation, as well as brain energy levels. Without sufficient dopamine, it is hard to take any sort of initiative to really do anything. It becomes hard to start working out, or simply working, studying, performing well at your job, and so on. You will notice that your mood and motivation are lower. Even cognitive function is suffering.
If you want to increase dopamine, taking nootropics for motivation and memory enhancement can help.
People who suffer from low levels of motivation often turn to stimulants and prescription medication. They can hope to get instant results and nothing that will fix their chronic lack of motivation. And when doing so, it’s not exactly hard to find tolerance developing to stimulants.
However, you can increase mood and motivation levels naturally by taking scientifically-proven nootropics for motivation.
The Neuroscience of Motivation
Motivation is not something we inherently have. Contrary to common belief, motivation is not entirely based on your experiences and personality. There’s science behind motivation. Dopamine is involved in motivation.
Neurotransmitter called dopamine influences motivation. Often referred to as a chemical messenger, dopamine goes through the nervous system and uses it to send messages to thousands of nerve stems in your body.
How Dopamine is Made
Dopamine is made in the brain. The process involves two steps. Amino acid tyrosine is transformed into dopa, which is then turned into dopamine.
Dopamine neurons are responsible for delivering phasic signals. Dopamine receptors, on the other hand, play a critical role in motor functions and have five types: D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5. D1 enhances memory and influences locomotion, impulse control, and attention. D2 affects sleep and learning. D3 and D4 are for cognitive function and impulse control. Lastly, D5 is for decision-making.
There are four dopamine pathways: mesolimbic or reward pathway, mesocortical, nigrostriatal, and tuberoinfundibular. [3]
If you have a lack of motivation, low energy levels, or mental fatigue, your body may need extra help to boost dopamine release.
Taking nootropics for motivation can help increase dopamine levels. This in return can increase motivation. But what is the best nootropic for motivation?
For Motivation
If you feel that you could benefit from additional motivation to get moving, know that nootropics for motivation can help. They improve our brain health by stabilizing the production of neurotransmitters.
But motivation as a result of dopaminergic activity cannot be viewed in isolation alone. Instead, it is often accompanied by a host of other complementary effects. These are improved focus, increased concentration, improved mental clarity, and attention, increased productivity, and more energy.
Citicoline
Citicoline is taken on a regular basis for long-term brain development and memory benefits. Its working mechanism creates the learning neurotransmitter acetylcholine and builds and repairs neurons.
It is also vital for improving brain connectivity and encourages the release of dopamine.
Acetylcholine is the brain chemical associated with memory and learning. It is required to turn short-term memories into long-term ones. Dopamine, on the other hand, is your motivation neurotransmitter. Any dips in dopamine levels and you’re left feeling depressed and bland with no or little excitement for life.
People low in this brain chemical often resort to self-medication with sugar, caffeine, and other stimulants. However, citicoline is a better choice since it comes without the many side effects associated with stimulants and such.
Because citicoline is a precursor to both choline and dopamine, it also gives you the right boost you need to improve your mood. This dopaminergic activity becomes apparent as increased energy,increased alertness, productivity,increased motivation, and focus.
Another way citicoline benefits the brain is by providing it with a constant source of energy. The brain needs a consistent supply of energy but is unable to store it. In this case, since the use is consistent, so should the supply be. Thus, you can enjoy better brain function.
Citicoline provides this energy by improving glucose metabolism and enhancing cerebral circulation. This results in improved connectivity within the brain. At the same time, it promotes brain health by regulating movement across brain cell membranes. This means letting in important substances like water, oxygen, and nutrients to cross the membranes. However, it prevents toxic and harmful ones from doing so.
Plus, citicoline has been studied extensively for its mood-enhancing properties. Clinical data shows that people who supplemented citicoline significantly improved depression scores.
If you want to get a dopamine boost, you should consider supplementing citicoline.
The recommended daily dosage for long-term use is 250-500 mg.
L-Theanine
L-Theanine is an amino acid sourced from tea leaves in small amounts. It has been studied to promote relaxation and a sense of calm without causing drowsiness. So, how does this fit into the motivation equation?
First off, L-theanine affects levels of certain chemicals in the brain. Primary among these are dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol. The first two affect mood, sleep, and emotion while cortisol assists the body in dealing with stress.
Any change in the balance of these chemicals can cause a person’s mood or stress levels to change as well.
Alongside regulating chemical imbalances, L-theanine improves a person’s cognitive performance. [3] It does so by being absorbed in the small intestine from where it gets absorbed into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, it can then cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain to exert its nootropic effects.
Its primary mechanism is to be improving brain wave frequency by enhancing alpha wave activity. This activity also helps increase dopamine levels which has an important part to play in reward-motivated behavior.
Alpha brain waves are dominant during quietly flowing thoughts while beta waves indicate a more excited mental state. The latter can also be suggestive of high excitement, engagement, and even high anxiety. L-theanine balances these two critical brain waves and encourages the brain to relax. But relaxation does not imply less motivation. If anything, it quiets the brain to think more efficiently and promote motivation.
Another way that this amino acid helps is by reducing cortisol levels and lowering anxiety. Stress can hamper motivation in many ways. L-theanine counters that effect by lowering stress-associated cortisol levels in the body.
And finally, L-theanine is helpful in releasing nitric oxide (NO). NO helps with vasodilation and increases cerebral blood flow. Adequate circulation to the brain delivers vital nutrients and oxygen which are important for mental performance.
But the biggest upside to using it is that it doesn’t cause any drowsiness, unlike other relaxants. And when used with caffeine it potentiates the other well. First, by improving blood flow to the brain L-theanine facilitates more caffeine to reach neurons. Plus, it counters the vasoconstrictive effects of caffeine along with some others.
For instance, caffeine increases the heart rate, blood pressure and causes energy crashes. L-theanine prevents this and reduces jitters.
To get the most benefits is to take it in supplemental form rather than as a tea. Studies done on the subject recommend a dose of 100-200 mg alongside caffeine. The best time to take it depends on the reason you want to use it.
If you want to experience its calming effects, then take it in the morning with a cup of coffee. For enhancing your sleep experience, take it an hour before bedtime. If you’d like to take it for focus, motivation, and performance before a workout, then take it before your workout session.
B-vitamins
B vitamins have long been associated with boosting energy and motivation given their synergistic role. [4] These are vital in the chain reaction of energy production along with converting nutrients into serotonin.
B vitamins are necessary for the basic upkeep of healthy blood and nerve cells. They are also essential ingredients to the production of dopamine.
B vitamins yield more:
- Energy
- Improved cognitive abilities,
- Resilience
Among this group B6 ranks as the most important one for brain function. It provides motivational neurotransmitter pathways such as converting L-dopa to dopamine, 5-HTP to serotonin and tryptophan to serotonin.
Another energy booster in this group is B12 which helps form red blood cells. This function transports oxygen in the blood throughout the body. Once oxygen arrives in the cells, it is then utilized for energy production.
B12 is also instrumental in improving mood and reducing symptoms of depression. This is because it has a role in synthesizing and metabolizing serotonin, the chemical responsible for regulating mood.
Studies support the use of this vitamin for improving depressive symptoms in individuals who are deficient in B12.
When presented as one group, B vitamins are available as B-complex vitamins. Many people use this to reduce fatigue and improve mood. Some studies show that it lifts the spirits and enhances cognitive functioning.
The same has also been studied to improve depression or anxiety symptoms. [5] However, given that B vitamins are an entire group, it is important to determine the dose varying on age, nutrient demand, overall health, and gender.
Rhodiola Rosea
Rhodiola boasts an impressive history of health benefits such as lowering stress, combating fatigue, and reducing depression. All these improvements play a part in how you act and feel. For instance, the more fatigued, stressed, or depressed you are, the less you feel like doing anything and so the lower your motivation.
And the opposite holds true if you can overcome the debilitating symptoms of stress, fatigue, and depression.
Rhodiola Rosea doesn’t have anything to do with dopamine directly. However, it is able to fortify the central nervous system to fatigue induced by all kinds of stressors.
Classified as an adaptogen, Rhodiola Rosea is able to help the body adapt to stress when consumed. Rhodiola can counteract the harmful effects of stress whether it is physical, chemical or biological in nature. In doing so, it allows the body’s physiological functions to remain normal while improving others it targets.
So, when it regulates cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, it improves motivation levels simultaneously.
The active compounds in Rhodiola are rosavins and salidrosides. They cause a mild stress response allowing the mind and body to become more mentally and physically resilient. They also help to improve mood by influencing serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the brain and feel-good opioids like beta-endorphins.
Rhodiola also possesses nootropic benefits by offering neuroprotection, improving cognition, and enhancing memory and learning. In addition, Rhodiola helps repair and grow new neurons. Its active compounds activate ATP synthesis and re-synthesis. Also, salidrosides shield neurons from oxidative-induced cell death.
Last but not least, studies show Rhodiola to improve mental performance under stress.
Rhodiola is available in tea form but taking it like this can make dosing tricky. Instead, supplemental forms of tinctures, pills, extracts, and powders come in standardized forms.
The ideal standard is a supplement that contains 3% rosavins and 1% salidrosides. The recommended daily dosage is 50 mg.
As compared to some other nootropics, Rhodiola Rosea does not provide instant results. Instead, it takes a while before its effects become noticeable.
The earliest reported time span for Rhodiola effects to become observable is a few days. Others report feeling the effects kicking in after 3 weeks while it’s taken some clinical studies to observe effects after 30-40 days.
N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine is the precursor to dopamine, so it is one of the critical nootropics for boosting motivation.
L-Tyrosine converts to L-Dopa in our bodies, which then converts to dopamine. People who are under stress have depleted stores of tyrosine. The same is true for mentally active people.
To prevent mental burnout, experts recommend eating a diet higher in protein. But the benefits from high levels of L-Tyrosine are seen only during conditions of high stress. Therefore, we recommend supplement N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT).
The recommended daily dosage is 500-2000 mg before the the acute stressor.
Best Motivation Pills
Nootropics that boost dopamine production are the way to go when you want to look for ways to boost motivation in a safe manner. They will provide you with dopaminergic and metabolic pathways in a more natural way.
Instead of buying them individually, we recommend buying nootropic supplements.
That’s how you will get multiple benefits and a great user experience.
Our top-rated nootropic supplement for motivation is Mind Lab Pro.
Mind Lab Pro contains 11 high-quality nootropics that provide optimal brain health and cognitive performance.
Among the 11 nootropics are all previously mentioned nootropics for improving your motivation.
If you want to boost your motivation, Mind Lab Pro is a supplement for you.
Verdict
There are a few great nootropics for motivation on the market that contain the mentioned nootropics for improving motivation. They enhance energy, focus, attention, and have a positive impact on cognition and brain health.
Among them, Mind Lab Pro stands out for its quality and affordable price.
To get it at the lowest price, click on the button below.
