How to Increase Dopamine in Children and Why

Feel like your child is unusually unmotivated or struggles with concentration? It could be low dopamine! I want to share a few ways how to increase dopamine in your children, and explain why you might want to.

What is dopamine?

Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that sends signals to tell your body what to do. It’s often referred to as the “motivator molecule” because it is directly responsible for motivation and focus. Kids who have low dopamine are often unmotivated, poorly focused and struggle with a whole host of other issues. The feel-good hit of dopamine is also a big reason why some kids are drawn to sex, drugs, or even just a never-ending stream of (less risky) video games. Fortunately, there are a number of lifestyle changes you can make that will increase dopamine naturally.

10 Natural Ways to Boost Dopamine

• Eat Tyrosine-Rich Foods
• Take Supplements
• Eat Less Saturated Fat
• Exercise
• Start Meditating
• Listen to Music
• Pet Your Dog
• Take a Cold Shower
• Get Regular Sleep
• Increase Exposure to Sunlight

Increase Dopamine Levels in Kids Naturally

Dopamine is critical for boosting drive, focus, and concentration.

Too little dopamine leaves you unmotivated, unfocused and possibly even depressed.

Think this sounds extreme?

Dopamine is so critical for motivation that lab mice with low dopamine lack the motivation to even eat.

Some of the common symptoms of low dopamine include:

• Fatigue
• Lack of motivation
• Procrastination
• Inability to connect with others
• Mood swings
• Hopelessness
• Sleep problems
• Inability to concentrate
• Inability to complete tasks
• Engaging in self-destructive behaviors (especially addictive behaviors)

Kids who struggle with focus, memory, problem solving and social anxiety are often found to have low levels of dopamine. (It’s the reason many ADHD meds target dopamine.) And because our brain releases dopamine when we are engaged in pleasurable activities, it’s not uncommon for kids with low dopamine to be thrill seekers, hooked on video games and other things that stimulate their brains to boost dopamine levels.

Obviously, we don’t want our kids to be thrill seekers and it’s safe to say that we don’t want to jump right to medicating kids with low dopamine.

Fortunately, there are ways to increase dopamine in kids naturally.

Eat Tyrosine-Rich Foods

Our body makes dopamine from an amino acid called Tyrosine, and eating a tyrosine-rich diet can help support healthy dopamine levels. Things like:

• Seaweed
• Egg white
• Meats, poultry and seafood
• Cheese
• Pumpkin
• Nuts and seeds (especially pumpkin seeds)
• Beans and lentils
• Avocados
• Whole grains
• Bananas
• Watermelon
• Chocolate
• Green leafy vegetables
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Colorful fruits and vegetables

Take Supplements

If you suspect that your child might have low dopamine levels, you might want to consider getting blood work done.

Your body requires several vitamins and minerals to create dopamine, including iron, niacin, folate and vitamin B6.

If your child is deficient in one or more of these nutrients, he or she may have trouble making enough dopamine. Fortunately, it’s easy to correct this with supplementation, but you will need to do blood work to confirm.

Eat Less Saturated Fat

Research has found that saturated fats, like those you would find in butter and animal fat, may disrupt the dopamine signaling in the brain, when consumed in large quantities.

One study found, for example, that rats who consumed 50% of their calories from saturated fats reduced their dopamine signaling in the reward signaling of the brain. The rats who consumed the same number of calories, consisting of unsaturated fat, didn’t experience those results.

According to the study, “these changes occurred even without differences in weight, body fat, hormones or blood sugar levels.”

Exercise

Along with its many other benefits, physical exercise is actually one of the best things you can do for your brain. It slows down brain cell aging and boosts the production of new cells. It also increases levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, three neurotransmitters that are critical to brain function.

Researchers have found that after a single 35-minute aerobic treadmill session, creativity and cognitive flexibility — the ability to think about multiple things at once — improved significantly. During another study, researchers discovered that even just a 6-minute walk can increase creativity.

The studies make two things very clear:

• Exercise is a great way to naturally increase dopamine
• You don’t need to engage in strenuous physical activity to increase dopamine

Encourage your kids to find a physical activity they enjoy, whether it’s biking, yoga, rollerblading, swimming or something else. You can even make it part of your routine to go on a walk together each day!

Start Meditating

The benefits of meditation have been proven in thousands of studies.

However, studies now show that meditation can be used, specifically, to increase the levels of dopamine in the brain.

There are a number of meditative practices for kids.

However, if your kids aren’t interested in a more traditional meditative practice, there are many other creative hobbies that can help bring their brains into a meditative state (activities that they may find they love).

These include:

• Sewing
• Drawing
• Photography
• Woodworking

Listen to Music

This shouldn’t really come as any huge surprise. Think about how much of an impact the right song has on your mood, how much it can get you pumped up during a workout or relax you at the end of a day.

Scans of the brain show that the brain’s pleasure center lights up when music is being played.

But you don’t actually have to listen to music to have this effect.

One study has shown that just the anticipation of listening to music can increase dopamine levels.

Pet Your Dog

Has your child been wanting a new pet?

Well, if she is creating a presentation convincing you why she needs it, make sure she puts increasing dopamine on the list!

A 2003 study found that petting a dog gave both the person and animal a boost in dopamine. According to the Abstract, “Concentrations of beta-endorphin, oxytocin, prolactin, beta-phenylethylamine, and dopamine increased in both species after positive interspecies interaction.”

I’m sure this will be news to your child’s ears!

Take a Cold Shower

This is one you may have a hard time getting your kids on board with!

If they’re not interested in an entire cold shower, encourage them to at least try finishing it with a cold blast. (You should try it too, Mom and Dad!)

It may sound awful (and it is), but one study demonstrated that taking a shower with 57-degree water can increase dopamine by up to 250%!

People who enjoy these blasts of cold swear that it boosts their productivity and mood all day long.

Get Regular Sleep

Dopamine provides a rush that makes you feel wakeful and alert.

Studies have shown that dopamine is released in the morning when it’s time to wake up and that naturally, dopamine levels drop in the evening, telling your body it’s time to go to sleep.

A natural sleep rhythm that makes sense, right?

But what happens when people stay up late or are chronically sleep deprived?

Studies show that when people are forced to stay awake through the night, the “availability of dopamine receptors in the brain is dramatically reduced by the next morning.”

Regular, high-quality sleep is the best solution for keeping your dopamine levels balanced and hlep you feel more alert and focused during the day.

Increase Exposure to Sunlight

If you live in a northern state, you’ve probably noticed that you and/or those around you may get a little sad or depressed during the winter months. They (or you) are not getting enough sunlight!

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a real condition, actually.

Periods of low sun exposure can result in reduced levels of neurotransmitters, including dopamine.

While we are certainly NOT encouraging you to use a tanning booth to boost dopamine, one study did find that compulsive tanners who visited a tanning bed at least two times a week for one year saw significant boosts in dopamine levels (which, in turn, made them want to repeat that behavior).

It’s important to get some exposure to the sun, but do keep in mind that you don’t need much to get all the benefits you need from the sun. Just 10-15 minutes is usually all you need.

It’s also recommended to limit your exposure to the sun when UV rays are the strongest and make sure you’re applying sunscreen regularly.

Final Thoughts How to Increase Dopamine in Children

Low levels of dopamine can result in moodiness, lack of motivation, poor focus and a host of other problems for kids. It’s the reason many ADHD meditations target dopamine.

Fortunately, there are several ways how to increase dopamine levels naturally, without falling back on medication.

These include:

• Eat Tyrosine-Rich Foods
• Take Supplements
• Eat Less Saturated Fat
• Exercise
• Start Meditating
• Listen to Music
• Pet Your Dog
• Take a Cold Shower
• Decrease Sugar
• Get More Sun

While you may have a hard time getting your child to blast themselves with cold water first thing in the morning, the other practices could be easy additions to their daily routine. Introduce the new ideas by leading by example. Add a daily walk or a meditation practice to your own life and ask your child to join you, for example.

And let us know how it goes! We would love to hear from you in the comments below!