5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brain Health
Hey Rewire Collective!
Something I’m talking about a lot in my new book is how we have limited energy. We have limited mental resources. So wherever we’re spending the energy, and however we’re using those resources, it should be deliberate choices.
We’re Actually Not Good at Multitasking. Limit Your Screen Time.
We are more productive when we focus on one task and ‘get in the zone’ or ‘flow state’. Switching between different tasks incurs switch costs (1), which is essentially brain energy wasted on stopping, refocusing, and starting again. Distractions cost us.
Your phone is a distraction, as is social media, as are notifications. Constantly consuming content, being distracted by notifications, and checking your phone, is detrimental to productivity, focus, and self-contentedness.
When you stop working to check your phone, you lose focus, which you then have to spend energy on to regain. But it’s not just energy you lose, it’s also time (2). It takes about 10-15 minutes to get into the flow state (3). And the trick is, social media has wired our brains to want more after about 6 minutes (4). These constant notifications and easy access to social media is ruining your productivity. Out of sight is out of mind, put the phone away and limit screen time when you’re trying to be productive.
And P.S. I have a whole newsletter on how to find out when you’re most productive!
Why do I keep bringing up the flow state? Because this is a state of mind that’s super conducive to productivity, concentration, clarity, and internal happiness (5,6)! But this is something that requires your full attention.
Creatine, Omega-3 and Magnesium
A compound, a fat, and a mineral. These have all been shown to improve cognitive performance to some extent! And so they’re all something I would recommend discussing with a doctor/nutritionist to find out if they could be right for you!
Creatine can boost cognitive performance and help mitigate changes induced by fatigue (7; sleep should still be top priority).
Omega-3 fatty acids increases learning, memory, cognitive well-being, and blood flow in the brain (8).
Magnesium has mixed reviews in different studies, but overall seems ot have a moderate improving effect on brain health and cognitive performance (9,10).
Our Brain Needs Sleep
Sleeping somewhere between 6-9 hours is associated with greater brain volumes, and better executive function (11).
The effects of no sleep are probably the most convincing (12,13):
Sleeping 4 hours a night left otherwise healthy individuals with blood sugar levels so high they’d be classed ‘pre-diabetic’.
Hormones are disrupted: men sleeping 4 hours have testosterone levels of someone 10 years older than them, and women are 30% more likely to have abnormal menstrual cycles.
When we lose an hour of sleep with daylight savings times, we see an increase in heart attacks the next day by 24%.
Without sufficient sleep, we see a build up of two proteins (tau and amyloid beta) that play a critical role in Alzheimers disease and cognitive decline.
So yeah, you need to sleep. Tips for sleep can be found:
We’re meant to be ACTIVE
I’ve talked loads about how exercise increases grey matter volume in the brain, and production of myokines (muscle proteins) can improve brain function and mood.
We know that regular exercise improves memory and cognitive capabilities (14,15). Exercise directly:
reduces insulin resistance, reduces inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors
But another benefit to exercise is the consistency and self-trust you build by creating an exercise routine/schedule and sticking to it.
Consistency leading to identity is something talked about a lot in marketing psychology, but it’s true for us as humans as well. The more we do an activity the more we identify as a doer of the activity: the more we run means we’re a runner, the more we play tennis makes us a tennis player. And the more we say we’re going to do something and then do it, the more confident we become in ourselves that we will.
Boredom and Rest can be productive!
Doing nothing allows our brain to explore new ideas, using the default mode network (16). If we’re constantly bombarded with content and activity, our default mode network doesn’t get as much of a chance to activate. Which means we’re not being as creative as we could be!
Rest also allows us to regulate our cortisol levels, which are responsible for stress, and without rest can lead to chronic stress and burnout (17).
Even regular, short breaks are able to help our brain recoup and maintain better focus going forward! (18).
Until Next Week,
Nic x
P.S. If you stop using your phone 30-60 minutes before going to bed, you’ll find sleeping a lot easier!
References.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645498/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627309010447?via%3Dihub
https://molecularbrain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13041-014-0065-y
Walker MP. Sleep essentialism. Brain. 2021;144:697–699. doi: 10.1093/brain/awab026.
Krause AJ, et al. The sleep-deprived human brain. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2017;18:404–418. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2017.55.
Thanks !