deep thinking Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Study: A Day of Hard Thinking Can Lead to Bad Choices

AHA Publisher — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 07:24:55 +0000

Christine Ruggeri, CHHC via Dr. Axe – Have you ever noticed a feeling a brain fog and fatigue after a day of thinking hard? Perhaps after a difficult day at work or long test, your brain just feels … tired. A new study suggests that your body may be pushing you to make poor choices after a long day. It’s not that you’re being lazy or trying to punish yourself, but natural biological regulations are working to combat cognitive fatigue by favoring easy, short-term decision making. Study Findings: Thinking Hard Can Lead to Bad Choices A study published in August 2022 in Current Biology explored cognitive fatigue with magnetic resonance spectroscopy during a workday. This tool measures electromagnetic signals within metabolites of the brain. For the study, two groups of participants performed either high-demand or low-demand cognitive control tasks and economic decisions. Data showed that choice-related fatigue markers were only present in the high-demand group, and those participants were more likely to prefer short-delay and little-effort options during decision making. Researchers found that the hard thinking group displayed increased glutamate levels in the cognitive control region of the brain compared to the low-demand thinkers. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter (or chemical messenger) in the brain that has “excitatory effects,” meaning that it can actually excite cells to their death, according to prior research. Study data also shows that this glutamate increase triggers a natural regulation mechanism in the cognitive region of the brain, which reduces a person’s control over decision making. What It Means This study indicates that after a day of hard thinking, you may experience a reduced ability to make decisions, and your brain will prefer little-effort options. Because there’s a natural increase of glutamate levels in the brain after a day of intense thinking, it becomes more difficult to use the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain that controls our thoughts and decision making. We can learn from the study that it’s normal to feel brain fatigue after a day of hard thinking, and although we may not be aware of how tired our brains are, we should consider our abilities to make good decisions in these moments. Tips to Support Cognition Clearly, your brain is impacted by hard thinking and needs nourishment and rest to function optimally. Here are some tips to support cognition that you can practice every day: Eat nutrient-rich brain foods. Your diet has a tremendous impact on the health of your brain, so opt for foods that are rich in nutrients, including antioxidants, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Some of the best brain foods include avocado, berries, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, walnuts, coconut oil, bone broth and dark chocolate. Try nootropics. Nootropics are supplements that help cognitive function and support concentration. Some of the most popular nootropics include ginseng, ginkgo biloba, medicinal mushrooms, omega-3 fish oil, ashwagandha and vitamin B12. Get enough rest. It’s clear from this study that the brain needs time to rest. For starters, make sure you get enough sleep every night — at least seven hours is needed. It’s also important to take breaks throughout the day to reset and recover. This can include taking a leisurely walk outdoors, chatting with a loved one or sitting quietly over a cup of tea. Reduce stress. Stress increases cortisol levels, which impacts cognitive function, energy, sleep and more. When stress is chronic, or occurs daily, it can have a detrimental effect on your ability to think and make good decisions. Some effective ways to reduce stress include spending time outdoors, practicing meditation or quiet time, doing gentle exercise, and spending time with loved ones or pets. Move your body. Daily movement increases energy and cognition, improves sleep, and helps balance your hormones. Opt for at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. This can include walking, jogging, biking, swimming, dancing, lifting weights, yoga, pilates and more. Conclusion A study published in Current Biology indicates that after high-demand thinking the brain will experience fatigue, resulting in a preference for short-delay and little-effort options during decision making. Hard thinking increases neurotransmitters that excite brain cells, triggering a natural regulation system in the brain that can cause cognitive fatigue. As a result, people have a hard time making difficult decisions, sometimes without even noticing the difficulty. To avoid this brain fatigue, make sure you get enough rest and support your brain health with nutritious foods, proper sleep and exercise. To read the original article click here.

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Why Thinking Hard Makes You Tired

AHA Publisher — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 07:00:59 +0000

Cell Press via Newswise – It’s no surprise that hard physical labor wears you out, but what about hard mental labor? Sitting around thinking hard for hours makes one feel worn out, too. Now, researchers have new evidence to explain why this is, and, based on their findings, the reason you feel mentally exhausted (as opposed to drowsy) from intense thinking isn’t all in your head. Their studies, reported in Current Biology on August 11, show that when intense cognitive work is prolonged for several hours, it causes potentially toxic byproducts to build up in the part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. This in turn alters your control over decisions, so you shift toward low-cost actions requiring no effort or waiting as cognitive fatigue sets in, the researchers explain. “Influential theories suggested that fatigue is a sort of illusion cooked up by the brain to make us stop whatever we are doing and turn to a more gratifying activity,” says Mathias Pessiglione of Pitié-Salpêtrière University in Paris, France. “But our findings show that cognitive work results in a true functional alteration—accumulation of noxious substances—so fatigue would indeed be a signal that makes us stop working but for a different purpose: to preserve the integrity of brain functioning.” Pessiglione and colleagues including first author of the study Antonius Wiehler wanted to understand what mental fatigue really is. While machines can compute continuously, the brain can’t. They wanted to find out why. They suspected the reason had to do with the need to recycle potentially toxic substances that arise from neural activity. To look for evidence of this, they used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to monitor brain chemistry over the course of a workday. They looked at two groups of people: those who needed to think hard and those who had relatively easier cognitive tasks. They saw signs of fatigue, including reduced pupil dilation, only in the group doing hard work. Those in that group also showed in their choices a shift toward options proposing rewards at short delay with little effort. Critically, they also had higher levels of glutamate in synapses of the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Together with earlier evidence, the authors say it supports the notion that glutamate accumulation makes further activation of the prefrontal cortex more costly, such that cognitive control is more difficult after a mentally tough workday. So, is there some way around this limitation of our brain’s ability to think hard? “Not really, I’m afraid,” Pessiglione said. “I would employ good old recipes: rest and sleep! There is good evidence that glutamate is eliminated from synapses during sleep.” There may be other practical implications. For example, the researchers say, monitoring of prefrontal metabolites could help to detect severe mental fatigue. Such an ability may help adjust work agendas to avoid burnout. He also advises people to avoid making important decisions when they’re tired. In future studies, they hope to learn why the prefrontal cortex seems especially susceptible to glutamate accumulation and fatigue. They’re also curious to learn whether the same markers of fatigue in the brain may predict recovery from health conditions, such as depression or cancer. To read the original article click here.

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Daydreaming Can Improve Your Mental Health & Cognitive Flexibility

AHA Publisher — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 07:44:21 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Although it may seem contradictory, letting your mind daydream is actually really good for your mental health! In this podcast (episode #266) and blog, I talk about the many mental and physical health benefits of just letting your mind wander. The mind is always active (even when you are sleeping!), which means that even when you are not thinking about anything in particular, you are still thinking—the mind is still going about its business. Indeed, our minds are always time-travelling from the past to the present and back to the future. The great news is that you can be intentional about turning these “time-travel daydreaming moments” into what I call “thinker moments” – periods of time when you let your mind switch off to the external, switch onto the internal and just wander and daydream. Why do I call these “thinker” moments? This term is based on Auguste Rodin’s famous “The Thinker” sculpture—that incredibly heroic-looking figure with his hand pensively under his chin. When I first saw this statue, it felt almost imposing, and I thought to myself, “How could that act of just sitting there and thinking be so…formidable?”. The reality is that daydreaming, doodling and letting our minds wander is incredibly powerful. It is not what I have heard some people call “nonsense” or “distracted” thinking. When we daydream, we essentially reboot our mind, as I discuss in detail in my latest book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. This means you can use thinker moments to give your brain a rest and allow it to heal and reenergize, which increases your clarity of thought and organizes the networks of your brain. It does this by increasing and balancing alpha activity, which increases insight into what’s really going on in your mind and helps create an optimal state of relaxation and alertness, bridging the divide between the conscious and nonconscious mind. This puts you in a state of peacefulness, readiness and meditation, and increases delta activity, which helps to bring up suppressed thoughts. Thinker moments also increase beta activity, which is important for processing information, being alert and attentive, working through something challenging, focusing, and developing sustained attention. As a result, this balanced energy increases blood flow to the brain, which helps it function better and helps you deal with mental challenges and manage stress. The opposite happens if you don’t take regular thinker moments. Not giving the mind a rest and letting it daydream can reduce blood flow by up to 80 percent in the front of the brain, which can dramatically affect cognitive fluency and the efficient, associative thinking required at home, school or in the workplace. Cumulatively, this can lead to unprocessed thoughts and nightmares, affecting your overall quality of sleep, performance and mental health. The reality is that you cannot afford not to daydream! Now, you may be thinking, “All this sounds great, but how do I get my mind to just shut off and daydream? Where do I start?” Here’s how: To do a thinker moment, think of yourself as the actor, director, screenwriter and audience of a mental performance – your mental performance. Now, simply close your eyes and let your mind wander. You can start the process by intentionally thinking of something pleasant and meaningful, and then let this lead you into a flow of thoughts. Prompt yourself with topics you’d find rewarding to daydream about, like a pleasant memory, a future accomplishment, or an event you’re looking forward to. Be observant about what you are thinking about. Indeed, as you take a thinker moment, you may be surprised to notice what thoughts and feelings pop up from your nonconscious during these moments. Don’t panic, as this is perfectly normal! Just take note of them and plan to address them later—try to avoid ruminating on them and letting them interrupt your internal rest time. As you daydream, you can listen to some music, take a walk outside, or doodle. These moments can be anything from a short ten seconds to a full hour. Trust that it’s possible to have a good experience if you prime your brain with topics you find pleasant. This is something all of us can do once you have the concept; even a child can do this with instructions! Daydreaming makes sense to us, no matter our age. Lastly, try not to confuse planning things with thinking for pleasure! When I want to have a “thinker moment”, I personally like to just stop and stare out a window for a few seconds. I find this very helpful and invigorating—especially when I am really stressed or anxious, or in the middle of a busy work day. If possible, I also try to go outside; being in nature and getting that Vitamin D really takes that thinker moment to the next level! I really cannot recommend “thinker moments” enough—not just for your mental and physical health, but also your spiritual wellbeing! When you give our mind a rest by letting your mind wander and daydream, you essentially restart your brain and give yourself that edge you need, helping you get in touch with that deeper, nonconscious, almost spiritual part of you. These moments don’t just help improve mental health, they also help you get to know yourself on a deeper level. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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