Neurons (the cells which make up our brain) are like other cells – they are living with their own metabolism. They need oxygen and glucose to work and survive and when they’ve been working hard (thinking, concentrating, remembering, coping) they experience fatigue. When our neurons are fatigued, we will feel it too, our brain will work slower, make mistakes and struggle to keep up. So this might mean we can’t find the right word, we don’t have the energy to control our temper and we might be irritable, we lack motivation and importantly we go for easy options such as cake not fruit (to get that glucose), bed not a book (to restore our reserves) and we start yawning (to get more oxygen).
All this sounds quite common sense doesn’t it? So, why, then are we so poor at recognising when our brain is fatigued? We are quick to notice when we’re physically exhausted, and we would often adjust our activities to suit; we might have a nap, take the weight off our legs, choose not to drive and other sensible decisions. I think, like everything to do with the brain, we just don’t understand it well enough. And because we (normal people) don’t understand it, we don’t think about it, don’t notice it and rarely make allowances for it. We just assume it will keep going regardless. Until it lets us down, and we fall asleep at the wheel, we say something nasty we didn’t mean to a loved one, or we stay up all night working inefficiently, ruining a piece of work because we can’t see that taking some time to recover might be provide a better return on time investment.
So what can we do to fight fatigue? Here I’ve written my 9 top tips for beating fatigue:
1. Avoid multi-tasking – if we ask our brain to concentrate on multiple things at once it simply does both tasks to a poorer level and runs out of resources quicker. So turn off the TV if you’re studying, don’t call your mum while you’re cooking and don’t have the music on when you’re parking.
2. Become more aware of your brain’s energy levels. I talk about mindfulness below as a way to relax but psychologists believe the true value of mindfulness is in becoming aware of your body and your mind. Taking time to notice your mind racing, and when it’s settled means that you become skilled at that, and when you notice is racing again you can quickly adjust your actions to help your brain and body out.
3. Help teach your mind to switch off. You can do this with mindfulness, or meditation, even yoga, which allows you to ground your mind and stay in the present. Ultimately, this is relaxation, and you can find your own way to do that, but thousands of people all over the world have found the practices above the most useful, and you don’t have to spend money to do it thanks to apps, YouTube and the rest of the internet.
4. Drink water, your brain needs it.
5. Eat slow release carbs, your brain needs them.
6. Avoid stimulants like caffeine, drugs and sugar because whilst they might give your brain cells a bit of a lift short term, the levels quickly drop and often to even lower levels than at the start.
7. Get some fresh, outdoor air, your brain needs the oxygen.
8. Instead of multi-tasking try change-tasking. Switch your tasks. This is because if your brain has been concentrating on one type of task, it will be using only certain regions of the brain, and they are the ones which are fatigued. By changing the nature of the task, (i.e from essay writing to cooking), you’re likely to be using different areas of the brain which are less fatigued and this then gives the rest of the brain time to recover.