A doctor has shared how to help prevent ‘brain fatigue’ caused by staring at screens all day.
Neuroscientist Dr Rachel Barr issued the advice in a post on her popular TikTok @drrachelbarr.
“What happens to your brain if you’re staring at screens all day without taking a break?” she quizzed followers. Well, quite a lot, as it turns out.
The expert explained: “Brain cells, or neurons, are hungry little creatures. They don’t just work for nothing. They do it because they expect a copious amount of oxygen and glucose in return.
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking more screen time, more work, more oxygen and glucose. But actually, the brain’s total fuel requirements remain relatively stable even after particularly cognitively demanding days. That is because the brain can shuffle resources around to whichever structures and regions need it most.”
“The thing is most of our evolution our daily tasks were much more varied,” she continued. “This system of shuffling resources to the structures and regions of the brain that need them most worked because we were using different structures and regions from one task to the next. Even tracking a woolly mammoth for days on end is ostensibly more varied cognitively than navigating a screen for eight hours a day.”
As Dr Rachel explained, this means screen-heavy days can impact the brain.
“The thing is neurons don’t just eat. They also do the other thing, which is fine. The brain has its own like cleanup team to change that litter tray periodically, but they can only work so quickly.
“If you’re using the same structures for like nine hours a day, and by the way also taking your breaks by doing a very similar cognitive task looking at a screen, it accumulates faster than they can clear it away, and when those waste products accumulate they can produce a feeling of like brain fatigue or existential despair, left to stew in their own filth for long enough on a consistent basis that can also ostensibly damage the neurons.”
Fortunately, there is a solution. “Worry not,” said the expert. “You can help your brain’s clean up team with that litter box situation by simply taking breaks every hour or so. Even five to fifteen minutes is enough.”