Oxygenating our brains favours creativity, learning, attention, and coping with stress in the best possible way. With a calm mind, we will have less difficulty falling asleep, making decisions and developing our greatest potential in the day’s activities.
It is essential to take into account the hours in which we are connected in front of the screen, our mental health depends on it. The infinite amount of information that we get on the screens fill us with mental noise that is interpreted in our unconscious as a constant threat, added to our own personal issues that demand our attention, and all this together, form a great cataract of concerns that remain there without us noticing, without giving any respite to our psyche.
Next, I will detail the advantages and activities that we can do to favour this respite, or digital disconnection pauses, that our mind needs, and that will be key to have as a result, a better performance, both physically, cognitively and emotionally, keeping our mind healthy, and calmer in the maelstrom of our days, where the rush and the instantaneous always prevails.
Advantages of digital disconnection
Doing physical activity
In our current times, digital connection is our best ally. Whatever we undertake, it leads us to be sedentary for hours at our jobs, at school, at home watching a marathon series at the weekend, or surfing the net for hours. We even use the car so we don’t even walk 10 blocks. All of this leads us to lose sight of the fact that weeks and months go by, almost without us getting out of our chairs.
When we are forced to briskly walk a few blocks, we realise that we are out of shape and lacking in exercise, something that, as research shows, affects not only physical health but also cognitive abilities.
Kirk Erickson of the University of Pittsburgh, one of the foremost experts on the relationship between exercise and brain function, followed adults in good cognitive health for years. The study consisted of observing the brains of the volunteers through high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging, assessing various cognitive patterns and recording whether they were physically active.
The results led to the conclusion that the more physical activity, the lower the risk of cognitive decline over time. It was also observed that the more a person walked, the more grey matter he or she would have a decade later, in brain regions essential for memory and cognition.
It was also found that when sedentary adults start exercising, even after the age of 65, their brains benefit as well.
On the other hand, results showed how cardiorespiratory exercise (brisk walking, running, cycling and almost any other exercise that gets the heart rate up) is good for the body and for slowing cognitive changes in the brain in older age.
The researchers found that cardiorespiratory exercise was associated with a greater volume of grey matter and according to one of the specialists, the most striking feature of the study is the effect of exercise on brain structures involved in cognition.
Engaging in aerobic movement (walking, running, swimming, cycling, dancing, etc.) for at least 30 minutes, three times a week, allows us to
- Increase the level of blood, oxygen and glucose pumping to the brain.
- Improve cardiovascular functioning
- Improve cognitive-executive abilities
- Strengthen muscles and bones
- Regulate appetite
- Positively change the type of blood fat.
- Improve the immune system
- Protect us from oxidative stress.
Tips for exercising the body
- Part of our well-being also depends on getting our body moving.
- If you can’t go for a walk or don’t own a treadmill, walking or marching in place.
- For those who say they get bored, this can be done while watching a series, a film, chatting with someone, during a video call to a friend, or watching videos of landscapes or cities as if you were walking through them. The latter allows the brain to relax.
- If you don’t have 30 minutes at a time, you can divide the exercise into three daily sessions of 10 minutes each.
- If you are not used to movement at first, consider two sessions of 5 or 10 minutes a day, and then gradually increase the time until you reach 30 minutes.
- Instead of walking, play music and move to the rhythm of the music.
- Cycling
- Use an alarm to remind you to do physical activity
- Another essential activity that I mention below is a great help to disconnect
Listening to music will give us a sense of place.
Music can affect our mood and the way we perceive the world.
At this stage where pleasure and brain, we cannot leave out something, which we human beings like very much, such as music.
This topic is also of interest to neuroscientists, as it seems that when we listen to happy music, a chemical bath of pleasure neurotransmitters is produced in our brain, which leads us to feel happy or change our mood when we feel frustrated or angry.
Among the many investigations, researcher Jolij J. Meurs of the Department of Psychology at the University of Groningen has found that music has a very important effect on perception.
In the summary of his work, Meurs and his team present that the way we perceive the world depends not only on what we know about it, but also on the way we feel about it. In this study, they explored the relationship between mood and perception. Our brain constantly compares information coming in through the senses with information stored in memory, but it also uses an anticipatory mechanism, anticipating what is to come. This mechanism is what makes the perception of an event unique and personal.
With this work, it was found that the brain not only stores expectations on the basis of experience, but that it can also be influenced by mood and interfered with by a stimulus such as music.
In other words, the music we listen to may affect the way we perceive the world.
An interesting study, conducted at Monash University in Victoria, Australia, presented the relationship between music, emotional state and stress. In this research, two groups of students were asked to write a speech. One group was left to work in silence, the other was given background music.
The blood pressure and pulse rate of the students who worked in silence showed an increase due to the stress of the task, but the same was not true for those who listened to music, whose vital signs remained more stable.
From all these studies we can reflect on the value of music in the different environments in which we develop, such as educational, work and personal spaces, and generate constructive emotional states that help to reduce stress.
Getting the right amount of sleep
A good quality and quantity of nocturnal sleep is an essential factor in allowing human beings to function properly during the day.
Dr. Logatt Grabner, president of Asociación Educar Argentina para el Desarrollo Humano, presents the importance of taking care of ourselves and others, highlighting the importance of sleep as something very important for human beings. However, it is something that many of us neglect.
Research shows that, in today’s life, there is a great decrease in the amount of sleep, even in children. Studies suggest that the effect of restricted sleep may affect alertness and complex tasks that require executive control. The value of executive functions without adequate sleep will be impaired.
The scientific study of sleep has been called Chronobiology, and is the study of circadian cycles, which I will detail below.
To understand what Circadian Rhythms are, we must remember that human beings are diurnal beings. That is, during the day, we should be active, work, study, reproduce, etc., and at night, we should sleep.
Our body temperature does not remain stable throughout the day, but oscillates in the course of the daytime and nighttime hours. The same happens to all our vital parameters (heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose level, etc.).
These oscillations are our circadian rhythms and their function is to adapt these vital parameters to the cycles of light and darkness. In short, to prepare us for activity during the day and rest at night.
I would like to emphasise that if we do not have a good rest, we are violating the orderly need of the circadian rhythm to adapt our vital functions, at whatever time of the day or night we are in the middle of the day or night.
Respecting the circadian rhythm is fundamental for our vital organic and cerebral functions, which will result in better performance in learning and memory.
These rhythms are regulated by an ‘internal’ clock that is the ‘orchestra conductor’ of all our circadian rhythms, including the sleep-wake rhythm, which is so necessary when we wake up or fall asleep.
But there is a controversial situation in our internal clock, because this clock is ‘soft’, i.e. our internal clock can be modulated by the environment and culture. This rhythm can be modified or adapted to the environment, i.e. with the use of blue light from screens, we are disorienting our internal clock, sending it signals that it is time to get up by the light emitted which is the same as sunlight, and in reality, we are in a night of ‘marathons of series on some platform’. This is why it is very difficult to fall asleep when we wake up with movies.
All screens (mobile phones, computers, televisions, tablets, etc.) have a bluish colour that acts on our internal clock, delaying the time at which it should send us the sleep signal and send us to sleep. For this reason, there are sleep hygiene recommendations, which indicate that there should be no screens of any kind in the room where we sleep, and at least two hours before going to bed, not to look at screens, … A difficult task nowadays!
The most powerful signal for our internal clock is sunlight, which signals us to get active in the early hours of the day and feel sleepy at night.
Adults should get 8 hours of sleep This means that the nervous system devotes one third of our lives to this function. Clearly, this sleep function is very necessary. Despite its great importance, our society does not pay enough attention to it. Why is that?
Probably because no one throughout our family, primary, elementary, secondary, tertiary or university education has ever explained to us its importance.
A good night’s sleep, in the hours where our circadian cycle sends us to sleep is essential, and helps us to have a good emotional state the next day, not to be irritated by bad sleep, is key to our executive tasks the next day, in addition to achieving a good performance, achieving learning, attention and creativity stages.
We have the belief that sleep is a passive phenomenon, but in reality it is quite the opposite, when we sleep, our entire nervous system is turned on for the connection of neurons, where cognitive restructuring occurs, regenerating cellular tissues that were used in the day.
It has been studied that total lack of sleep for seven consecutive nights can lead to death. Our immune system is lowered to such an extent that any disease, virus, bacteria or fungus can cause death.
To give an example, if you go seven nights without sleep, these three events will occur
- We lose control of our body temperature regulation.
- We begin to lose weight despite eating normally
- Finally, we suffer from immunosuppression (loss of our immune system).
For this reason, I emphasise the importance of sufficient sleep, since a human being can die more quickly from lack of sleep than from lack of food.
Practising silence, silencing our mind
Another important activity is to be aware that our mind is made to think, it is necessary to realise and observe that it is full of thoughts, which wander from thought to thought constantly, and never stop in the present, in the here and now.
We live in a world full of worries, pending tasks, and on top of that we get caught in the traps of the mind, which is always thinking about the uncertain future, about something that happened and that we can no longer modify, and also, about supposed assumptions that our beliefs maintain mentally. These assumptions where we constantly compare ourselves with others, without realising that each person has their own experiences, their own beliefs, their own upbringing. These are the factors that form their own mental models and are related to their actions.
For this, it is necessary to disconnect with the outside and connect with ourselves, with what we feel, to identify our body’s emotions, and to be aware of how we are thinking.
Thus, I suggest getting into the habit of learning to meditate on a recurring basis. The practices of mindfulness or meditation will help us to quiet all thoughts, clarifying our ideas, and consequently, it will give us that security and mental clarity to continue with what we are doing, after this pause.
Flowing in the present, will enrich your attention, if we go from one task to another constantly, we will not be able to finish any of them, and this way of thinking rambling, demands a lot of energy for our brain, so we will end up overwhelmed and in the middle of the road.
To end this article, I want to highlight the importance of ‘Focusing on one task at a time’, as it has many benefits, and I detail them below
- Getting our tasks done.
- Optimize our time with results.
- Mental clarity
- To have more decision-making power
- Feeling less overwhelmed by unfinished tasks
- We will not be so mentally tired
- Feeling of gratitude for ‘having done it’
- Have a good memory, remember things in detail.
- Being able to learn easily
- Having mindfulness
With a healthy and calm mind, we will feel that sense of well-being and we will be able to perform our executive functions optimally, going through moments of stress and stress.
