53: 3 Things Everyone Should Know About Brain Fog

Have you ever asked yourself why…

“Is my memory so bad?”
“Do I have trouble focusing?”
“Does my thinking feel so inefficient or foggy?”

Your brain can do amazing things… but there’s a lot going on in your brain! There are a whole host of reasons that your thinking might not be at maximum efficiency.

Today I’ll explain the three causes of brain fog, and practical strategies to boost your mental resources and get your thinking back on track!

Why I Spent About a Million Years In School

As you probably know by now, I love brains.

I went to school for what felt like a million years – plus or minus a few – to become a neuropsychologist. That’s a smarty pants word to say that brains are my jam! I’ve worked in hospitals all across the country, working with folks who had different injuries and illnesses that impact their brains like strokes or dementia.

Part of my job was learning specific tasks that show what parts of your brain are doing what they’re supposed to do, and what parts might not be working the way they should. Here’s your second smarty pants word of the day – it’s called neuropsychological testing.

So there I was, out of school, doing what I love to do, working in a neurology team at a hospital with folks with a variety of illnesses or injuries to their brains.

But…

I quickly realized that the other half of patients that I met, I had no clue what was going on and why they were reporting trouble thinking.

They hadn’t bonked their head, they had no underlying illness, nothing was wrong with their brains. So what the heck was up?

Here’s a typical scenario…

A woman in her late 30s comes into my office, super healthy from a brain health perspective (even on the tests we did she was in tip top mental shape), but she tells me…
“I can’t remember anything.
I always forget where I’ve put my keys, or my phone, or both!
My kids have to ask me things over and over.
I keep messing up and making errors at work.
What is going on?”

So she’s fine… right? But how could I explain her complaints?

So I dive a little deeper. This woman:

works as a senior manager for a busy tech company
is working long hours, and even when she’s home she’s still working
puts her kids to bed and then she’s right back to her computer
worries about her aging parents
her husband also works and her kids have sports practice almost every night
to top it all off, her sleep is garbage, she eats at her desk, and the last time she went to the gym was over a year ago

You’re probably not surprised that she feels burnt out and is forgetting things, right? But keep in mind, it’s easy to see problematic patterns in others, but it’s not as easy to see them in ourselves.

Let Me Ask You This – Are you

lacking sleep?
thinking about all the stuff you have to get done all the time?
feeling like your brain is always on the go?

Answer yes to any of these questions? That’s okay, we all did.

Your brain resources are actually limited, and all of those things on your to do list are taking up resources.

So, when you’re thinking about getting to soccer practice on time or what’s for dinner, all those decisions use up brain resources.

Your Brain’s Priority is Keeping You Alive

Luckily, your brain’s main priority is keeping you alive. Thanks brain! Your brain keeps you walking, talking, breathing, as well as the million other things it takes to make sure you’re still kickin’ it.

But, when your resources are spent, you start to notice changes like:

foggy thinking
stumbling over words
getting distracted
forgetting about things
or making silly mistakes that you normally wouldn’t do

Here’s the annoying part – if you’re an ambitious overachiever or a bit of perfectionist, it’s tough to have these ‘off’ days. Then, when you start stressing over the mistakes you’ve made, you’re actually more likely to mess up again, and again.

It’s On The Tip Of My Tongue…

You’ve probably had that experience trying to remember someone’s name. It’s on the tip of your tongue…but nope, can’t think of it. Then, hours later, it comes to you.

When you’re trying really hard to remember information, it actually inhibits the surrounding neurons in that part of your brain. (FYI – neurons are responsible for sending messages in your brain and body). This means that when you’re focusing too hard, it actually makes it harder for those neurons to get activated, so it’s harder for those memories or information to come to you.

While you’re thinking “I don’t want to…

mess up,
make a mistake,
or say the wrong thing.”

…your brain is

getting stressed and overwhelmed
making it tough for neurons to fire

So, you actually end up making more mistakes.

Your brain actually works best when you just let it do its thing!

3 Common Situations That Lead To Brain Fog

1. Being too busy & the overloaded to do list

I know you’re dealing a million things:

Kids
Work
Family
Chores
Life
Friends
Everything in between

On top of that, you put pressure on yourself to do even more.

Your inner perfectionist tells you that you’re not doing good if you’re not busy, and society has told us that we should be busy all the time.

Busy is the new normal. But that’s not a good thing!

Because we need to be busy all the time, we tend to feel guilty when we relax for a minute or two. This means our brains are always going, without the chance to rest and rejuvenate, so we end up with depleted mental resources.

Then what happens?

You get forgetful
Distracted
Your thinking is less efficient

This leads to making more mistakes!

2. Emotional stress from your inner people pleaser

Your inner people pleaser is the one who doesn’t want to let others down.

Back in the caveman days, your inner people pleaser would have thrived because it was important to be liked by everyone, otherwise you were kicked out of the cave!

This inner people pleaser has evolved over time and now our brains are convinced that we need to worry about what other people think.

This has put a ton of pressure on us and that eats up our brain resources, which lead to

Foggy thinking
Making mistakes
Memory errors
Trouble concentrating

3. Not taking care of your body

Your brains and body are strongly connected, so what impacts one is going to impact the other.

Think of a time you had the flu – your body felt like crap, but you might have noticed that your thinking sucked too.

That’s because when your body isn’t in good health, your brain won’t be in good health either. If your resources are being used to help us get over this crappy cold, then there’s none left for your brain to remember where you put your phone or focus on that super boring work memo you’re reviewing.

In the short term, your brain is adaptable, and it can handle one or two late nights to finish that project or an extra chore. But the problem is, one or two nights can turn into many, and this can eventually become a chronic problem.

Research says that if you’re getting less than 7-9 hours of sleep

your thinking efficiency goes down
your memory is impacted
you’re not as good at problem solving
you get really distracted
And your thinking is not efficient

Diet is also really important for brain efficiency. What goes into our body fuels your brain! That means that coffee and granola bars isn’t going to cut it.

Being dehydrated by just 2% can also reduce your thinking efficiency! Water is just as important as the food we’re putting in our bodies.

So, What Can You Do About Brian Fog?

If you’re young and otherwise healthy, there’s probably nothing wrong with your brain. It’s just a matter of recharging brain resources.

Start simple!

Focus on your health – especially sleep and diet.
Take real breaks – your brain needs some off time to recharge.
Cut down the to-do list – Prioritizing the tasks on your list can really help to accomplish it. (Check out episode #5 of The Bold Life podcast about why a giant to-do list can be setting you up for failure!)
Do things that are fun for your brain – bonus: this can help you live longer too! Our brains like doing things we enjoy, like hobbies, and it recharges our resources.

Show Highlights

[03:13] How I was confident in my work and how that changed.

[05:30] The story of a client who had memory loss because of a stressful lifestyle.

[07:41] First mistakes and signs of brain burnout.

[09:20] Why we can’t remember facts when we are stressed out.

[10:47] How somatic cognitive symptoms can affect brain efficiency.

[11:30] Five elements that can overwhelm our brain and cause brain fog.

[13:55] Emotional stress from our people pleaser perspective creates brain fog.

[17:34] Our brains can adapt for short term, but will be affected by long term stress.

[20:11] Following a healthy lifestyle for good brain function.

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