Stop killing your brain! (How you are, and how to protect it)

If you are approaching, or already forty plus years old, and still working at the rate you always have done, then you will be both killing off your brain, and putting your whole body into a state of stress.

Scientists have proven that as we approach our mid-years, we should only be working for a maximum of 3-5 hours a day / 25 hours a week. According to a report published by a team of researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia and Keio University in Japan, by the time people hit their 40th birthday, working more than 25 hours a week becomes too much for their brains to handle.

The team conducted reading, pattern and memory tests in more than 6,000 workers aged over 40, to see how the number of hours worked each week affects a person’s cognitive ability. Working 25 hours a week (part time or three days a week) was the optimum amount of time spent working a week for cognitive functioning.

What's happening when we hit 40?

The prefrontal cortex - the part of your brain responsible for cognitive function, basically anything that requires you to think, learn, recall, process, work things out, make judgement calls, control our impulses, only has a certain capacity per day, only has soy much capacity per day, and its this capacity that starts dropping off as we age.

The problem being if we go over that, if we max out that brain capacity, our brain switches over to the limbic system - the older more primitive part of the brain concerned with our primitive fight, flight and freeze responses.

When you are operating from a place of fear, you are on high alert high alert and all of your responses and behaviours are coming from that place. You are no longer operating from the cognitive (thinking) part of your brain, so are no longer able to make fully-formed judgements about what’s better or best , social judgements, and you are no longer to action ‘impulse control’ – control what you say or do, based on your thoughts.

Coupled with this you also now have a stress response in the body, with the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol being released. You also have another stress hormone norepinephrine which starts flooding the brain and leads to:

•    Confusion, ‘Foggy’ thinking

•    Poor motor coordination.

•    Loss of short-term or long-term memory.

•    Impaired judgment.

•    Low impulse control

 And in the Long term: 

•    Stress kills brain cells  

•    Stress shrinks the brain. – again it’s the prefrontal cortex! The area of the brain responsible for memory and learning.

Which also affects the body:

•    Lower immune function and bone density, 

•    Increase blood pressure, 

* Higher cholesterol and 

* Heart disease.

And ultimately leads to:

•    DEATH.

So what to do?...........

Not many of us can get by in life (and hold down a job) by packing up after three to five hours, and you may not even want to.

So here are my top tips to help you protect and preserve that vital brain energy, stop yourself from going into a constant state of stress, and stop killing those vital brain cells of yours.

1) Sleep: Make sure you're getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, if you're not, you're already starting the day in deficit.

2) Exercise: its recommended at least 3 x30 minutes of cardio per week. Weight lifting has also been shown to especially help women - increasing lower testosterone levels - which inturn boosts focus and motivation.

3) Work in blocks and breaks: scientists recommend working anywhere between 52 minutes - 90 minutes, with breaks of at least 10 minutes (and when I say break I mean complete break - not scrolling through social media or checking emails).

4) Go outside: Take a walk around the block, especially if you can get to see some trees, grass, plant your feet on the ground (lie down on the ground if at all possible!)

5) Talk to friends/ family/colleagues: a great one for boosting resilience and decreasing stress levels.

6) Meditate: fantastic for improving focus, learning, memory recall, as well as reducing stress and anxiety.

So even if you can't reduce your working hours down to 25 a week, you can protect and preserve your brain function as you work throughout the day.

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