Brain fog is one of the most irritating things to deal with.
Yet, if you work in a creative business, whether it is writing novels, making drawings, or producing music beats, then there is a high chance you will find yourself unable to concentrate for wide spans of time.
If you are interested in how to have an insanely productive morning, we already have that covered, but for now, we will focus on the mind.
So, why does your mind get so foggy and what can you do about it so that you can get back to your most productive self?
Your mind gets fogged due to chemical imbalance caused by electromagnetic radiation, hormonal changes, and insufficient rest cycles. These are the more common causes of mind fog amongst younger people. These effects are caused by life styles, so this is a biopsychosocial disease of sorts. For older people, it can be the same thing, except the mind is losing some of it’s functions meaning healing takes longer.
That is the broad strokes of what causes this phenomenon.
At 19, I used to suffer so often from brain fog, but today, I never experience the scenario. The reason being, I learned to understand brain fog, and just how to permanently deal with it.
Before we can get to the cures, we must first understand a few things. Let’s get into the article with:
What Is Brain Fog?
Brain fog syndrome is when your mind starts to feel clustered with fog, leading to you thinking slowing down to the point where you struggle to remember things, you can’t focus, concentrate, and as a result, you are constantly confused.
Brain fog basically is when your mind feels full of air, and fog.
You may feel like a balloon blown to the max, and could even feel that “fog” pushing your eyes, and ears. As a result, you can’t focus on the things you see or hear, because you the thoughts feel like they must travel sluggishly through the fog in your mind.
For me, it used to follow days of suffering from light headedness when I stand. Light headedness is caused by the blood in your body pooling to your feet when you stand, meaning the blood is not going into your mind.
This leads to your head feeling light, and you may faint. As you can tell, this could lead to similar consequences to brain fog.
Brain fog is the worst because it can follow especially when you are trying to focus on working on your creative tasks. Creative tasks tend to take a long time to complete, meaning you sit down for a long time exposed to electromagnetic radiation.
It can lead to brain fog.
Possible etiologies for the brain fog were identified including undertreated mood disorder; possible sleep disorder; and changes in eating patterns, which prompted referrals to a psychologist, sleep disorder specialist, and a registered dietitian respectively
Krishnan. k, lin. y.f, prewitt k.r.m, potter .d.a, Multidisciplinary approach to brain fog and related persisting symptoms post covid-19
The above quote is taken from a study on brain fog; what causes them, and the solutions for each.
The study advises a 4 stage process to fixing brain fog; first, ruling out neurological causes for brain fog.
Second, an evaluation for (1) cognition, (2) neuroinflammation markers, (3) psychological factors, and (4) sleep disorders.
Third, decide what to do next (whether to get professional help or not) depending on your position; your medical and psychiatric history, current symptoms, your goals and motivation to improve (wanting to improve so you can get to working quickly, or improving so you can live your life better in the long run), and your limitations (financial or obligational schedules).
Finally, fourth, if you decide to go to a psychiatrist, they should keep in mind referrals to specialist as outlined by these things you just dotted down, or better yet, they should be writing it down themselves.
For a more in depth reading of the study, click here.
What Are 6 Possible Causes For Brain Fog?
There are 6 possible causes for brain fog, specifically for creatively inclined professions:
- A terrible sleep schedule: If your mind is not getting enough rest, then it is no wonder that you can barely concentrate on anything. Your body needs to rest your mind for your blood to be able to circulate properly in your brain. So, this is an important event for you.
- Electromagnetic radiation: This one is basically the use of things like laptops, cellphones, or TV. There are many reasons why this is the case, but for me I think that the reason why this hurts creative minds the mind is because the overstimulation electromagnetic radiation causes. It leads to an overworking of the dopamine factors, lowering attention span. On top of that, .
- Stress: This one is similar to the above point. You are excessively using your mind when you stress, and not allowing it to recharge. When you do this, you ar depleting your limited willpower reserves, and without replenishing your willpower reserves, or training your will power muscles, you will constantly forget things. Your mind will be stretched to the limit.
- Diet: The diet is also important for obvious reasons. You want foods that encourage your mind growing, and your thinking improving. Some diets can make you feel sluggish and sleepy.
- Hormonal changes: Hormonal changes are pretty obvious. Your hormones ar the juice that allow you to feel energized. On top of that, they allow you concentrate. If your hormones on thrown of due to whatever reasons, you energy reserves, and your concentration will suffer. This means your focus will suffer, and finally, you won’t be able to conentrate. If you are at a change that is known for hormonal changes, it would be useful to book an appointment with a doctor and get them to givev your prescriptions that will help you concentrate better.
- Depression/anxiety: Depression, and anxiety both work the same as hormonal changes. They lead to hormonal changes in our body, and if you want to not suffer from these, then you should again consult a doctor about these feelings.
Does Brain Fog Go Away?
Brain Fog does go away with enough time.
If you are younger, than brain fog should leave with a few hours, or days.
Sometimes though, brain fog can last for weeks, and even worse, it could last for months. However, no matter how long, brain fog usually goes away.
If you find that you have brain fog, and it won’t go away for months, then you should really see a doctor. Prolonged brain fog can lead to things like Alzheimer, and Parkinson’s disease.
However, there are ways you could treat your brain fog. Before you go to the doctor, try out these techniques to calm your brain fog.
How Do You Calm Brain Fog?
There are at least 6 steps you could take to try and cure your brain fog.
- Decrease your screentime
- Do manual labor
- Do stress management techniques
- Go for A run in the sun
- Sleep for 7-8 hours
- Change your diet to be more green
What Is The Fastest Way To Cure Brain Fog?
The fastest way to get rid of brain fog is to do physical activities outside, and to do isolated mental activities.
Personally, the technique that I used to clear my brain fog was 2 fold.
First, it had to get my body physically active. Secondly, it had to isolate my mind and get me to think seriously.
For the first one, I want a physical activity that is not to strenuous. So, I may go for a walk, preferably through the forest or somewhere green.
I might cap it of with a light swim, or bath. The reason for this is that when my head is underwater, I do not feel the mind fog as much, and I like that feeling.
Then, I move on to the second part, which is isolating the mind.
To isolate the mind, it means I want to do an activity that only requires I use the mind, and maybe eyes. No other body part, such as hands (like typing requires you too). The only activity I can think of that satisfies this is reading a paperback book.
So, I will often sit on my bed, and open a book, then start reading. I will be deliberate in my attempts to concentrate, and may even treat it light a workout session, meaning I will do reps, and sets using page numbers. (read 3 page numbers, rest, then read another 3 pages.)
Finally, I make sure to stay away from all phones, and laptops.
When I implement these three things, brain fog often leaves my by the time I wake up the following day. Or in 2 days time.
If you implement these, you will take wide strides to mastering mastery.