How many of you came to school today and couldn't remember my name? Or your schedule, or what you even did in Science two weeks ago? Why can't we just step right back in to our routines? Your brain is amazing and here are some reasons why taking a break, forgetting things, is actually helpful to your brain: 1. Your brain does more creative work when you are tired. If you’re tired, your brain is not as good at filtering out distractions and focusing on a particular idea. It’s also a lot less efficient at remembering connections between ideas or concepts. These are both good things when it comes to creative work, since this kind of work requires us to make new thoughts, be open to new ideas and think in new ways. So a tired, fuzzy brain is much more use to us when working on creative projects. 2. Stress can shrink your brain. Stress can change our brain. 3. Naps improve your day to day performance. Apparently, napping actually helps our brain to solidify memories: Let’s look at that in a graph – the people who took a nap, were able to wildly outperform those who didn’t. It’s like they had a fresh start: Taking a nap also helps to clear information out of your brain’s temporary storage areas, getting it ready for new information to be absorbed. The really interesting part of this study is that at 6p.m. that night the napping group performed better than those who didn’t take a nap. In fact, the napping group actually performed better than they had earlier in the morning. 4. Exercise can reorganize the brain and boost your willpower. Apparently there’s a link between exercise and mental alertness, in a similar way that happiness and exercise are related. If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also repairing element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That’s why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy. It takes our brains a while to process lots of information, and you are processing lots of information each day! So give yourself a break if you forget how to do a little science, or you can't remember how to write a clause, or even remember my name....Mrs. Taylor....Your brain needs periods of rest from routine and the normal so you can learn better, learn more and be smarter. Really!
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |