Do you feel like your mental acuity is being diminished?

If you ever find yourself feeling like you haven’t been able to remember important information as easily as you used to, or your memory can’t keep up with some of the things that you’ve been doing, it could be some of the things that you are doing every single day affecting your brainpower.

We rely heavily on the things around us to provide us with information, but remember the days when you could spout your 12 times table with no issues?

Well, this list has put together some of the things that we are all guilty of that have affected our intelligence in a very negative way so that we can reverse the cycle and regain our mental acuity.

1. Overuse of Media Devices

Spending all of your time on your phone scrolling through Facebook and Instagram can take a massive toll on your intelligence. Buzzfeed articles aren’t exactly post-modern literature, and they don’t stretch your brain and develop your intelligence and can make your brain become used to switching off a lot faster than normal, reducing your attention span.

2. Multimedia Multitasking

Similar to the use of media devices, using many different media devices at one time can also work towards physically shrinking your brain. Neuroscientists have found that activities like watching TV whilst typing can lower the density in areas of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control.

3. Too Much TV

Within minutes of switching on your favourite TV drama, your brain starts to power down and doesn’t take in any information. This can massively affect your mental acuity and your brain’s capability to concentrate and take in vital information.

4. Googling It

Google can tell you anything, literally anything. The internet is an online encyclopaedia of all things in all areas and you can pull up any information in the blink of an eye. Still, this is making us feel a lot cleverer than what we really are. As well as this, the information we actually find may not be 100% correct.

5. Not Sleeping Enough

Sleep is vital for us to take in information and process memories and emotions. Sleep also helps our brains to focus and strategize, so a lack of it can be hugely damaging to us and our intelligence. The recommended amount of sleep for an adult is around 7-8 hours, yet a lot of people are perfectly happy to survive on 5 or 6, and sometimes even less.

6. Junk Food Diets

High fat and high sugar diets can cause serious damage to your cognitive functions and your ability to adjust and adapt to different situations, as well as the physical effect it has on your appearance.

As well as this, a recent study has found that high sugar diets can seriously affect your ability to remember things, which is vital for young, learning minds.

7. Over-Exercising

Too much exercise makes you physically exhausted, and this can cause mental fatigue as well as physical. It is so common in today’s society that young people push themselves way too far in the gym so that they look like the cover of a magazine, but this can massively affect your memory, cognitive functions, and generally your mental acuity.

References:

  1. Harvard

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Abirame

    My goodness i have been losing my brain power and reducing my mental abilities.. This really is an eye opener. I will make sure i stop or reduce these unhealthy habits and find out my real true potential and capabilities. Thank you Francesca ! 🙂

  2. isha

    but in reality i am still browsing reading this article:( !

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