12 Uncomfortable Facts About Your Brain You’ll Wish Weren’t True, According To Neuroscientist
Brain and mental health truths you won't like, but need to hear.
Lifestock | Canva As a psychologist and neuroscientist with over two decades of research, I’m shocked by all the pseudoscience and misinformation on the internet about the brain and mental health.
The truth is: Brain health doesn’t have to be complicated, even though the brain is the most complex organ we know.
Here are 12 uncomfortable facts about your brain you’ll wish weren’t true:
1. Water does more for your brain than fancy supplements
Your brain is over 70% water, and the fluids in your brain are vital for its function. If you want your brain to work at full power, hydrate properly.
Many people are dehydrated — not in a medical or life-threatening sense, but their hydration level is insufficient for optimal brain function.
2. Sleep should be your top priority
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Sleep influences any function you can think of: memory, attention, problem-solving, decision-making, emotion regulation, appetite, you name it.
You’ve probably noticed that after a bad night, it’s hard to concentrate, you tend to overreact to emotional triggers, or feel hungrier than usual. This immediately shows you the importance of sleep.
Plus: While asleep, your brain cleans itself of waste and toxic proteins. That’s your glymphatic system at work. It’s like a waste disposal system on autopilot that keeps your brain healthy.
This cleaning process protects you from neurodegeneration and diminishes your risk for dementia and other diseases. And don’t fall into the trap of sacrificing sleep to have more waking hours and get more done. It doesn’t work this way. If you’re sleep deprived, you won’t be able to perform at your best.
3. Not all stress is bad for you
I used to think stress was bad, and most people would agree. But: That’s not true. Stress isn’t necessarily bad. It’s a tool that activates your organism. Mild to moderate stress is beneficial and helps you achieve optimal performance.
Imagine how boring your life would be without stress. You would be stagnating. It represents the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which illustrates the relationship between stress level and performance.
It shows:
- When your stress level is low, your performance is low. You’re not activated or energized enough to perform.
- When your stress level is high, your performance is low, too. You’re too overwhelmed to perform.
- The sweet spot lies at an intermediate stress level: You feel challenged and energized but not overwhelmed, and your performance is optimal.
But you must change your mindset and acknowledge that stress benefits you.
Think of it as a challenge or growth opportunity rather than a threat, and channel the energy from your stress reaction into doing something productive to achieve your goals.
4. A walk in nature solves most of your problems
Whether you feel tired, unable to concentrate, or are chewing forever on a problem, a walk will clear your mind. It’s like a reset button for your brain. Science is only starting to discover the fantastic potential of walking for your brain and mental health.
If possible, walk in a green, natural environment. Walking is generally excellent, but its restorative potential is maximal in a natural environment.
Positive side effects: You get more steps in, regulate your internal clock thanks to natural light exposure (so, if possible, walk without sunglasses), and produce vitamin D.
5. Many health and fitness coaches are wrong
They praise exercise and diet, and the better ones also focus on optimizing sleep. While these are essential pillars for a healthy life, a fundamental one is missing: social relations.
Relationships are crucial for long-term (mental) health and dementia prevention. Their potential and importance are still underestimated.
A 2015 study shows that loneliness poses a health risk comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Be aware, though: Loneliness and being alone are different things.
- Someone can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.
- Someone can be alone but not feel lonely.
6. Brain health and gut health are directly related
Research shows a bidirectional link between the gut and the brain. The gut microbiota (a mix of microorganisms living in your gastrointestinal tract) influences brain function and mental health.
An unhealthy gut makes you depressed, sick, and miserable. Don’t expect to feel great if you neglect your gut health. What improves gut health?
- Consume more prebiotics (found in chicory root, garlic, asparagus, and other plant sources).
- Consume more probiotics (found in fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and more).
- Eat a balanced diet rich in nutrients and fiber.
- Reduce alcohol, sugar, and highly processed foods and beverages.
- Hydrate properly.
- Avoid excessive hygiene.
- Take antibiotics only when necessary.
- Manage stress.
The link between gut and brain health is still an emerging research field, but the evidence is promising.
7. Growth happens in your discomfort zone
Your brain is wired for survival above all else. It loves predictability and certainty. If you want to grow rather than only survive, you must step out of your comfort zone and stop playing it safe.
Fear and discomfort aren’t signals to stop. They’re signals to pay attention.
8. Toxic positivity harms your mental health
Negative emotions aren’t your enemies. Feeling sad, angry, or afraid is normal. Allow your emotions to happen instead of suppressing them. Suppressing your negative emotions has devastating long-term consequences:
- In the short run, it increases stress reactivity (a stressor will activate your nervous system more than it would without previous emotion suppression).
- In the long run, it leads to poor health outcomes, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
So: Use your emotions as signals instead of fighting them.
9. Excessive scrolling on social media destroys your brain
It leads to a decreased attention span, increased distractibility, and wrecks your brain’s reward system. Social media displays of polished perfection also generate a false image that everybody except you is perfect and has an ideal life, which is detrimental to your well-being.
So: Establish clear boundaries for your social media use and stick to them. And when you’re not using your phone, leave it out of sight, ideally in another room, to regain your focus. I wrote an article about this topic in case you want to know more:
10. Recovery is as important as hard work
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Prioritizing recovery is essential for mental health and productivity. Rest is not laziness. It keeps your brain healthy and prevents burnout.
Your brain function isn’t linear across the day. Regular breaks will make you more productive than powering through.
Don’t treat rest as a reward for work. It’s a requirement to do your best work.
11. Multitasking is a lie
You can’t do more than one cognitive task at once. What feels like multitasking is actually rapidly switching back and forth between tasks.
The switches are so quick that it feels like you’re doing more than one thing at a time, but you’re not. Each switch costs you cognitive resources and depletes them more quickly than when you focus on a single task. Focused work will get you the results you want.
12. It’s impossible to control everything
There are many things you can’t control. They just happen to you. Stressing over them doesn’t make sense because you can’t change them.
The first step is acceptance: Accept that there are things in your life that you can’t control. The 2nd step is to change how you think about them.
Can you find meaning in them? Can you turn them into challenges or growth opportunities? You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.
Dr. Patricia Schmidt is a psychologist, neuroscientist, and writer on Medium and other platforms. She mainly writes about psychology and the brain.
