Credits: Social Media
Blame your brain for feeling exhausted even if you haven’t physically exerted yourself
The brain is a curious thing. Its just 2% of your total body weight, yet it uses 20% of your bodys energy use. That means you use 320 calories a day just thinking.
It performs wonders for your health and wellness, too, such as resetting while you sleep to save memories, creating new chapters each day to hold onto certain memories, and changing depending on whos staring at you. OK, so that last one was about dogs. Now theres a scientific explanation for why you struggle to be decisive after a long day at the office.
Working out your brain leaves it less able to make good decisions
Every day, we have to make decisions. What to wear, what to eat, which side of the bed to get out of&
And each one uses up some of your decision-making ability. Even the simplest of decisions adds to the workload of the human brain, and studies have shown that stacking too many on top of each other leaves us with an impaired ability to make rational decisions.
Whenever you make a decision, your brain sends signals along tree-like structures called neurons. To do this, it needs to use a neurotransmitter, in this case, a chemical called glutamate.
In 2022, scientists discovered that after each decision, bits of glutamate hang around in the brain. During the course of a busy day, making many decisions leads to larger amounts of glutamate, clogging up the brain.
The discovery explains why being decisive can be so difficult after a strenuous workday, and why people seek short-term rewards like takeout foods, alcohol, and watching television when they feel mentally exhausted.
People are more likely to make sensible decisions in the morning than in the evening
Studies from 2016 and 2021 found that people are more prone to rash decision-making later in the day than in the morning.
People are more cautious and sensible with their economic decisions before noon than afternoon, and behaviors like impulse buying are more likely to take place in the evening.
Meanwhile, a study based on peoples attention (or inattention) on the baseball field supported the notion that people have a depletable budget of attention.
However, even short rest breaks can replenish this budget, emphasizing the importance of giving our brains the rest they need. Not only this, but people who know about brain fatigue (such as baseball umpires) will reduce the attention they pay to smaller decisions so that they have plenty left over for the big ones.
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