Six Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy in College

Maintaining good brain health is essential for productive studying in college. It is impossible to reach outstanding academic results if one has issues with brain functioning. Memory, attention, problem solving, and decision making are the processes that significantly depend on your brain's health. Hence, if you want to succeed in college, you need to take care of it. Read how to do it below.

1. Do regular physical activity

Regular exercising is a proven way to benefit the brain. Multiple studies demonstrate that physically active people have better mental functioning due to increased blood flow to their central nervous system. Doing sports can also stimulate neurogenesis (the growth of new cells in the brain) and reduce the level of hormones responsible for stress. Therefore, students who do regular physical activity learn faster, memorize more information, and think quicker.

Of course, finding time for sports is a challenge for students. But for sure, anybody can devote 30-60 minutes several times per week to walking or playing tennis with friends.

2. Get enough sleep

We restore our energy mainly while sleeping. All body systems repair themselves at night, and the brain is not an exception. Hence, its health depends on the amount and quality of sleep we get. People need about 7-8 hours of sleep on average to stay productive during the day and consolidate their memories effectively. If one doesn't take care of it, they have a shorter attention span and impaired memory, according to some research. Also, sleep deprivation leads to longer reaction times and reduced neural activity.

Moreover, the lack of sleep causes an increase in cortisol levels and other stress hormones, which results in inflammation leading to cell death and limited neurogenesis in the brain. Therefore, students who sleep six or fewer hours per night report lower grades than those who get nine or more hours.

3. Relieve stress

Prolonged stress has damaging effects on the brain by causing cell death in certain areas, particularly the hippocampus. Thus, learning and memory suffer from stress hormones, which leads to a drop in academic performance. Unfortunately, students often experience psychological tension due to the amount of homework they get. To relieve tension, some of them prefer to pay people to write essays. This service helps them write an essay or research paper and reduce stress triggered by hometasks. Distressing feelings caused by learning can become less intensive when one gets a kind of support.

4. Stick to the right diet

Brain health is largely affected by your diet. The nervous system requires sufficient levels of glucose, electrolytes, and amino acids that are obtained from the foods. Hence, the most convenient diet for effective mental functioning is the one based on plants, whole grains, fish, and healthy fats. Students should consume less red meat, sugar, and salt in order to help their brain cells function optimally. This way, young people get able to keep their mental focus longer and avoid cognitive confusion or forgetfulness.

5. Restrict the use of technology

On average, students spend more than eight hours per day using technology. Texting, surfing social media, and learning through various educational apps rewire our brains. Scientists assume that constant use of technology has suppressive effects on frontal lobe executive functions and some other brain areas. As a result, young people tend to make more errors when multitasking as well as to struggle with attention issues. To avoid these negative effects, one should add regular breaks from technology to their timetable. Besides, it would be beneficial for your brain health to plan more face to face interactions with friends and resort to more traditional approaches to learning, like reading books or magazines.

6. Do mental gymnastics

Students face numerous mental challenges every day. In order to overcome them, one needs to keep their brain in shape. Some scientists say that it's like a muscle that needs special training, such as doing crossword puzzles or playing cards. Reading can be a kind of mental workout too. This is a complex cognitive task that simultaneously engages a lot of neural systems throughout the brain, which has positive neurocognitive effects. Students should incorporate the mentioned activities into their lives to increase the effectiveness of learning. This way, they will be ready to deal with academic challenges anytime.

Keeping your brain healthy is an absolute must if you want to get the most out of your college experience. The recommendations given above will definitely enhance your brain functioning and help you live up to your full academic potential.

Author's BIo

Michael Turner is an academic coach and highly professional academic writer. His job is to help students unlock their potential and get outstanding results in college. As a big fan of Neuropsychology, Michael uses this science in his coaching work. Also, he assists freshmen in completing research papers and assignments.