There are two simple steps that turn out to have a very powerful impact on our brain power:
- Avoid staying up late and lack of sleep.
- Avoid a variety of junk food and drinks.
Lack of Quality Sleep Can Weaken Your Brain
According to the book; The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time (2017) writes various studies on the effects of sleep on the health of our bodies and minds. One of them is the lack of quality sleep will actually weaken the power of focus and attention span that we have.
When you are deprived of quality sleep, your brain ability to do things in a focused and long-lasting manner is really getting lost gradually.
We may have experienced it on the firsthand. When we are too late at night to go to bed and have to get up before morning, then our bodies really feel weak, not fit, sleepy, and feel uncomfortable. When we then work in conditions like this, our concentration and focus power will automatically drop.
Tips to Get Into Good Sleeping Habit
That’s why maintaining quality sleep for an adequate duration is very important to maintain our brain power. Experts on the science of sleep suggest that we can sleep soundly between 7-8 hours each night. Do not let it be less than this duration, especially if we only sleep 5 hours every night (eg sleep at 12 pm and wake up at 5 am).
Get into the habit of going to bed early (for example, up to 10 p.m.), and then sleep duration for at least 7 hours. We will tend to be able to sleep faster if we stop using cellphones at least 30 minutes before bedtime (which is why we have to reduce the amount of time we use cellphones each day).
In addition, we can sleep better if we are diligent in exercising every day (this is in line with the previous strategy, where we are advised to start building exercise habits in our daily lives).
In addition to undergoing quality sleep for an adequate duration, our brain power must also be maintained through healthy nutritional intake.
Based on the research, a bad diet (eg diligently eating junk food and drinking junk drinks) will literally make our brain power weaker.
In other words, the cognitive power or intelligence of our brain will be more sterile and deaf if we are too often undergo an unhealthy diet. Another study shows that eating junk food habits will also make it more difficult for a person to build deep focus and concentration for a long time, while doing something that requires extra perseverance (Ireland, 2020).
That is why we must gradually start building healthy eating habits.
Rules of Healthier Eating Habit
Here are two simple tips to help us live healthier eating habits. The first tip is very simple: keep healthy foods and drinks within the reach of your eyes and hands. Instead, keep or hide a variety of foods, snacks and drinks that are not healthy from the reach of your eyes and hands.
In his phenomenal book, Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More than We Think (2010), eating expert Professor Brian Wansink writes interesting findings. It turns out that we always eat without thinking, so whatever is within reach of our eyes and hands, that is what we will annex
This is called as Mindless Eating or Eat without thinking.
Miraculously, Brian Wansik’s research shows, when various fruits and mineral water are brought near to the respondents’ work desks (so that they are easily accessible to the eyes and hands), the consumption of various healthy foods and drinks increases drastically.
The implication is simple but powerful. If we want to start building healthy eating habits, always bring one liter of mineral water near your desk. Also bring various fruits such as apples, oranges, star fruit or barking near the office employee meeting table; or at the dining table in our homes. Then keep a variety of cakes, donuts, and sugary snacks and drinks that are less healthy than the eyes and hands of people in the office and also at home.
Brian Wansik said change our eating behavior can be done in a simple way as above, because the effect is very powerful. Our diet is shaped by the situation around us, and not by our own motivation.
During this time we become fat, because the situation around us always encourages us to eat a variety of junk food.
Build Healthy Eating Habit
The second tip is to build healthy eating habits: if we work regularly at the office, then start living the Weekly Meal Plan. This means that every week, we have prepared a lunch menu for a week, and if we can bring lunch from home. Or if you can’t, then order a weekly meal plan through a healthy lunch catering service provider.
This is an annoying little thought process, and it has a big impact on our diet. Brian Wansik writes, during an afternoon break, and you are thinking about what to eat for lunch, then most likely your brain is tired because it has been spent thinking about various work in the office that never ends.
Well, just when your brain starts to get tired, then the decision what to have for lunch, often can’t be done optimally since your brain is tired. In the end the decision for lunch, just choose. And often the choice falls to a variety of junk food lunches and various menus that are not so healthy. Repeat this ritual every day, and do not be surprised if more and more people are overweight.
Make a Weekly Meal Plan
In order to avoid the trap above, Brian Wansik suggests: make a Weekly Meal Plan, or a Weekly Lunch Plan from Monday to Friday. Ask a healthy catering provider or person at home to arrange and prepare it. Planning is the key to building healthy eating habits. This is because we no longer have to think about what to eat for lunch when our brains are tired – and eventually trap us in eating a variety of junk food.
Weekly Meal Plan will make us have a definite lunch plan, and make us save the burden of thought. More importantly: this lunch plan is definitely healthier because the menu is carefully arranged. And if the people at home can provide it, then the cost will definitely be more efficient.
Sleep well x Eat well will keep our brains fresh and bright.
