{"id":34466,"date":"2014-11-20T16:15:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=34466"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:07:34","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:07:34","slug":"lumosity-exhaustion-brain-112014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/lifestyle\/lumosity-exhaustion-brain-112014\/","title":{"rendered":"How Exhaustion Might Change the Way You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lumosity
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between waking up early to squeeze in spin class<\/a> and catching up with friends over late-night drinks, we\u2019ve all experienced that groggy feeling of logging too few hours of sleep<\/a>. It turns out that exhaustion (and your corresponding mood) isn\u2019t just making you feel run down<\/a> \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s affecting the way your brain works, too. New research from Lumosity<\/a>, an online brain training<\/a> program with more than 60 million registered users, reveals that the hours you\u2019ve slept, time of day, and your mood all have an effect on how mentally sharp you are throughout the day.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b> 10 Reasons You\u2019re Exhausted and What to Do About It<\/a><\/p>\n

Researcher Daniel Sternberg, PhD, senior data scientist at Lumosity, analyzed how 60,000 people performed on Lumosity\u2019s various tests of processing speed, short term and working memory, task switching, visual attention, and arithmetic and verbal fluency over the course of the year to find out what really makes your brain alert \u2014 or totally out of it.<\/p>\n

Sleep Is King<\/b><\/h3>\n

Almost everyone\u2019s brain performs better on cognitive tests in the morning hours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The results may serve as motivation to turn in early<\/a> tonight: With few exceptions, Lumosity users performed better on cognitive tests when they reported enjoying at least seven to eight hours<\/a> of sleep the night before. And that effect may be more pronounced in real-life situations, according to Sternberg. \u201cAs you train on the same task many times, you get better and better at doing it and your performance<\/a> doesn\u2019t vary as much,\u201d Sternberg says, noting that each study participant had played these games at least 100 times. \u201cBut it may be that when you\u2019re encountering a novel situation, that\u2019s probably where there are bigger differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?<\/a><\/p>\n

Being in a bad mood<\/a> doesn\u2019t do you any favors, either. When users logged in to play a game, they were asked to rate their happiness on a scale consisting of five faces, ranging from smiling to frowning. Users\u2019 scores were always<\/i> better when they reported being in a \u201csmiling\u201d mood, according to researchers. Your state of mind may be an indicator of \u201clife circumstances that specifically affect our ability to concentrate,\u201d the study reports.<\/p>\n

\"Lumosity
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Score One for Night Owls?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Peak time for creativity seems to occur later in the day, possibly from 2 to 4 p.m.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether or not you identify as a morning or night person<\/a> also has an effect on how you think, the research reveals. But here\u2019s the catch: Almost everyone\u2019s brain performs better on cognitive tests in the morning. The only difference was that night owls remained cognitively sharp later into the evening than early birds. \u201cPeople who reported being evening people\u2026they just were less affected at night. They maintained better performance as night went on, as opposed to people who felt they were sharper in the morning, who were declining,\u201d Sternberg says.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b> 13 Tips for the Best Nap Ever<\/a><\/p>\n

The researchers also discovered that peak time for creativity seemed to occur later in the day, possibly somewhere in the afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. That’s because creativity, which requires thinking outside the box, may actually be easier to achieve if you\u2019re a little less <\/i>in control of your brain, Sternberg notes. \u201cIf you think you\u2019re a morning person, maybe plan more creative activities in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, Sternberg says he hopes to use Lumosity in conjunction with other tracking devices<\/a> to give people more precise insights about what times of day they might be able to think more creatively, or when they might be best equipped to handle multi-tasking, or stress. \u201cWe might be able to pull in this type of data and say based on data about other people, an extra hour<\/a> of sleep would be great for you and make a really big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, he thinks there\u2019s a special place for using Lumosity in conjunction with fitness trackers<\/a> to help people achieve peak fitness \u2014\u00a0both mentally and physically. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of papers now showing that certain physical activity is pretty good for cognitive health and brain health<\/a>,\u201d Sternberg says. By tracking both workout habits and cognitive performance, researchers might soon be able to pinpoint exactly how your fitness affects your brain \u2014 and vice versa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhaustion could be affecting the way your brain works, new research from Lumosity suggests. Here\u2019s what’s happening in your head when you\u2019re tired. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":34473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,13],"tags":[187,280,347,415,167,283],"class_list":["post-34466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-mental-health","category-sleep","tag-happiness","tag-sleep","tag-tax1family","tag-tax2toddlers","tag-technology","tag-tracking"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}