Dazed & Confused. How The Modern World Equals Mental Fatigue

frank paul future office glutamate fatigue

Image: Frank R. Paul (ca.1920s), Retrofuturism

Information Overload & Analysis-Paralysis Lead To Cognitive-Sludge:

So many parts of the modern world seem at once like the amazing ideas from fiction writers 100 years ago,

And also the downsides different ones described 50 years ago.

But other than songs like “Virtual Insanity” or, “Too Much Information”, few works predict the more mundane, less Blade-Runner-level hardships.

They forgot to think of microplastics and PFAS invading our brains and bodies.

Even more clear & present than that is a piece of work from The Paris Brain Institute that doesn’t just make The Matrix look like a prophecy,

It makes us all look like Victorian zombies treadmilling our way into oblivion…

The Short Answer:

There is a chance that less information than we have now is a good idea.
It might even be considered a type of “environmental pollution”.
100 years ago, we absorbed a lot less each day.
25 years of internet use vs. the 300,000 humans have been in our current state is a very short time.
The Paris Brain Institute tested 39 people in different mental tasks for 6 hours.
The ones who had hard tasks to do made worse decisions 10% of the time.
They also showed an increased buildup of a brain chemical called glutamate.
The researchers think it’s this increase that causes mental fatigue.
Any imbalance can cause reduced-function in at least 3 functional centers.
This can be a problem because of all the information and ~35,000 decisions we have to deal with each day.
Coffee can temporarily make you feel better, but it just delays rest.
Our brains might be too ancient and unprepared for all this information, despite their ability to adapt.
There are some ways to help clear glutamate out of your brain.
These include 1)Reducing Information, 2)Exercise, 3)Meditation, and 4)Naps.
Another idea is to increase glutamate’s opposite chemical in your brain.
Until Evolution catches up, we may just have to do the best we can with what we have for now.

Read on to find out the details…

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Midnight In Paris. Maybe The 1920s Were Better After All?:

Back in Ye Olden Tymes 100 years ago, the average person would absorb the amount of information in one year we now do in ~1/3 to 3 days.

It’s true that neuroplasticity is a real thing and our brains can adapt to all kinds of stuff.

But considering the long lens of Evolution, that information jump has gone very far very fast.

We started walking upright 1.9 million years ago, and being smart about 300,000 years ago.

So the 25-ish years we’ve really been using the internet, and ~12 since smartphones took off is the blink of an eye in those terms.

And the Paris team is giving us one more reason pervasive global networks might not be helping.

Slow Down To Speed-Up. Information & Decision Overload Are Real:

In a study of about 40 subjects, aged 23 years/average, split into two groups over the course of 6 hours per trial,

The team looked at the behavior of people who were tasked with doing mentally-draining activities.

Subjects got two 10-minute breaks and one small lunch, but were otherwise tasked with brain games the whole time.

The subjects who had to do hard things made about 10% more impulsive, low-judgment choices than the group that only had easy tasks.

These tests included things like giving up some cash now for more later on.

And key to this was a buildup of brain-chemicals called glutamate.

The Strange Balance Of Brain Chemicals That Can Equal Fatigue:

-Which is weird, because it’s the main excitatory substance we have in there.

But as with anything biology-related, you only have a certain range in which it helps.

More or less than that and you start having problems.

For example, chronic stress results in glutamate changes that:
1) Reduce endurance, memory, and learning in the brain’s memory-centers.
2) Reduce judgment, attention, and endurance in decision-making centers.
3) Increase Anxiety, and lowers endurance in the brain’s fear-center.

All of these conditions can stem from either too much or too little of that brain-chemical.

And the Paris study’s painting of that picture of stress &/or making the ~35,000 decisions we do every day is: Mental Fatigue.

So not only are bad sleep patterns a problem, but “the world that’s been pulled over [our] eyes”, is tiring the hell out of our minds.

frank paul future tech glutamate fatigue

Image: Frank R. Paul (1922), Retrofuturism

Being Too Much Of A “Coffee-Achiever” Can Bite You Back:

So in the Great American Tradition of, “Isn’t there a pill for that?”, we try to hop ourselves up.

And as Johnny Harris points out in his beautifully-produced video, our main drug of choice is of-course ~~COCAINE!~~ Coffee!

Now for all the great things coffee does in-terms of unexpected health benefits, it can also make things worse if used incorrectly.

In Johnny’s example, he either has too much or too late just to get more work done and it throws off his sleep cycle.

Because our bodies use shut-eye and another brain-chemical (adenosine) as a way to take care of things like glutamate buildup.

But the caffeine from coffee blocks the natural sleepiness chemical and throws things off if we get too much.

And as we implied, the sad truth of the modern world is that our brains might just not be prepared for it.

Non-Military Fatigues. What Can We Do About An Info-Tarpit?:

It might not be a luxury to do things to clear-out glutamate; it might just be Mandatory!

So now that we know by the end of the day you’ve basically been playing decision-making-chess all day,

And that even Chess pros start making mistakes after 4-5 hours,

Then what can you do about it?

Just like many of the great answers in life: Accept and love yourself, even your tiny-brain limitations.

And some specific ways to do that are as-follows:

colliers magazine video phone glutamate fatigue

Image: Echte Wagner (ca.1930), RareHistoricalPhotos

1) Do Like Supernerd Tim Ferriss & Go On An “Information Diet”:

Ie: Start shutting-off anything you can like national & local news, unnecessary app notifications, non-emergency texts, etc.

I mean, do you really need to know about most of that anyway?

Does your knowing about which politician did a bad thing today help you, or change politics, or the country? Probably not.

You probably have an intuitive “Dunbar Number” for every part of your life, just like we did 300,000+ years ago.

So Marie Kondo the hell out of the information you allow to come at you. But (obvious shill) keep HealthTrekker, because we still rock!

2) Go On A KISS-Principle, “Choice Diet” To Avoid Geometric Thinking:

Avoid “Going full-retard” in order to sidestep “The Paradox Of Choice“. Ex.:

1) 1 choice is not great but it’s easy.
2) 2 choices is better but can seem pretty black-or white.
3) “Three Is The Magic Number!” If you’re here, one will always seem like an easy Middle-Ground.
4) For 5, one can still seem like the middle-ground, but it’s harder.
5) For 10 choices, it gets complicated and you’re doing ~10x the work of the 3-choice option.

The # of comparisons you make is exponentially-proportional to the # of options you have.

It could be #Choices², or even #Choices^{#Different Facets}.

Ex: 10 choices is like looking at 10 10-factor comparison tables of TV specs, and is almost like a Rubik’s Cube because of that “3-D” depth and complexity.

SO: Do like Charlie Munger, invert the problem, and find any legit shortcut you can!

(JFHOI, check out the diagram which cites a Square Of Oppostion has at least: opposites, contraries, oblique contraries, subalterns, slant subalterns, contradictories, subcontraries, oblique subcontraries, and sub-opposites.)

You’re doing all of that in your head, whether you studied philosophy or not!

Hans Reichenbach logic glutamate fatigue

Image: Hans Reichenbach (1952), DailyNous

3) Forget The Bug In Your Martini Olive, Let’s Get Physical!:

Among the many amazing things exercise does, especially cardio, is clear out your brain.

Not only is it associated with lower rates of Alzheimer’s, but it improves glutamate levels and balances out its counterpart, too!

4) Breathe Your Way Into The Zone With Mindfulness Meditation:

Wait, isn’t that all just Woo-Woo BS?

Nope! Another black-box-of-awesome is Meditation.

And for some reason, not only does it seem to make your mind faster and more-efficient (personal experience).

But it also regulates glutamate levels as well.

AND it also helps the brain clean itself out, similar to what happens when you sleep!

-Just don’t bonk your head on what’s in front of you if you meditate too hard when you’re sleepy. (almost personal experience)

5) Jump Into The Brave New World … -Of Naps!:

Just ask our pal, Dr. Sara Mednick.

Not only do naps restore your 9AM productivity across both the day and the week,

But you’re also giving your brain a chance to clean out some of the chemical buildup.

Johnny also makes the perfect productivity-community citation in his video and recommends the “caffeine nap”.

Who knows if it’s more than meets the eye, but a quick 20-30 minute nap (but not more) with a little coffee beforehand seems to be a widely-accepted refresher that works.

Hildebrands chocolate personal flying glutamate fatigue

Image: Hildebrand’s Chocolate (ca.1900), MyHistoryFix

But What If You Can’t Drive 55 Like Sammy Hagar?:

But what if you’re one of those freaks of nature who’s actually too wound-up and has trouble sleeping in the first place?

That’s where we need to bring another brain-chemical into the mix. GABA!

If glutamate excites your brain, GABA can chill it out.

So here’s a short list of things you can do help to raise it a little:
1) Eat Fermented Foods Like Yogurt & Kefir
2) Get A Magnesium Supplement, Because 80% Of People Are Deficient
3) Experiment With Theanine Or GABA Supplements

Careful on dosage with theanine & GABA, because too much can have unexpected effects.

Some of these include drowsiness with too much theanine, and restlessness with too much GABA.

Other notes: Theanine can magnify caffeine a little and GABA is associated with the accelerated learning of children and middle-schoolers.

Future Shock! Muddling-Through Until Evolution Catches Up:

There is still at least a little debate on how much glutamate the average person would accumulate and if it’s as bad as this study says.

And the judgment centers of our brains will probably look Very different two or three generations from now.

Until then, the rest of us will just have to adapt and muddle-through the best we can in a world of internet-connected EVERYTHING that’s not slowing-down any time soon.

And we will all need the best sleep-routine & caffeine discipline we can muster through all of it.

-Especially because (Pro-Tip) people with the most consistent bedtimes & wake times are also healthier and live longer.

Best of luck unplugging from “The Matrix”!

PS: Hat-tip to Nick for contributing the idea for this post and forwarding Johnny’s fantastic video!