An effective way to improve mental performance (2)
From the editorial office:
This text (as well as the first part of the article, which lists what should not be done in the first place in order to improve mental performance) is addressed primarily to IT specialists and other computer masters, but, undoubtedly, the advice given here is temporarily not a practicing doctor (there are no former doctors :) they will be useful to all workers of intellectual labor (and recreation :)
And if you have any questions, please contact the author.
VM
In this part, I will talk about an effective method that does not require medications. Medicines are only a support, a supplement. But this method requires organization and willpower, and therefore is so unloved by most of us.
Material partFirst, I will tell you a little about some basic principles of the nervous system.
I do not pretend to be complete here, rather, I deliberately shortened the presentation so that it would be clear to the majority.
The work of the nervous system is the processes of excitation, inhibition, conduction, integration. Neurons receive and process signals, conduct them through their processes and interact with each other.
Conducting a signal through the processes of neurons is an electrical activity. A change in the polarization of the membrane spreads along the processes, this process requires energy spent on the operation of ion pumps.
Another important process is synaptic transmission. One cell secretes intermediary molecules into the synaptic cleft, mediators that act on the receptors of another cell, stimulating or inhibiting its activity.
The activity of neurons requires energy. Lots of energy. Where does it come from? One of the most important biological processes is respiration. At the cellular level, respiration means the oxidation of nutrients and the production of energy. I will tell you very simplistically. Oxygen and nutrients enter the tissues with arterial blood. Then they get into the cage. There are whole chains of enzymes and coenzymes, the work of which ensures the oxidation of nutrients with oxygen. Carbon dioxide, water and other products are formed. They must be removed from the cell and from the tissue into the blood.
In addition to breathing, there are still a lot of biochemical processes. For example, the synthesis of cell components (the same membrane, enzymes, ion pumps, etc.), as well as mediators. All these processes also require energy, nutrients, enzymes and coenzymes. There are no mediators – there is no synaptic transmission.
The work of the nervous system should not be considered only at the cellular level. There are supracellular structures: groups of neurons, nuclei and centers of the brain, as well as such a mysterious thing as the reticular formation, and also the epiphysis, the limbic system. They have an effect on the cerebral cortex.
There are structures in the brain that are characterized by cyclic activity. They stimulate or suppress the activity of other structures. One of the important cycles is the daily one. Cyclic changes in the activity of neurons are extremely important for recovery processes. The reserves of nutrients, macroergic compounds, mediators, and components of the cell itself should be restored. New connections between neurons should be formed. Structural changes must occur in the neurons themselves.
By the way, using stimulants, you just "burn the untouchable stock". Just as stupid party nomenclators, in order to increase meat production in reports, let dairy herds into the slaughterhouse, so you, taking caffeine, "energy" and similar substances, slowly kill your neurons.
What to do?A natural and stable regime of the day is the most effective means.
Moreover, non-medicinal. And this tool is the most underestimated and most disliked by most of us. You can eat pills, but without the regime of the day, you can practically put them in the toilet with the same effect.The mode of the day is not just "sleeping eight hours". Six is enough for someone, nine for someone. The most important thing is to develop and maintain a steady daily rhythm. And not any way, but natural. It is natural for a reasonable person to wake up in the morning, stay awake during the day, rest in the evening and sleep at night.
Anticipating the invasion of crazy red-eyed coders who are pathologically proud of being "owls", I will say that after the return of "owls" to the natural cycle, their productivity increases, their mood improves. In fact, the division into "owls" and "larks" is quite conditional. There are almost no real "owls" among those who work better at night than during the day. There are just people with a steady unnatural daily cycle.
Each person has a slightly different body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate. But these parameters, nevertheless, have a norm. As the normal temperature in the armpit is 36.6 degrees Celsius, so the normal rhythm is the one I described, let's call it "morning".
I myself have experienced periods when it works better at night than during the day. But let's look at this situation as follows. Let's take for 100% the maximum working capacity of a person. And now let's make him an "owl". He will nod off during the day and work for thirty percent, and by night he will be activated by, say, seventy percent. But all the same, he will not reach the maximum and the comfortable state that would be with the natural biological rhythm of Homo Sapiens.
For millions of years, all life on Earth has been subject to the circadian rhythm. And almost all living things get this rhythm thanks to the cyclic change in lighting. One of the substances cyclically produced in the brain is melatonin. Approximately 70% of its secretion occurs during the night hours. The epiphysis increases melatonin production when it is dark.
It is very important to go to bed and wake up at about the same time. I recommend going to bed at about 23:30 and waking up at about 7:30. You can go to bed at another time, a little earlier or a little later. It is important to wake up consistently.
And again I foresee objections about "deadlines", "blockages at work". Let me remind you of a story about two woodcutters who staged a competition. One was chopping non-stop, and the axe of the other was periodically silenced. And when the second woodcutter stopped chopping, the first one heard it and started chopping even faster. Imagine his surprise when it turned out that the second woodcutter chopped twice as much. "How is it, because you stopped every hour and did nothing?" the first one asked. "How is it nothing? I was resting and sharpening an axe," the second one answered him.
You will be much better able to cope with "deadlines" and "accidents" if your axe is sharp. Remember, I talked about the processes of synthesis, about the restoration of stocks of neurotransmitters and energy compounds? So, during a healthy sleep, they recover. And many more little-studied processes are taking place. Some authors believe that it is in a dream that new connections between neurons are formed, and information is recorded in long-term memory.
We wake up easilySpeaking of proper awakening.
If you wake up shortly before the alarm goes off, do not "fall asleep". We have to get up. And if the alarm clock rings and you don't want to wake up, you still have to get up. Get up in the literal sense of the word. You have no idea how important it is to take an upright body position. In most cases, drowsiness immediately goes away. You will be surprised that a minute ago you thought it impossible to crawl out from under a warm blanket.
The awakening is facilitated by stable morning "rituals". Contrast shower "washes away" drowsiness. The key word here is stability. The body will get used to the fact that it is necessary not just to wake up, but also to do something invigorating.
A little earlier I talked about circadian rhythms, melatonin and the role of lighting. So, it will be very cool if you wake up in the light. There are alarm clocks that first turn on the light, and then, if you are not awake, they ring. I will tell you more about the role of lighting during the working day later.
We fall asleep easily and sleep wellIf you do not have a pathology, then a stable daily rhythm with morning awakening after a while will lead to the fact that it will be easy to fall asleep.
It is very important that the room is not too bright, as well as hot or stuffy. And also – so that the nose is not blocked. It happens that a person complaining of morning "fatigue" is monitored for sleep. It turns out that the poor guy wakes up 10 times a night, but he just doesn't remember it. It turns out that he has problems with nasal breathing.
Do not use sleeping pills. Their principle of action is based on the oppression of the nervous system. This is not what we need, and the side effects can be very bad.
To rebuild the body to a normal rhythm, the drug "Melaxen" helps. These are tablets of melatonin, a substance produced by the epiphysis when it's time for us to go to bed. You can use it for about 5-7 days, no more, one tablet 15 minutes before bedtime (most of this drug will be withdrawn in 45 minutes) Be sure to drink at least half a glass of water (like any tablet, so that it does not stick to the esophagus, this happens). This is not a sleeping pill in the usual sense of the word. This drug helps the brain to adjust to a normal rhythm.
Glycine can also be used before going to bed. It is necessary to use it correctly: not to swallow, but to place it under the tongue or behind the cheek.
I have also heard about such alarm clocks, sliptrackers that wake a person up in a suitable sleep phase. I haven't tried it myself, I haven't used it on patients, but it's an interesting thing.
To fall asleep easily, it would be nice to get moderate aerobic exercise 3-5 hours before bedtime. And here we will touch on the following topic – physical inactivity.
Fighting physical inactivityI will not dwell in detail on the pathological mechanisms of inactivity.
I will only say that we all suffer from it. You have no idea what the truly huge shortage of traffic that a city dweller is experiencing. Especially IT-shniki.
Two good ways are a morning jog or a bike. I chose a bicycle for myself. By private or public transport, with the current load of St. Petersburg streets, I have to go about 50-70 minutes. The same amount is on a bicycle.
I change an hour of standing in traffic jams or jostling in a sweaty subway for the same hour of moderate aerobic exercise. I don't spend such expensive time extra, as if I was going to the fitness center after work and pedaling on the simulator. By the way, it turned out that you sweat more in the subway.
I recommend getting up and leaving early, before rush hour and traffic jams. Firstly, the air will still be fresh. Secondly, it is safer. Thirdly, you will arrive at work, and there are not many people there, it is easier to concentrate. And finally, there is not always an appetite immediately after sleep. After the bike ride, the appetite will be good, the food will be absorbed better, and there will be cheerfulness.
Returning home by bike, you will have a few more hours to "calm down". I recommend taking an evening shower not contrasting, but warm.
Not everyone and not always can afford to ride a bike. I will share my "life hack". Get out of the transport for one or two stops and walk through them. Or running easily.
Rest at workThe topic partly intersects with physical inactivity.
How do IT professionals usually "rest"? They go, pour coffee, read blogs, play something, smoke (a ray of diarrhea to tobacco companies).
Rest is a change of activity. Many people know this, but they don't use a fig. Changing "Photoshop" to "Bashorg" is not a rest, although it is better than "blunt" over the layout when the head is no longer boiling.
The right way to rest is to get up from the computer, open the window, leave the room and do at least some physical activity, without thinking about work and deadlines. We have table hockey, darts and badminton for this in warm weather. You can at least squat and do push-ups a few times. And it's also better to take food not at the workplace, but at least go somewhere in a cafe.
During prolonged sitting, some groups of muscles and nerve cells receive a static load, while others are relaxed. Physical activity allows you to restore the tone of relaxed muscles and blood vessels, restore normal blood flow, accelerate the removal of cell waste products from the body.
For a good rest during the working day, it is important to change activities, physical activity, distraction from the problem and a change of environment (get out of the cubicle, finally!)
Rest outside of workHere you can distinguish two large parts: "after work" and "on vacation".
I won't tell you about the vacation for a long time. I will only say that the sense of a vacation will be with a change of scenery. This is its main psychotherapeutic effect. We need to leave, forget about work, problems, turn on the phone and computer only when necessary.
Let's take a closer look at regular rest "after work". I recommend several types of such recreation: outdoor games (football, badminton, tennis), jogging, cycling, roller skates, as well as a swimming pool. The pool is generally very cool, at least once a week. But all sorts of gyms will not give such an effect as aerobic motor loads.
Another thing that few people know about. Cleaning on weekends is not just "clean and tidy". This is a psychotherapeutic tool. I'm not going to paint the mechanisms here, just trust the doctor ;-) Clean up the apartment, at the workplace, or even clean the computer. Refresh your space.
My colleagues who treat neuroses use such concepts as "psychological microclimate" and "microenvironment". Use the weekend to arrange a change of this environment. Ideally, of course, to go somewhere out of town, but it does not always work out.
The advice of one of my colleagues is not devoid of common sense: sometimes take a break from those with whom you work, even if they are very good and interesting people.
Try to diversify your life as much as possible. If you take one route to work, try other routes. If you buy everything in one store, try the next one. If you eat pasta all the time, try boiled socks (you've read up to this point, ho–ho) Don't just focus on special literature. Get yourself a non-computer hobby, sometimes go to the cinema, theaters, museums. It sounds corny, but in three months you will really get a significant effect.
MedicinesA lot has already been said about glycine, nootropics and vitamins.
I'll say a few words too.
Multivitamins, especially drugs like Vitrum Superstress, should be taken only at the indicated dosage. This is usually one tablet per day. Take it in the morning, at breakfast. Do not exceed the dose! The duration of the course of vitamins is 30 days, then take a break for 1-2 months.
Nootropil. A relatively safe drug, has an antihypoxic effect, improves cellular respiration processes. Do not abuse it. It would be better if a doctor prescribes it to you, who will indicate the dosage and observe you, but I will not describe the schemes of "du it eself" here. The effect is not instantaneous, it does not occur immediately.
Glycine. Also a relatively safe drug. Before going to bed, one tablet under the tongue makes it easier for many to fall asleep. I wrote about "Melaxen" a little higher.
Everything else: caffeine, dietary supplements, stimulants, sleeping pills, amphetamines, antidepressants – forget it. Just forget about them, unless you have been prescribed them by the doctor who guides you. If the doctor prescribed dietary supplements, then forget this doctor. If psychotropic drugs were not prescribed by a psychiatrist – the same thing.
If you suspect that you have depression, consult a psychiatrist. If you have trouble sleeping, go to the sleep center or to a psychiatrist, again.
What else prevents you from working normally?Smoking
Whatever the mental homosexuals (I have no other decent words for these citizens) who protect smoking, smokers, and the tobacco industry say, hypoxia and narrowing of the cerebral vessels under the influence of nicotine have never contributed to the good work of brain cells.
Hypoxia is the main cause of inhibition of neurons.
Smoking contributes to the development of hypoxia at several levels at once. Firstly, under the influence of nicotine, the vessels that bring arterial blood narrow. The supply of oxygen to the tissues with blood decreases. Secondly, the transport capacity of hemoglobin decreases. The blood itself carries less oxygen and gives it to the tissues more difficult. One of the reasons is the formation of carboxyhemoglobin, the product of the reaction of hemoglobin with carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide). Thirdly, in addition to nicotine in tobacco smoke, there are a lot of substances that penetrate into cells and block the processes of cellular respiration. That is, even the reduced amount of oxygen that enters the tissue, the neurons themselves cannot really assimilate, since the enzymes and cytochromes of the respiratory chains are suppressed.
And these effects do not manifest themselves in long-term smokers, unlike, say, emphysema of the lungs or erectile dysfunction.
Now citizens will rush here, who will claim that "they can't work without a cigarette," that "a cigarette helps to mobilize." Complete bullshit. The simplest analogy is that it is also very bad for a drug addict to break down without a dose. Systematic tobacco use leads to the formation of a stable pathological condition, and without the next dose, performance really decreases, dysphoria sets in. But here's the thing: if you didn't smoke, then your performance during the day would be much higher than you currently have for a short time after the "mobilizing cigarette".
For office workers: smoke only one at a time and outside the office. And do not choose a constant time! Strictly observing this rule, you will significantly increase your chances of quitting smoking. Destroy the pathological tradition, social attachment and this ugly ritual. The person who offers to "discuss in the smoking room" is driven away, without hesitation in expressions and measures of influence. This is your enemy.
Improper nutritionIf you regularly eat homeless bags, instant noodles and mashed potatoes, chips, then along with all this good you consume glutamic acid or its salts, glutamates.
Glutamate is a flavor enhancer. Glutamate is also an excitatory mediator in the central nervous system. It has a short-term nootropic effect, but the systematic consumption of increased doses of glutamate leads to a change in biochemical processes in the nervous tissue. For a snack, you can read about the syndrome of Chinese restaurants.
But even if there were no glutamates, such a diet is bad for its inferiority. For example, a lack of vitamins. Remember, I talked about tissue respiration, synthesis and coenzymes? So, many vitamins act as coenzymes. There is not enough coenzymes – the cell cannot work normally.
By itself, a homeless package is not so harmful. To get harm, as from one cigarette, you need to eat ten of these instant noodles. But chronic nutrition with inadequate and monotonous food leads to an increasing lack of vitamins. And many other substances.
Your diet must include fresh vegetables, fish and vegetable fats. Vegetables are not just vitamins, by the way. And not just vitamins, but also a variety of their derivatives and precursors (provitamins). And not just pill powders, but "packed" into the cell membrane.
Fish and vegetable fats are polyunsaturated fatty acids, as well as fat–soluble vitamins. For example, vitamins A and E are involved in a huge number of synthesis reactions, and are also antioxidants (block chain reactions of free radical oxidation of cell components, some of these reactions are triggered by hypoxia).
But it's not worth doing veganism, it's unnatural. The natural diet of Homo Sapiens is mixed. Meat contains essential amino acids, as well as iron and other elements in a form in which assimilation is incomparably more effective than from plant foods.
Do not listen to those idiots who promote microscopic breakfasts. Let the "Cosmo girls" go through the forest with their advice. You need to have breakfast in a human way. You have to work all day, the body must get energy from food. The stove should be heated with firewood, not logs from your own house.
Wrong environmentMost often there is incorrect lighting in the workplace.
Well, IT specialists like to sit in the dark or semi-darkness. This is wrong. Firstly, darkness is a natural signal for mogz that it's time for bedtime. Secondly, the contrast between a dark room and a glowing monitor is very harmful to the eyes. And also – the visual analyzer gets tired.
Dull offices – I think everyone understands everything here. But there are also unnecessarily "creative offices" in which bright walls, lots of glare, multicolored light sources. It's cool to put on a blog so that customers or future employees will be led. But putting people to work in such offices is a crime.
Music in speakers or headphones is extraneous noise and tension of the auditory analyzer. Now brave guys who code at night under "tynts-tynts" or "Sepulture" will come running here, they will prove that they work better this way. Physiology says the opposite, but I will not argue with the "red-eyed", this is a stupid occupation.
The wrong workplace. This is generally a very big topic, I'll just give you one example. Let's say the monitor is too high. The person is sitting, the neck muscles are in constant tension, the head is fixed. The venous outflow is disrupted (sometimes the blood flow is also disrupted), the blood supply to the brain gradually worsens, but not critically (there are no fainting spells). But constantly. Water sharpens the stone. Working capacity decreases, a person gets tired faster, headaches occur more often.
Uans egeinSo, the most important and most effective (cooler than nootropics and glycine) is a stable natural "morning" mode of the day.
Start today!And finally
Of course, of course, the lieutenants.
This is also very important. I remember verse one here:
Don’t drink alcohol
Don’t smoke cigarettes
Don’t take any drugs
Just Fi$k ;-)
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru19.05.2008