I have just completed a seminar on “Getting Your Brain Ready for Learning” which was all about tapping into your brain’s learning power to supercharge your focus, extend your attention span and put your self-development first. I felt that it was imperative to talk about taking breaks and rest as so many of us push through trying to get to the end of something or meet a deadline. What we often forget is that resting is as important for your learning, energy and memory consolidation – as the study and practice of the actual content.

So let’s talk breaks – a pivotal piece of research

In a famous piece of research, conducted in Israel in 2011, Judges heading parole boards made decisions about whether to grant parole, release prisoners and free them from tracking devices (1). Most people view judges as fair and just, however they are also human and experience the same daily rhythms, sleep issues, work overload and stresses as everyone else.

The researchers found that judges were more likely to issue a favourable ruling in the morning than in the afternoon, granting in favour of prisoners 65% of the time earlier in the day. As the morning elapsed the rate of favourable rulings fell. A prisoner was far more likely to be released on parole at 9am than at 11.30am. Interestingly, immediately after the first break for lunch they became more lenient and then began to sink into a more tough decision-making pattern after a couple of hours. A mid-afternoon break similarly resulted in more favourable rulings immediately afterwards.

The researchers cannot be sure of a single specific causal reason for this pattern. Blood sugar levels could be replenished through snacks, mood could improve through moving and changing space - particularly if the judge took a walk outside - it could also be due to improving fatigue if they were able to rest for 20 - 30 minutes. Whatever the reason, whether and when the judge took a break was significant in deciding whether the prisoner was granted parole or not.

Shift your mind

When we work, particularly with "thinking" tasks that require logic, analysis, judgements and decisions, the prefrontal cortex supports us to achieve our goals. It orchestrates attention, working memory, and other cognitive resources to help us get what we want. But for a challenging task that requires sustained attention, shifting our minds from the goal for a short time can renew and strengthen motivation later on. Taking a break, or doing activities that rely on different brain regions and give the prefrontal cortex a rest, is the best way to renew focus throughout the working day.

Research at the University of Illinois assessed mental performance under different circumstances (2). In one experiment, people were asked to perform a particular task requiring concentration over a sustained period of time, in the other they performed the same task but were allowed to take periodic breaks. They found that people performed better when taking occasional breaks, despite the fact that their breaks broke their concentration. They attributed their findings to a condition they termed "vigilance decrement".

Limited cognitive capacity

We know that human brains have a limited cognitive capacity - they can't concentrate on very many things at the same time. To overcome this limitation, your brain memorises and automates tasks, so that you can do them without thinking – such as riding a bike or swimming. The concept of "vigilance decrement" suggests that even your cognitive capacity to concentrate operates in a very similar way - if you try to do it for sustained periods, your brain instinctively attempts to habituate the process, thereby allowing your mind to wander and your concentration to be broken. Taking a break appears to improve your performance by keeping it fresh and preventing your brain from getting bored. And importantly, it helps to consolidate some of your learning as it continues to work for you in the background.

Get outdoors – if possible into green space

A well-researched area on breaks involves moving outdoors, and getting back to nature. A 2014 Stanford University study found that more than 80% of the participants produced more creative ideas while walking rather than sitting (3). Interestingly, by comparing walking outside, or treadmill walking inside, sitting inside or being rolled outside in a wheelchair, the researchers found the activity of walking (indoors or out) that elicited more creative responses. There appears to be something about getting up and walking that helped the flow of creative juices.

The British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2012 reported a study walking in different types of areas and the effect on the brain (4). The researchers used a mobile EEG (electroencephalography) recorder where small sensors were attached to the scalp. Participants took a 25 minute walk through three different areas of Edinburgh - an urban shopping street, a path through green space or a street in a busy commercial district.

The analysis showed evidence of lower frustration, engagement and arousal but higher meditation when moving into the green space zone, and higher engagement when moving out of it. They concluded that the study had implications for promoting urban green space as a mood enhancing environment for walking or for other forms of physical, creative or reflective activity.

The “Bermuda Triangle” of the working day

Dan Pink, in his latest book "When:The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing", discusses the power of taking breaks (5). He describes the afternoon trough as the "Bermuda Triangle" of the traditional working day, representing a danger zone for productivity, ethical decisions and health. Even just taking a few minutes time out to re-focus and ground yourself, moving to a different space, can make a difference.

Pink offers five guiding principles for breaks

1: Something beats nothing - even one-minute

2: Moving beats stationary

3: Social beats solo – talking about something other than work

4: Outside beats inside - even looking out of a window

5: Fully detached beats semidetached - true breaks rather than multi-tasking breaks, still partially attached to the work agenda are the best

In their book "The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World", Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen forewarn that taking the wrong sort of breaks may actually backfire (6). The rapid rewards we get from skimming our favourite newsfeeds may alleviate boredom or satiate our fear of missing out, but they also teach our brains to seek out more "blips of joy" next time we feel a twinge of fatigue.

By automatically reaching for our smartphones when we are going for a break, we are unwittingly training ourselves to do it again and again - and again.

Some food for thought for how you manage your working day to keep your brain fresh and energised!

If you are interested in learning more about the power of breaks for learning, check out the course I referred to in the opening paragraph of this article “Getting Your Brain Ready for Learning”. Link in the comments below.

What do you like to do to switch off from “brain-heavy” tasks?

Photo by Kalen  Emsley on Unsplash

1:  Extraneous Factors in Judicial Decisions. Danziger, Levav, Avnaim-Pesso, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 108, No 17, 2011

2: Brief and Rare mental 'breaks' keep you focused. Deactivation and reactivation of task free goals preempt vigilance decremenrs. Atsunori Ariga, Alejandro Lleras, Cognition, Volume 118, issue 3 March 2011.

3: Give Your Ideas Some Legs.; the Positive Effects of Walking on Creative Thinking. Oppezzo and Schwartz, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2014, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1142-1152

4: The Urban Brain: Analysing Outdoor Physical Activity with Mobile EEG. Aspinall, Mavros, Coyne and Roe, Br J Sports Med. 2015 Feb;49(4):272-6.

5: Pink, D. H. (2018). When. The scientific secrets of perfect timing. Edinburgh. Canongate Books.

6: Gazzaley, A., Rosen, L. D. (2017). The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press.