What does cognitive fatigue mean?
Cognitive fatigue means that the ability to think effectively and concentrate on a task is significantly impaired.
Like physical fatigue, prolonged mental activity causes exhaustion and negatively affects mental abilities.
Symptoms of cognitive fatigue are:
- A person has difficulty concentrating and focusing on the task;
- If you used to quickly cope with the assigned task, now you need much more time to complete the mental task;
- Memory failure;
- You have difficulty solving complex problems and cannot find the strength for critical thinking;
- Your creativity level is limited;
- You make mistakes more often.
Causes of mental fatigue include:
- Fatigue and insomnia;
- Severe stress;
- The brain is overactive, the mind cannot relax;
- Age-related cognitive decline;
- History of Alzheimer's disease, dementia;
- Brain injury;
- Depression, anxiety;
- Trying to work on different things at the same time;
- Environmental factors (poor lighting in the room, excessive noise, etc.);
- Nutritional deficiencies;
- Unhealthy diet, lack of vitamin-rich foods;
- Alcohol;
- Some medications (a kind of side effect).
Source:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/cognitive-fatigue
