Let your brain idle

I want you to think back to when you were last bored, staring at the wall and totally zoned out. Can you even remember such dark ages? Not having a personal device out of your pocket the second you have a moment of free time. For most of us, that is so 2001 that we can probably not even fantom the thought. Pay attention around you next time you go out:

• people standing in the cashier line

• BMV/DMV waiting room

• doctor's waiting room

• even elevator going up 3 floors

• and yourself at home waiting for the water to boil

  
  

I bet you most of you, me included, would subconsciously pick up your phone and try to find something, anything, to occupy your brain for those few minutes.

In short, brain boredom has become a thing of the past. Which you may say is a good thing, You are using those times to read the news, answer emails, shop or lets be honest, mindlessly scroll down social media.

But here is the problem with not ever letting your brain be bored:

The brain is most creative during periods of sleep and quiet wakefulness, often referred to as "idling brain" states. During these times, offline reactivation of neural networks facilitates the integration and abstraction of past experiences, enabling the formation of novel connections and insights. This is a spontaneous process and is the main window for brain idea generation and creativity.

Neuroimaging studies demonstrate that creative ideation is optimized particularly in states of reduced external stimulation and lower arousal, such as during relaxed wakefulness or the transition into sleep. These states promote remote semantic association-making and conceptual integration, which are core mechanisms underlying creative thought.

So, to summarize it more simply, you are most creative when you allow your mind to be bored and unstimulated. Before the advent of mobile devices, we all had our moments of creativity by default: standing in line, sitting in a waiting room, waiting for the kids at the bus top. I mean for freak sake, I hear people talking on the phone or watching a video inside public bathrooms behind the closed door (you get the picture).

Just like your muscles, the brain needs time to relax. This only occurs during early sleep stages (in deep sleep your brain is actually active) and times of boredom and brain inactivity while awake. So, next time you are waiting for something or someone, just chill, stare at the wall or the people around you. Let your brain wonder away and be totally bored. Letting the brain be idle for a short time makes it work better when you actually need to use it. I be the first to confess that I used to be a cell phone popper. One person in front of me at the grocery store, short elevator ride to Emerald on third flood, phone would be out, thumb at work and emailed checked for the 100th time. Surprisingly when I stopped being a cell phone popper, I discovered that for one, I did not miss anything important, and more importantly I felt much less tired and foggy. I am still waiting for that ground breaking creative idea to pop up though.

In addition to loss of creativity, constant brain stimulation has been associated with attention deficit.

If you are 35 years and older, you most likely spent your high school or college study times staring at your book, focused and uninterrupted (besides day dreaming, which we now know was actually good and creative). Take a tour of a library or a coffee shop today and you will see students with a lap top, phone and even a tablet all open and running at the same time: Few minutes of actual studying, then answering a text message that popped up on the screen, a minute later checking email, then a scroll down tick tock to see the latest news on Taylor and Travis engagement party, and then finally back to the study text. The brain never gets a chance to focus on the task at hand.

I see many adult patients in my clinic with complaint of attention deficit disorder (ADD). Most had no problem during school years but now find it hard to focus at work. Although some may truly have ADD, but true ADD is really manifested in early years, so most of the adults patients really suffer from modern age multi-tasking and electronic distractions. Reading a financial statement, working on a project or sending a work email requires formulating a thought process, ideas and attention to detail, which is all interrupted by various distractions. Mistakes are bound to happen, and your project may take much longer than anticipated. You do not have ADD, you are just not focusing.

Imagine next time you come to see me as a patient. instead of me sitting and listening, I get distracted by a text alert, then an email alert, and of course I have the news on my computer screen and keep looking at it while you are talking. Naturally I am not focused on you: so I have to keep asking you to repeat and most likely miss key parts of your complaint. I do not have ADD, I am just distracted.

And lastly, if you are a numbers person, you can always check how much time you have spent on your phone. For iPhone users, go to settings and then screen time. For none iPhone users, get an iPhone! If your time is more than 2 hours a day, you have a problem.

So, let that brain idle. It will thank you and you will thank it for giving you new ideas.