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So, rather than striving for no stress, strive for healthier responses to stress. "A life without stress is not only impossible, but also would likely be pretty uninteresting - in fact, a certain degree of stress is helpful for growth," says Dr. Earlier intervention may reduce disability caused by stress-related complications later on.Ĭhange your attitude toward stress. Reaching out can help you become more resilient and better able to manage stress, which may ultimately protect your brain health. It can also help you predict when you are likely to be stressed. "Laying tasks out like this helps reduce the feeling that the brain is being bombarded," he says. Making a list also gives you a clear end point so you know when you are done. This way, your duties won't seem overwhelming. For example, each day, create a concrete list of tasks you need to accomplish. Using strategies to help manage your workload can also reduce stress. This includes going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, avoiding caffeine after noon, and creating a relaxing sleep environment. "Sleep deprivation makes parts of the brain that handle higher-order functions work less well," says Dr. Stress can result in sleep difficulties, and the resulting lack of sleep can make stress worse.
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Kerry Ressler, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "Having a routine is good for development and health," says Dr. If stress isn't predictable, focus on controlling the things that are. Here are some tips that can help you better manage stress and hopefully prevent some of the damaging effects it could have on your brain.Įstablish some control over your situation. To better cope with stress, consider how you might minimize factors that make it worse. "For example, reductions in the gonadal hormone estradiol during the menopausal transition may change how our brain responds to stress," she says. Certain hormones, known as gonadal hormones - which are secreted in large amounts during fetal development, puberty, and pregnancy and depleted during menopause - may play a role in how stress affects an individual, says Goldstein. The effect that stress has on the brain and body may also differ depending on when it occurs in the course of someone's life, says Goldstein. This is why you might be more forgetful when you are under stress or may even experience memory lapses during traumatic events. "The basic idea is that the brain is shunting its resources because it's in survival mode, not memory mode," says Dr. For example, if you are in a dangerous or emotionally taxing situation, the amygdala (the part of your brain that governs your survival instincts) may take over, leaving the parts of your brain that help to store memories and perform higher-order tasks with less energy and ability to get their own jobs done. Researchers believe that when one part of your brain is engaged, the other parts of your brain may not have as much energy to handle their own vital tasks, he says. Your brain isn't just a single unit, but a group of different parts that perform different tasks, says Dr. To understand why stress affects thinking and memory, it's important to understand a little about how the brain works.
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In addition, it can affect men and women differently, she says. Thus, stress has been associated with multiple chronic diseases of the brain and heart. Stress affects not only memory and many other brain functions, like mood and anxiety, but also promotes inflammation, which adversely affects heart health, says Jill Goldstein, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Harvard Medical School. (For the latter, researchers might challenge subjects to perform a difficult task, such as counting backward from the number 1,073 by 13s while being graded.) Either type of stress seems to interfere with cognition, attention, and memory, he says. Scientists have seen changes in how the brain processes information when people experience either real-life stress or stress manufactured in a research setting. Kerry Ressler, chief scientific officer at McLean Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Studies in both animals and people show pretty clearly that stress can affect how the brain functions, says Dr. But over the long term, stress may actually change your brain in ways that affect your memory. It's not uncommon to feel disorganized and forgetful when you're under a lot of stress. Stress management may reduce health problems linked to stress, which include cognitive problems and a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.