How Holiday Stress Affects the Brain
The holidays are supposed to be a time for friends, family and festivities. Unfortunately, for many of us, the holidays are also synonymous with stress. Stress results from situations that are perceived as unpredictable, uncontrollable, new and unknown or threatening to our survival or our ego. In response to these types of situations, our body releases cortisol, adrenaline or noradrenaline as a sort of “stress message” warning of potential danger.
The brain is not only important for detecting stressful situations, it’s also particularly sensitive to stress messages. The hippocampus is one area of the brain that is particularly vulnerable to increases in cortisol. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that allows us to form new memories and learn new things. When we’re stressed, the hippocampus cannot function normally, impairing our ability to learn and remember.
Fortunately, the impairment is temporary, and once the stressful situation is over, the ability to learn and remember return. A great example of this would be forgetting a very simple word when giving a presentation in front of a large audience. The stress of the moment causes a temporary “blank”, but you quickly recall the word later once you’re done the presentation.
In addition to its effects on the hippocampus, stress can also negatively affect an area called the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC is responsible for our ability to multi-task. It helps us plan and manipulate information and direct our attention to specific things in our environment (and ignore others). For example, if you’re talking on the phone while making dinner, the PFC will allow you to keep track of the chicken so it doesn’t burn, ignore the noise from the television, maintain a conversation with your friend and keep an eye on your children.
When faced with stressful situations, the PFC also doesn’t work as efficiently. Your ability to multi-task is decreased, and your ability to choose what you pay attention to is also impaired. Using the example from above, you’d be more likely to burn the chicken and pay attention to the television, instead of your phone conversation. The good news is that short-term stress doesn’t appear to cause permanent changes to your brain. When the stressful situation is over, your brain returns to normal.
However, under chronic stress, repeated exposure to increased cortisol can slow down your brain’s ability to recover from stress. Therefore, when faced with chronic stress, your memory and ability to multi-task may remain impaired for a longer period of time after the stress is gone. In extreme cases, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, it can even damage the brain so that your ability to learn and remember things is permanently impaired.
With the holidays and its related stressors rapidly approaching, it becomes important for us to incorporate some de-stressing techniques into our lives so we can decrease our exposure to chronic stress. The following four techniques will ensure that you’re better prepared to handle unexpected and uncontrollable situations and minimize the “stress messages” sent to your brain.
1.Exercise
Exercise stimulates the growth and repair of brain cells, especially in the hippocampus. It also puts us in a more relaxed and positive mood. Both these effects can directly affect our susceptibility to stress. If you’re more relaxed and more positive, you’re less likely to see a situation as uncontrollable and hopeless. Therefore, you’re less likely to perceive the situation as stressful, and won’t be releasing cortisol. In addition, when faced with a stressful situation, the new brain cells can help compensate for any potential learning and memory problems.
2. Sleep
Sleep deprivation can cause an increase in cortisol levels and negatively affect your ability to learn and remember things. As a result, you may be more likely to perceive a situation as stressful, which feeds into a vicious circle of further increasing your cortisol levels. Get at least eight hours of sleep every night to prevent the increase in cortisol.
3. Social support
This includes regular contact with supportive friends, family or healthcare professionals. These people provide emotional support or information on how to manage stressful situations. Although we don’t yet know exactly how this affects our brain, it’s clear that having a social support network helps with mood and mental health.
4. Meditate
Thirty minutes of relaxation every day can increase the size of your hippocampus. This includes gentle stretching exercises and movements that are coordinated to your breath; sitting meditation and focusing on breathing; and conducting a body scan that sequentially directs awareness to every part of your body.
As you can see, simple lifestyle changes can greatly improve our brain’s ability to deal with stress. As little as 30 minutes a day can help your holidays go from stressful memory lapses to efficient multi-tasking festivities!