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Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by eitland on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @10:13AM (#30360978)
> While widespread strategies to recover from mental exhaustion (i.e., watching TV) are non-effective,

I worked for a startup from 2015 to 2017.

During that time I'd sometimes work 10-14 hours for 2-3 days in a row.

When I was tired after lunch I'd just tell my colleagues I was tired and would take a gaming break and then go play 1 or 2 maps of CS:GO in casual mode before working 5-7 hours more after the brain fog had lifted. It actually worked very well back then.

Not exactly the same as TV since was very active and not relaxing but I feel it was worth mentioning since to counter the idea that only physical exercise can work.

Later I figured out that if I just drop breakfast I don't get hit by brain fog after lunch. This is funny since every health specialist have always told how important a correct breakfast is to stay sharp during the day.

During the pandemic I tried this again but stopped it since now it seems 20 minutes of gaming just wastes 40 minutes of my day. There are some obvious between now and then but I have no clear idea which of them are responsible for why it worked back then but not now. (During the pandemic I worked from home, I also don't eat breakfast mot days and I am older now.)

Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by curiousllama on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @10:17AM (#30361028)
If you ever want to do breakfast again, try dropping the carbs. Had a similar problem, and greek yogurt for breakfast solved it for me.
Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by g19fanatic on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @11:48AM (#30362281)
+1 for dropping the carbs to leave the fog behind.

I used to do a large, sometimes carb heavy breakfast (french toast was my goto... with syrup of course). Brain fog killed me. Switched to 2 strips of bacon and 3 eggs instead (bacon done in the microwave, so easy) and that fog has lifted!

Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by aphroz on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @12:09PM (#30362547)
The idea that "breakfast was the most important meal" was created by cereals manufacturers: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...
Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by arpanet86 on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @12:12PM (#30362580)
Sam Blankman-Fried of FTX had a Twitter thread about playing League of Legends during work hours to let his brain reset without dumping all of its context: https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1357123542999916544
Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by m3kw9 on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @10:18AM (#30361036)
It sound funny but it seems like playing cs go for you at the time was equivalent of a mind calming meditation. Especially play easy mode where you get kill streaks which can remotivate you
Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by eitland on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @10:22AM (#30361097)
My pet theory for why it worked back then has been that my brain is easily fooled, sensed a life and death scenario and released adrenaline which sharpened me, but I'm no specialist, I just know some tricks that sometimes work for me.)
Re:Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion by damnruskie on Thursday February 17, 2022 @06:12PM (#30380018)
1-2 5 min games of chess does it for me