How to Improve Cognitive Function and Avoid Sick Building Syndrome

When self-reflecting and looking for self-improvement, considering your cognitive function can be a great place to start. Brain-based skills can be improved upon, but they aren’t all in your head; environmental factors can have a huge impact on your brain’s processing power, which can affect your memory, attention span, and performance. 

What is Cognitive Function?

Cognitive function is how your brain works! From thinking and remembering to reading and reason, cognition is ‘the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.’ Improving brain health is important as it can make you feel better in the day to day, and ensure you maintain your cognitive skills as you age.

When discussing cognitive health, we’re really talking about how well you’re able to think, learn, and remember. Your ability to perceive your surrounds, process your surroundings, and make decisions, are all contributing factors to your cognitive function. Someone with poorer cognitive function may have worse memory or have a harder time staying focused.

What Affects Cognitive Function?

Changing or managing environmental and lifestyle factors can maintain cognitive function, supporting your brain health now and in the future. Mental stimulation can also improve cognition, helping you to make more objective decisions, improve your memory and productivity, and provide an enhanced ability to learn.

Lifestyle

Research shows that lifestyle can affect cognitive function. From your physical activity to the food you eat, a healthier lifestyle can directly impact your cognitive ability. Regular exercise improves your ability to learn and your stress management, while getting enough sleep can aid your problem solving and ability to hold memories. Check out our blog post on how to get a better night’s sleep here!

Healthy Brain Habits

You can improve your cognitive function by exercising your brain through puzzles and meditation, learning a new language, or even playing cards! Try your hand at a jigsaw or a sudoku or reduce stress with focused breathing. Reducing your cognitive overload can also improve your cognition. Cognitive overload occurs when your working memory exceeds its capacity, and you can’t take in any more information and leads to reduced cognitive function. Removing distractions or other sensory inputs can prevent cognitive overload, as can breaking down tasks into smaller chunks with shorter deadlines.

Environment

Your environment can also affect cognition. Your physical environment and being in nature can impact your brain’s ability to process information, but your social environment can also have a huge effect on your cognitive abilities. Even the temperature plays a part in your cognitive function! Studies show that both extreme cold and extreme heat can have negative effects on cognition, and maintaining an ambient temperature between 17-23C can improve your ability to perform complex tasks.

Air quality can also affect cognition, and air pollution has been frequently associated with worse cognitive function. This can be further exacerbated by an unhealthy lifestyle and increased social stress.

 

Sick Building Syndrome

 Sick building syndrome is a broad-spectrum definition for illness which has no identifiable cause but affects occupants and appears to be linked to their time spent in a specific building. This is often linked to indoor air quality, and symptoms can range from dizziness, headaches, and dry throats to difficulty concentrating, and fatigue. Workplace wellness and cognitive function are important to consider, as poor cognition can reduce productivity and output.

Inadequate ventilation and high levels of pollutants can cause or contribute towards sick building syndrome, so removing pollutants through ventilation and air filtration can aid in a reduction of these symptoms.

Conclusion

Prioritising brain health and improving cognitive function can have a huge impact on your daily life, boosting your memory, focus, and mental performance. By making thoughtful adjustments to your lifestyle, such as incorporating regular exercise, getting adequate sleep, and practicing mental stimulation activities, you can significantly enhance your cognitive abilities.

As we embark on a new year, consider these steps to improve not just your physical well-being but also your mental clarity and cognitive resilience. Whether through environmental changes, brain exercises, or stress management, every effort you make to improve your cognitive function will contribute to a more productive and fulfilling year.