Thinking that you're going to have a stressful day can reduce your cognitive abilities | Life

NEW YORK, July 5 – New American research has shown that starting your day thinking how stressful it could be could affect your cognitive functioning.

Led by researchers from Penn State University, the new study recruited 240 adults and followed them for a two-week period.

Meanwhile, participants were invited to answer questions sent to them seven times a day via a smartphone app. they expected their day to be stressful, five questions during the day about their current stress level, and a question at night to find out what they expected from them. the next day is stressful.

Participants also completed five tests per day to evaluate working memory, which is the temporary storage and management of information in the brain.

Responses showed that when participants woke up, working memory was lower later in the day, even though no stressful event had actually occurred.

However, anticipating the stress of the previous evening was not associated with a poorer working memory.

Jinshil Hyun, a co-authors of the study The findings suggest that the stress process begins long before a stressful event occurs.

"Humans can think and anticipate things before they happen, which can help prevent and even prevent certain events," says Hyun. "But this study suggests that this ability can also affect your daily memory function, regardless of whether stressful events occur or not."

Martin Sliwinski, who also worked on the study, added: "When you wake up in the morning with some perspective for the day, in a sense, the die is already sunk in. If you think that your day is going to be stressful, you will feel these effects even if nothing stressful is happening.This has not really been shown in the research so far, and this shows the impact of our way of thinking the world. "

Sliwinski also explained that a reduction in working memory can affect many aspects of a person's daily life," A reduced working memory can make you more likely to make a mistake at work or maybe less able to focus. Moreover, looking at this research in the context of healthy aging, there are some important cognitive errors that seniors can make. Taking the wrong pill or making a mistake while driving can have catastrophic consequences. "

" If you wake up and feel that the day is going to be stressful, maybe your phone will remind you to start your day, "said Sliwinski." Or if your cognition is at a place where you could do an error, maybe you can get a message that says it may not be the best time to drive. "

The results were published online.] Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences – AFP-Relaxnews