Have you ever tried to read an email, but struggled to focus on the words? Or taken a peek out of the window only to find yourself daydreaming for 20 minutes? Or perhaps you regularly find yourself struggling to do day-to-day tasks as it feels like your brain is moving at a snail’s pace. If so, you might be experiencing what’s known as “brain fog.”
Brain fog is when you feel fuzzy, mentally slow, tired, and disorientated. It may make it hard to focus or cause memory problems, and generally tank your productivity and quality of life.
Brain fog itself isn’t a condition, however. Instead, it’s the name for the group of symptoms many of us experience, and it can be caused by a whole host of things.
Below, we’ll dive into what brain fog is, what causes it, and how you can get rid of it. Plus, we’ll cover how the can help fix a huge cause of brain fog — poor sleep.
Brain fog is the name for a common set of symptoms that typically involve cognitive impairment of some kind, including having a lack of focus, experiencing memory problems, or feeling easily distracted and spaced out.
At first, it can be hard to tell brain fog apart from general fatigue or — if you’re really hit hard by it — more serious conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. However, brain fog doesn’t progressively worsen in the way conditions like dementia do, and you can use the to rule out things like sleep deprivation (more on how to do this soon).
Brain fog isn’t well-defined in the scientific community, but it can easily impact your mood, productivity, and quality of life. Plus, it can be a sign of an underlying health condition or something (like sleep deprivation) that can lead to serious health problems — so brain fog is worth getting to the bottom of.
As brain fog isn’t a condition in its own right, it doesn’t have set symptoms so to speak. Instead, it’s , and the common symptoms of those conditions are what we know as brain fog.
The include:
Brain fog has quite a few culprits. The most common causes are:
The best way to get rid of brain fog will all depend on what’s causing the symptoms in the first place. And that can be hard to figure out. There’s not a simple test you can do to get diagnosed with brain fog, and it may be caused by several things at once.
Luckily, many of the ways to treat brain fog are simple lifestyle changes and healthy brain habits you can do that will improve your health and quality of life overall. Even if you find a health condition is behind your fuzzy thinking, these treatments will help boost your energy and mood while you seek treatment.
Many of the symptoms of brain fog — difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, feeling mentally slow — are also symptoms of sleep deprivation. In fact, as so many of us are sleep deprived, your brain fog may simply be a result of not getting enough sleep each night. And even if brain fog is caused by something else, sleep debt may be adding to the problem.
Not getting enough sleep can also make other conditions — like obesity, stress, or depression — worse, which can also contribute to brain fog symptoms.
shows sleep deprivation can make tasks feel harder to do. Plus, not getting enough sleep can , making you more likely to get sick and worsen any existing brain fog.
Use the RISE app to find out how much sleep debt you have. If it’s more than five hours, you can pay it back by:
You can also use the RISE app to make sure you’re keeping on top of your sleep debt and rule out sleep deprivation if your brain fog persists.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to view their sleep debt.
{{ cta }}
Living in sync with your circadian rhythm can help you feel sleepy at bedtime, making it easier to meet your sleep need. But it can also help boost energy levels and mental performance, and alleviate brain fog.
Here’s how to live in sync with your circadian rhythm:
RISE can predict your circadian rhythm each day, so you can see when your body wants to wake up, wind down for bed, and go to sleep. You can then sync up your daily life with it. RISE can also remind you when to have your final meal of the day.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to see their upcoming energy peaks and dips on the Energy screen and to set up their avoid late meals reminder.
Sleep hygiene is the name for the set of healthy sleep habits you can do to help you fall and stay asleep at night and get the most restful, healthy sleep possible.
Here’s what to do:
The RISE app can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits each day and tell you the ideal time to do them based on your circadian rhythm to make them more effective.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to set up their 20+ in-app habit notifications.
Sleep inertia may be caused by adenosine, a natural compound that builds up in your system all the time you’re awake. As adenosine builds, you start feeling drowsy and get the urge to sleep — also called sleep pressure. Adenosine is purged by your body as you sleep, but when you wake up, there are still trace amounts lingering in your system, causing this residual tiredness.
But sleep inertia doesn’t just make you feel tired. When you have sleep inertia you may experience:
Sound familiar? The symptoms of sleep inertia are similar to those of brain fog.
Your sleep inertia may fade about 90 minutes after waking, but it may linger for in some people — that’s a whole morning of feeling foggy.
You may not be able to escape sleep-inertia-induced brain fog altogether, but there are some actions you can take to shake it off faster. Keeping sleep debt low and staying in circadian alignment will help you feel as best you can. But you can also add these habits to your morning routine:
Learn more about how RISE helps you craft an energy-boosting morning routine here.
{{ cta-mini }}
Regular exercise isn’t just good for your waistline, it can also increase blood flow to your brain. Exercise — both — can improve memory function and both have been shown to improve executive function, including attention and susceptibility to distractions. Even a can boost your energy more than a sugary snack.
Luckily, exercising can also help you relieve stress and fall asleep at night. Just be sure to avoid intense exercise within an hour of bedtime or it may keep you awake.
Check RISE for when you’ll have the most energy to exercise and when you should focus on winding down for bed instead. Learn more about the best times to workout here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to set up their avoid late workouts reminder.
Eating a healthy diet full of fruits, veggies, whole grains, healthy fats, and proteins will ensure nutritional and vitamin deficiencies aren’t the reason for your brain fog. Probiotics and fermented foods can also help to keep your gut healthy, which contributes to brain health and function.
Even what you eat for breakfast can have an impact on how alert you feel each morning. A found a high-carb breakfast made people feel more alert, whereas a high-protein breakfast containing the same amount of calories lowered alertness levels. A high-sugar breakfast (without accompanying fats and proteins) also tanked energy levels.
What you eat can also impact your sleep found diets high in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and anti-inflammatory foods and low in saturated fat were linked to better sleep quality (although experts don’t have an agreed-upon definition for yet).
We covered foods that give you energy in more detail here.
Remember to drink enough water and avoid drinking too much alcohol and caffeine each day or consuming them too close to bedtime as they can keep or wake you up.
Beyond what you eat, you should also think about when you eat. Eating too close to bedtime can keep you up late into the night, hiking up your sleep debt. And eating at odd times can throw off your circadian rhythm.
Research is conflicting, but there is some evidence to show may be good for your brain health, energy levels, gut health, and blood sugar levels. More research needs to be done, however, so for now, it’s recommended you eat all your meals within a 12-hour window.
Check the RISE app for when your last meal of the day should be and when you should stop drinking caffeine and alcohol.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to set up their avoid late meals reminder, to set up their limit caffeine reminder, and to set up their avoid late alcohol reminder.
As stress can keep you up at night and impair your mental performance, focus on keeping it in check.
You may have to make big lifestyle changes like cutting down on work responsibilities, speaking to a therapist, or hiring more childcare. But small daily behaviors like taking frequent breaks, , speaking with loved ones, and doing a relaxing hobby can also help. Meditation can help slow your mind and it’s also been shown to , too.
RISE can guide you through relaxation exercises like diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation to help you ease stress and anxiety. Learn more about 4 science-backed relaxation techniques for sleep here.
There are times in life when brain fog will hit you and you can’t do anything about it. Perhaps you have a health issue, you’re pregnant, or you’re stuck in bed with COVID. In these times, keeping sleep debt low and living in sync with your circadian rhythm can help you feel as best as possible. You can also learn to ride the wave and make the most of the energy and mental capacity you do have.
The RISE app shows you your predictable peaks and dips in energy each day. This allows you to schedule your daily tasks to match when you’ll be feeling alert, clear-headed, and probably at your most productive.
To help further, we have a few guides on specific times you might be feeling brain foggy:
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click to see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen.
{{ cta-mini }}
If you think brain fog is a side effect of your medication, speak to your doctor about trying a different prescription. And, if you think it’s due to a medical condition, reach out to a healthcare provider to get tested and discuss treatment options.
If you have symptoms like morning headaches, excessive daytime tiredness, or find yourself waking up gasping for breath, you can also get tested for sleep apnea. The sleep disorder can cause brain fog-like symptoms including difficulty concentrating, impaired memory, and mood swings. You can learn more about how to know if you have sleep apnea here.
You can also get tested for vitamin deficiencies and prescribed the right supplements for you.
Battling brain fog is no easy feat. It’s hard to tell what exactly is causing your symptoms and there’s no simple test for it, either. One thing you can do that’s guaranteed to help you feel better, whether you have brain fog or something else entirely, is improve your sleep.
Lowering your sleep debt and living in sync with your circadian rhythm can boost everything from your energy levels to your mental health to your cognitive function, and they can reduce the risk of health conditions that can cause a fuzzy brain.
The can help. Use the app to find out your individual sleep need and how much sleep debt you’re carrying, and to see a prediction of your circadian rhythm each day. RISE can also remind you when to do 20+ sleep hygiene habits to help you sleep soundly each night and have more mental clarity each day.
Brain fog and fatigue may not necessarily be the same things. When you have brain fog, you’ll feel fatigue, but you may also have cognitive symptoms like trouble concentrating, memory issues, disorientation, and having trouble with speech and language.
Symptoms of brain fog include difficulty concentrating, memory problems, disorientation, mental fatigue, trouble with speech and language, and feeling easily distracted, mentally slow, fuzzy, and scattered.
How long brain fog lasts will all depend on what’s causing it. If you have brain fog from sleep deprivation, for example, symptoms will improve when you start getting more sleep. If it’s caused by long COVID, on the other hand, symptoms may last for much longer and be harder to shift.
Brain fog can be caused by high sleep debt, living out of sync with your circadian rhythm, staying awake for too long, poor diet, vitamin deficiencies, stress, being sick, COVID, medication, health conditions like depression or ADHD, or hormonal changes like those during pregnancy, your menstrual cycle, or menopause.
How you get rid of brain fog will all depend on what’s causing it and, unfortunately, it has many possible causes. Lowering your sleep debt and living in sync with your circadian rhythm will help boost your energy, mood, and cognitive function. Exercising, lowering stress, and eating a healthy diet can all help, too.
Natural remedies for brain fog include lifestyle changes like lowering your sleep debt, living in sync with your circadian rhythm, exercising, lowering stress, eating a healthy diet, and cutting down on processed foods and sugar.
Learn more about ĢƵ for sales teams.
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
