You don't have to be a biohacker who spends $ 2 million a year on a routine to stimulate your brain.
According to a Canadian study that discovered that someone can turn his brain age for 10 years by eliminating the internet of their mobile for two weeks.
In a study about 400 people student students and adults of working age-free researchers, the participants to download an app that blocked their smartphones access to the internet. They could still call and send text messages.
Participants completed surveys before and after the study to measure their brain function and mental well -being.
The results showed that their persistent attention – the ability to concentrate on one subject – was stimulated so much that it became equivalent to the attention span of someone who was 10 years younger.
Ninety percent of people also reported improvements in their mental health, with a size greater than those expected to take antidepressants for two weeks.
And the participants said they had improvements in their personal well -being and feelings of life satisfaction.
Researchers said that the shift in the brain was probably due to a change in how people spent their time, in which individuals now spend less time on the internet and socialize in person, exercise and in nature.
The graph above shows how long -term attention – the ability to concentrate on one task for a certain period – and mental health improved the one month. It shows the group that blocked access to the internet for the first two weeks (blue) and for the second two weeks (red) for the first two weeks and for the second two weeks (blue)
Researchers also discovered during the study period, the screen time almost halved – in one group of five hours and 14 minutes to two hours and on average 41 minutes a day.
In the study, the team of the University of British Columbia said: “Despite the many benefits that offer mobile internet offers, reducing the constant connection with the digital world can have major positive effects.”
They added: 'Our results provide proof that blocking mobile internet from smartphones can cause significant improvements for two weeks [well-being]Mental health and objectively measured ability to maintain attention.
'Even those who did not fully take the intervention experienced significant, although more modest improvements.
“These findings suggest that a constant connection with the online world entails costs, because psychological functioning improves when it is reduced.”
In the experiment, published in the magazine PNAS Nexus, researchers recruited participants from America and Canada via an online portal.
Participants were on average 32 years old, while 63 percent were female, and 29 percent were students and 42 percent were working full -time.
They were asked to fill in three surveys that measure their cognition in the course of a month, apart every two weeks.
They were split into two groups, where the first group downloaded an app that blocks all internet access – called the Freedom – app – completely to block internet access from their phone for the first two weeks.
The second group normally used their phone for the first two weeks and then downloaded the app to block internet access for the second two.
Analysis was performed to calculate their scores for persistent attention, mental health and subjective well -being.
Of the 467 people who have registered for the study, 266 downloaded and set the app. Of these, 119 blocked the internet for at least 10 of the 14 intervention days.
In the group that first blocked the internet, the screen time decreased from 314 minutes a day to 161 minutes a day – or almost half down.
Ninety percent of the participants reported improvements in their mental health after they disconnected their smartphones from the internet for two weeks
It then returned to 265 minutes in the next two weeks when they could get freely access to the internet, but remained 15 percent below the levels before the start of the experiment.
In the other group, the screen time fell from 336 to 322 minutes in the first two weeks when they had not blocked their access to the internet.
Subsequently, it fell from 322 to 190 minutes in the second period of two weeks, or 41 percent compared to the previous periods.
About 90 percent of American adults have a smartphone, or a telephone that can connect to the internet, which spends on average four hours and 35 minutes a day.
But almost half of the Americans – and about four of the five people younger than 30 – expressed their concern about their regular use.
It is said that young adults are worried that being constantly online makes it harder to make contact with real people and to be meaningfully involved with their family.
And the worries are the reaching of schools full of young children, with at least nine states – including California, Florida and Ohio – who now prohibit mobile phones from classrooms.
Schools in the UK, which recalled a ban on smartphones in classrooms last year in February in February, teachers say they see improvements in achieving and seeing behavior.
Several American states pass to prohibit mobile phones and claim that the devices have contributed strongly to cyberbullying, poor mental health and a lack of learning
Researchers also repeated the concern and said that people had evolved in a world where information and social contact were difficult to find.
This suggested that the constant stimulation that is offered by being connected to the internet can make it difficult to control thoughts and behavior.
The intervention blocked all internet access, but in the future the researchers said they only wanted to block certain applications – such as only social media sites.
They also want to investigate whether reducing the use of other devices with internet connection, such as laptops or tablets, could have a similar effect.
Restrictions include the sample mainly included people who were motivated to reduce the use of smartphones.
The study was funded by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest foundation in the Silicon Valley.
The Facebook of Mark Zuckerberg is the largest donor, who gave $ 1.75 billion to charity in 2010 and another $ 200 million in 2018.
