Why brain breaks are important

Research-Tested Benefits of Breaks | Edutopia

Regular breaks throughout the school day—from short brain breaks in the classroom to the longer break of recess—are not simply downtime for students. Such breaks increase their productivity and provide them with opportunities to develop creativity and social skills.

Students, particularly young ones, often struggle with staying focused for long periods of time. In a 2016 study, psychologist Karrie Godwin and a team of researchers measured how attentive elementary students were during class, and discovered that they spent over a quarter of the time distracted, unable to focus on the teacher or the current task. Shorter lessons, however, kept student attention high: Teachers found it more effective to give several 10-minute lessons instead of fewer 30-minute ones.

And there are more benefits to downtime than increased attention: It decreases stress, increases productivity, boosts brain function, and provides opportunities for children to learn social skills.

Reducing Stress, Increasing Productivity

Recent research shows that our brains aren’t idle when we take breaks—they’re hard at work processing memories and helping us make sense of what we experience. In a groundbreaking 2012 study, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and her colleagues at USC and MIT used an fMRI scanner to examine neural activity during the brain’s “default mode”—a state of rest that’s usually associated with taking a break or letting our minds wander. In this state, the brain is still highly active, with a different set of regions lighting up than when we’re focused on the outside world.

Further experiments showed that this default mode is crucial for consolidating memories, reflecting on past experiences, and planning for the future—in other words, it helps shape how we make sense of our lives. Breaks keep our brains healthy and play a key role in cognitive abilities such as reading comprehension and divergent thinking (the ability to generate and make sense of novel ideas). “Rest is indeed not idleness, nor is it a wasted opportunity for productivity,” Immordino-Yang and her colleagues write.

So breaks are an essential part of learning. But the benefits extend beyond the psychological well-being of students. Particularly for younger students, regular breaks throughout the school day can be an effective way to reduce disruptive behavior. In a series of recent studies, short physical activity breaks in the classroom improved students’ behavior, increasing the effort they put into their activities as well as their ability to stay on task.

Both students and teachers benefit from using unstructured breaks to reduce stress. According to the American Psychological Association, stress can have serious health consequences, increasing someone’s chances of serious conditions such as heart disease and depression. The APA recommends frequent breaks, in addition to other activities such as exercise and mediation.

Boosting Brain Function

Exercise breaks—whether short activities in the classroom or recess—help promote physical fitness, which in turn boosts brain health. In 2013, the National Academy of Medicine (then called the Institute of Medicine) published a major report on the benefits of physical activity on children’s cognitive development and academic success.

At the time, less than half of U.S. students were meeting the federal guideline of 60 minutes of daily exercise. Bringing together experts across a range of fields, the report made the case for why regular exercise crucially belongs in schools: It not only provides physical health benefits to students but also enhances their cognitive functioning, leading to higher academic performance.

How does exercise improve learning? Engaging in physical activity increases blood flow and oxygenation in the brain, boosting neural connectivity and stimulating nerve cell growth in the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory. So exercise actually changes the structure of our brains, with a number of benefits: improved attention and memory, increased brain activity and cognitive function, and enhanced mood and ability to cope with stress.

Decades of research show that physically active children consistently outperform their inactive peers academically on both a short- and long-term basis.

Developing Social Skills

Longer breaks—such as recess or playtime—provide opportunities for children to learn important life skills. Research shows that when children play together, they learn how to take turns, resolve conflicts, and solve problems. They also learn how to manage their own emotions and behavior—fundamental skills for life. So dropping recess is a mistake, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics: Recess is a “crucial and necessary component of a child’s development,” and sacrificing it for more academics is counterproductive.

Unstructured playtime provides an opportunity for imaginary and creative play and allows children to practice divergent thinking. They benefit from the freedom to explore new ideas without fear of failure or the stress of grades, and regular exposure to new experiences can also increase their cognitive flexibility, preparing them for academic challenges.

Incorporating Breaks in Your Classroom

Several breaks throughout the day can help students stay focused:

If students are getting rowdy or bored, a few moments of exercise in the classroom can reset their attention.
Use brain breaks—short activities that stimulate curiosity—to boost students’ motivation and improve their mood.
Set aside time during class for creativity—makerspaces, Genius Hour, and art projects can help boost kids’ imaginations.

While breaks can help reset student focus, a useful alternative—especially for older students—is to switch teaching strategies throughout a lesson: Try having students team up on a think-pair-share activity or work in groups, spend a few minutes reviewing concepts, or give a low-stakes practice test at the end of a lesson. These activities can help break up the monotony of a long lesson, and as a bonus, boost students’ memory.

We Drastically Underestimate the Importance of Brain Breaks

Practice makes perfect. To become ambidextrous in basketball, dribble with your left hand, switch to your right, and repeat the process again and again. Likewise, to solve differential equations in math, pile them up and work your way through them diligently.

According to one popular school of thought, it’s this active, repeated manipulation of material that lays the neural foundations for skill development. All too often, time away from the basketball court—or the math books—is seen as a break in the learning process, a way to cool off, reenergize, and then return to the vital work of actual practice.

But for Leonardo Cohen, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health and the senior author of a June 2021 study published in the journal Cell, the idea that breaks are a cooling-off period is a misconception.

Cohen and his colleagues used magnetoencephalography—a highly sensitive brain-scanning technique—to observe the neural activity of young adults as they learned how to type with their nondominant hand. After a practice session, the study participants were given a short break and then continued practicing for a total of 35 sessions.

When analyzing the data, Cohen’s team made an intriguing discovery: They observed a spike in brain activity, mimicking the neural pattern seen during the practice session, but compressed by twentyfold. Rather than being idle, the brain was replaying the practice session over and over at an astonishingly high rate of speed—flipping the material from the neocortex, where sensory and motor skills are processed, to the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, over two dozen times in the span of 10 seconds. Stepping away from the activity, it turns out, is not stepping away from the activity at all.

The findings echo the groundbreaking discovery in 2001 that after successfully running through a maze, rats replayed those memories repeatedly during REM sleep, with the same spatial circuitry flickering to life as they slept.

An Inside Look

When we learn a new skill, we need to connect it to previous memories, explains Cohen, a process called “binding. ” For example, when learning how to play piano, our brains need to link a simple action—pressing a piano key—with a larger, more complex skill, such as playing a song. Until now, scientists have been unable to decipher how the brain connects these two discrete actions into a consolidated skill.

Cohen’s team discovered that after learning new information, our brains continue to whir, using cognitive downtime as a virtual staging ground to process, organize, and integrate learned information. The key, they believe, lies in neural replay, the “temporally compressed reactivation of neural activity patterns representing behavioral sequences during rest.” In other words, after practicing a skill, our brains rapidly cycle through the experience, compressing and imprinting the material to optimize storage and recall.

We greatly underestimate the value of breaks when learning, Cohen and his colleagues assert, commonly opting for an approach that views active practice as the only way to advance. But that’s a mistake, because incorporating breaks into learning “plays just as important a role as practice in learning a new skill. It appears to be the period when our brains compress and consolidate memories of what we just practiced.”

Brain Breaks During School

In the classroom, “brain breaks should take place before fatigue, boredom, distraction, and inattention set in,” writes neurologist and classroom teacher Judy Willis, and that means they should be far more frequent. “As a general rule,” Willis continues, basing her conclusions on decades of research, “concentrated study of 10 to 15 minutes for elementary school and 20 to 30 minutes for middle and high school students calls for a three- to five-minute break.”

You don’t have to overthink it, or add to your workload by planning entertaining activities. Willis recommends simple techniques, such as a stretch break, moving to a different part of the room, or singing a song to give students time to “replay” what they’ve learned and to prepare them for more practice or new material. Letting students chat informally for a few minutes should also work well.

As the school day progresses, there’s evidence that brain breaks become increasingly important. A 2016 study found that “cognitive fatigue” sets in toward the end of the day, leading to a notable drop in test performance: For every hour later in the day, test performance decreased by 0.9 percent of a standard deviation, the researchers found—roughly the equivalent of losing 10 school days’ worth of learning. Incorporating breaks, however, not only eliminated the decrease but actually increased performance. “Importantly, a break causes an improvement in test scores that is larger than the hourly deterioration,” the researchers discovered. “Breaks, it appears, recharge students’ cognitive energy, thus leading to better test scores.”

Head injury treatment | Treatment of PTBI

Trauma to the skull and brain can occur for various reasons: a transport accident, a fall due to external or internal factors (such as stroke, epilepsy).

Industrial, domestic, sports craniocerebral injuries are observed annually in people of different ages and occupations. Moreover, the number of victims is growing year by year.

Types of head injuries

There are three types of injuries:
• closed craniocerebral injury, in which the skin is not damaged. Outwardly, such an injury may not be noticeable, but this only makes it more dangerous, because the patient does not always seek the necessary medical help;
• Penetrating trauma accompanied by damage to the dura mater. In the case of penetrating injuries, it is very important to immediately take the patient to the hospital, as the risk of infection is high.
• open craniocerebral injury is characterized by wounds of the soft tissues of the head and, as a result, bleeding. Having received such an injury, a person should also immediately seek medical help. nine0003

They also divide the types of craniocerebral injuries according to severity: mild, moderate and severe. With mild, loss of consciousness can last up to several minutes, and with moderate and severe - an hour or more.

Symptoms of craniocerebral injuries

• Impairment or loss of consciousness (stupor).
• Headache, dizziness.
• Ringing or tinnitus.
• Convulsions, nausea.
• Amnesia, even momentary, hallucinations.
• Inappropriate behavior (sudden aggression or apathy). nine0011 • Impaired coordination of movements.
• Bruising (especially around the eyes and behind the ears).
• Partial or total blindness.
• Distortion of the face (a sign of a skull fracture).

If at least one of these symptoms appears after a blow to the head or injury, immediately, as already mentioned, you need to go to the hospital, because, as studies show, up to 50% of deaths occur just in those who have received a head injury (of the total number died from all types of injuries). nine0003

Treatment of traumatic brain injury

The treatment of head injuries takes place in two stages, the first of which is the direct provision of primary medical care, and the second is inpatient observation and restoration of the patient's state of health.

First, an examination is done, usually by x-ray or computed tomography. Depending on the results, doctors develop a set of measures that should prevent further damage to brain tissue and help restore the patient's normal state of health. If necessary, neurosurgical intervention is used. nine0003

Then the patient is kept under observation to avoid the development of complications (brain hypoxia, hypertension) and secondary injury. They also prescribe a course of necessary medications. The choice of a complex of therapeutic measures depends on the type and severity of the injury and is carried out individually. The main thing for the patient during the treatment of traumatic brain injury and recovery after it is rest and adherence to a strict regimen.

Head trauma rehabilitation

Recovering from any injury or illness is a long and sometimes difficult task. At the Three Sisters Center, you can count on professional assistance in rehabilitation after traumatic brain injuries. There are all conditions for a comfortable and completely safe stay for the patient. Vigilant, but at the same time unobtrusive, the care of qualified nurses surrounds the guests of the center all the time.

Specially designed sets of exercises will help you quickly regain all the necessary skills and restore your previous shape. An individually selected diet and fresh air will contribute to the good functioning of the cardiovascular system and a quick recovery. Rehabilitation Center "Three Sisters" wishes you to be healthy! nine0003

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Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal Cord Injury is injury or disease resulting from injury or disease to any part of the spinal cord or nerves of the spinal canal. These injuries often cause impairment or loss of motor or sensory function. nine0003

Many scientists do not give up the idea that spinal cord injury will someday be completely reversible. Therefore, research in this area is being conducted around the world. At the same time, the treatment and rehabilitation programs that exist today allow many patients to become an active member of society again.

The ability to control the limbs of the body after a spinal cord injury depends on two factors: the location of the injury (part of the spinal cord) and the severity of the injury. If the spinal cord is seriously damaged, the pathways that link together several parts of the spinal cord are destroyed, then the consequences of a spinal injury are catastrophic. nine0003

The severity of the injury is divided into:

Complete injury

Such an injury leads to loss of sensation and motor functions of all organs and parts of the body below the level of injury.

Incomplete injury

In case of incomplete spinal cord injury, the organs and limbs located below the injury site retain partial motor activity.

Also, spinal cord injuries can lead to tetraplegia (aka quadriplegia) - a violation or loss of the functions of the arms, trunk, legs and functions of the pelvic organs. nine0003

Paraplegia is complete paralysis or paralysis affecting part of the trunk, legs and pelvis.

Your doctor will perform a series of tests to determine the level of neurological damage and the severity of the injury.
Signs and symptoms of spinal cord injury (may appear as one or more of the following):
loss of motor functions,
loss of sensation, including the ability to feel heat, cold, or touch. nine0104
loss of bowel and bladder control
increased muscle tone or uncontrolled spasms
sexual dysfunction and infertility
pain or tingling sensation caused by damage to the nerve fibers of the spinal cord
shortness of breath, cough.

Early signs of spinal cord injury:

Severe back pain or pressure in the neck and head
Numbness, tingling or loss of sensation in the hands, fingers, feet or toes
Loss of bowel or bladder control
Difficulty walking and balancing
Respiratory problems

When to See a Doctor

Anyone with a serious head or neck injury should seek immediate medical attention. Doctors will evaluate and possible damage to the spinal cord. For any suspected spinal cord injury, doctors must perform all proper medical procedures until proven otherwise, this is important because:

A serious spinal injury is not always immediately obvious. If it is not recognized in time, it can lead to more serious consequences.
Numbness or paralysis may also take some time to appear, and if left undiagnosed, prolonged internal bleeding and swelling in or around the spinal cord may worsen the situation.
The time elapsed after the injury and the provision of medical care directly affects the possible complications and subsequent rehabilitation of the patient. nine0104

How to deal with someone who has just been injured:

Call 1719 or the nearest hospital ambulance.
Place towels on both sides of the head and neck to keep them still and wait for an ambulance.
Administer first aid to the casualty: take steps to stop bleeding and keep the casualty as comfortable as possible without moving the neck or head.

Injury to the spinal cord is possible as a result of damage to the vertebrae, ligaments or discs of the spine. Traumatic spinal cord injury may be associated with a sudden blow to the spine, resulting in a fracture, displacement or compression of the vertebrae. Spinal cord injury can also be obtained as a result of a gunshot or knife wound. Complications usually occur within days or weeks of injury due to bleeding, swelling, inflammation, and fluid buildup in and around the spinal cord. nine0003

Non-traumatic spinal cord injury is also possible due to a number of diseases: arthritis, cancer, inflammation, infection or disc degeneration of the spine.

Your brain and central nervous system

The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord, composed of soft tissue surrounded by bones (vertebrae), runs down from the base of the brain, is made up of nerve cells and their processes, and ends just above the waist. Below this area is a bundle of nerve endings called the ponytail. nine0003

The spinal nerves are responsible for communication between the brain and the body. Motor neurons transmit signals from the brain to control muscle movement. Sensory areas carry signals from body parts to the brain to communicate information about heat, cold, pressure, pain, and limb position.

Nerve damage

Regardless of the cause of the spinal cord injury, the nerve fibers passing through the injured area can also be affected. This leads to a deterioration in the functioning of the muscles and nerves located below the injury site. Damage to the thoracic or lumbar region can affect the functioning of the muscles of the trunk, legs, and internal organs (bladder and bowel control, sexual function). And neck injuries can affect hand movements and even the ability to breathe. nine0003

Common causes of spinal cord injury

The most common causes of spinal cord injury in the United States:

Traffic accidents. Crashes involving cars and motorcycles are the leading cause of spinal cord injury, over 40% annually.

Falls. Spinal cord injuries in the elderly (after 65 years) are usually associated with a fall. In general, statistics allocate ¼ of all cases to this reason.

Acts of violence. 15% of spinal cord injuries are caused by violence (including gunshot and stab wounds). Data from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Sports injuries. Professional sports carry many dangers, as well as active recreation, for example, diving in shallow water. 8% of back injuries fall under this article.

Alcohol. Every fourth injury is related to alcohol in one way or another. nine0003

Diseases. Cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, and inflammation of the spinal cord can also cause damage to this organ.

Despite the fact that such injuries are usually caused by an accident, a number of risk factors have been identified, such as:

Gender. Statistically affected men are many times more. In the US, there are only 20% of women with similar and injuries.

Age. As a rule, injuries are received at the most active age - from 16 to 30 years. Road accidents remain the leading cause of injury at this age. nine0003

Love for risk and extreme. Which is logical, but the main thing is that in the first place, athletes and amateurs get injured when safety precautions are violated.

Diseases of bones and joints. In the case of chronic arthritis or osteoporosis, even a small back injury can be fatal to the patient.

After a spinal cord injury, patients face a large number of unpleasant consequences that can radically change their lives. When receiving such a serious injury, a team of specialists comes to the aid of the patient, including neurosurgeons, neurologists and doctors of the rehabilitation center. nine0003

Specialists of the Rehabilitation Center will offer a number of methods to control vital processes (bladder and intestines). A special diet will be developed to improve organ functions, which will help to avoid future kidney stones, urinary tract and kidney infections, obesity, diabetes, etc. Under the supervision of experienced physiotherapists, a program of physical exercises will be developed to improve the patient's muscle tone. You will receive detailed advice on skin care to avoid pressure sores, maintaining the functioning of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Specialists in the field of urology and infertility treatment can also be involved if necessary. Doctors will teach you how to deal with pain and depression. We are able to offer an integrated approach for the complete stabilization of the patient's condition. nine0003

Medical research:

Radiography. This is where the study should start. The pictures give a general picture of the situation, allow assessing the deformation of the spine, detecting fractures, dislocations of the bodies and processes of the vertebrae, and clarifying the level of damage.

Computed tomography (CT). CT scan gives more detailed information about the damaged area. When scanning, the doctor receives a series of cross-sectional images and provides a detailed study of the walls of the spinal canal, its membranes and nerve roots. nine0003

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI makes it possible to obtain an image of the spinal cord throughout in different projections. And it will be very useful in identifying herniated discs, blood clots and other masses that can compress the spinal cord.

A few days after the injury, when the swelling has gone down, your doctor may do a neurological exam to determine the severity of the injury. It includes a test of muscle strength and sensory sensitivity.

Unfortunately, spinal cord injury cannot be completely cured. But ongoing research is providing physicians with more and more new tools and techniques to treat patients that can help regenerate nerve cells and improve nerve function. At the same time, we should not forget about the work that is being done in the field of maintaining an active life of patients after an injury, expanding opportunities and improving the quality of life of people with disabilities.

Ambulance service

Prompt first aid is critical to minimizing the effects of any head or neck injury. Similarly, spinal cord injury treatment often begins at the scene.

The emergency medical team on arrival should immobilize the spine as gently and quickly as possible using a rigid cervical collar and a special stretcher to transport the casualty to the hospital.

When a spinal cord injury occurs, the patient is taken to the intensive care unit. The patient can also be taken to a regional spinal injury center where a team of neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, psychologists, nurses, therapists and social workers is always on duty. nine0003

Medicines. Methylprednisolone (Medrol) is used for acute spinal cord injury. When treated with "Methylprednisolone" within the first eight hours after injury, there is a chance to get a moderate improvement in the patient's condition. This drug reduces damage to nerve cells and relieves inflammation of the tissues around the site of injury. However, it is not a cure for spinal cord injury itself.

Immobilization. Stabilization of the injured spine during transportation is extremely important. To do this, the brigade has in its arsenal special devices for keeping the spine and neck stationary. nine0003

Surgical intervention. Often, doctors are forced to resort to operations to remove fragments of bones, foreign objects, herniated discs, or fix a fractured vertebrae. Surgery may also be needed to stabilize the spine to prevent pain or bone deformity in the future.

Period of hospitalization

Once the patient has been stabilized and treated as a matter of priority, the staff begins work to prevent complications and associated problems. This may be a deterioration in the patient's physical condition, muscle contracture, bedsores, disruption of the intestines and bladder, respiratory infections and blood clots. nine0003

The length of hospital stay depends on the severity of the injury and the rate of recovery. After discharge, the patient is sent to the rehabilitation department.

Rehabilitation. Work with the patient can begin in the early stages of recovery. A team of specialists may include physical therapists, occupational therapists, specially trained nurses, a psychologist, a social worker, a nutritionist and a supervising physician.

In the early stages of rehabilitation, physicians typically work to preserve and strengthen muscle function by engaging fine motor skills and teaching adaptive behaviors in daily activities. Patients receive advice on the consequences of injuries and the prevention of complications. You will be given recommendations on how you can improve the quality of life in the current conditions. Patients are taught new skills, including the use of special equipment and technologies that make it possible not to depend on outside help. Having mastered them, you can find a possibly new hobby, participate in social and sports activities, return to school or work. nine0003

Medical treatment. The patient may be prescribed medication to control the effects of spinal cord injury. These include medicines to control pain and muscle spasms, as well as medicines to improve bladder, bowel and sexual function control.

New technologies. To date, modern means of transportation have been invented for people with disabilities, providing full mobility of patients. For example, modern lightweight wheelchairs on an electric drive. Some of the latest models allow the patient to independently climb the stairs and lift the seated person to any desired height.