The care and maintenance of your brain

Exercise is good for your brain

Good Reasons to Get Moving Makes your brain work more efficiently You will do better in class and on tests It reduces your risk for strokes and Alzheimer’s as you get older and makes you smarter right now.

Good Reasons to Get Moving In one study, elementary school kids jogged 2 to 3 times a week for 30 minutes. After 12 weeks, their test scores improved, and when they stopped the exercise program, their scores went back to their previous lower levels. It doesn’t even take that much exercise to get good brain benefits.

Good Reasons to Get Moving Better food and oxygen delivery to the brain More blood vessels means more oxygen Oxygen mops up free radicals which are bad Changing position increases blood flow to your brain. In fact, standing up increases blood flow to your brain up to 30%!

Brain Get Moving Strategies Move every 10 minutes or so when doing homework-get a burst of oxygen! Play sports. Play active video games Walk your dog/play with a pet Mow the lawn or vacuum or clean your room (your parents will love it) Ride your bike to a friend’s house Swim, dance, throw a ball… Just get going! It’s the smart move.

It’s an energy hog!

Feed Your Brain: A Few Facts Although it only weighs around 3 pounds, the brain uses nearly 25% of the body’s resources. Does that mean the other organs think its an energy hog? Maybe the other organs don’t mind so much. After all, without your brain you aren’t human, or even alive.

Feed Your Brain: More Facts Thinking is more difficult when you are hungry Your brain needs enough glucose to take care of all of the vital things it does plus have enough energy to deal with more complex functions. Skipping breakfast reduces fluency and problem solving ability.

Feed Your Brain: Some Strategies If you want to do better in school, eat something in the morning. Try something with protein and complex carbohydrates because they give you a more constant and long-lasting level of energy than a sugary cereal or donut. A snack at 10-minute break might be just what you need to be more focused in your 5 th period class.

Your brain can’t function well without enough sleep

Sleep and Your Brain Scientists don’t know exactly why we sleep They do know that going without sleep for too long will actually make you slip into a coma and die. Your brain does important work while you sleep…It goes through all of the many things you learned and experienced throughout the day and consolidates, deletes and stores those memories.

Sleep and Your Brain Many studies show that we remember more of what we learn when we get enough sleep

Sleep and Your Brain Unfortunately, most teenagers don’t get nearly enough sleep. One of the best ways for you to improve in school is to get the sleep your brain needs (9-11 hours for someone your age).

Sleep Strategies Turn off your electronics. (Light from your computer or video game screen tricks your body into thinking that it isn’t time to sleep.) Turn off your phone. If it wakes you every time you get a text, you won’t get enough sleep in a row (it’s called REM sleep and it is vital for healthy brain function.) Reduce caffeine during the day