Research Guides: Brain Breaks: Why Brain Breaks

Welcome

Brain Breaks is designed to encourage study breaks that allow the mind and body to refresh.

The Brain Breaks site offers creative minds a playground of online material. There are a variety of active and passive activities, good for the mind and body.

For those hesitant to justify a break, included on this page are a variety of articles examining the advantages of taking a break while working or studying.

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Study/Work Break Benefits

A SIGNAGE INTERVENTION DECREASES INACTIVE STUDY BREAKS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS.
"In summary, this is a novel study that shows the need for breaking up prolonged periods of sedentary time in college students to promote health benefits. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to observe college student study behaviors rather than rely on self-report. Overall, there is a need for active study breaks to increase academic performance, improve physical well-being, relieve stress, improve mood, and increase productivity."
A Walk Down the Lane Gives Wings to Your Brain. Restorative Benefits of Rest Breaks on Cognition and Self-Control.
"The results indicate that while rest is generally beneficial for performance, these benefits are similar for active and passive rest."
The Effects of Varying Break Length on Attention and Time on Task
"Results: Improvements in reaction time were significantly positively associated with length of the rest break."

Rest Break Benefit

Assessing the benefits of napping and short rest breaks on processing speed in sleep-restricted adolescents
"Our results indicate that napping partially reverses the detrimental effects of sleep restriction on processing speed. However, rest breaks have a greater effect as a countermeasure against poor performance when sleep pressure is higher. These data add to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of sleep for good cognitive functioning in adolescents, and suggest that more frequent rest breaks might be important in situations where sleep loss is unavoidable."

Negative effects of sitting for an extended time period

Effect of university students’ sedentary behavior on stress, anxiety, and depression
"As sitting hours increased, university students’ stress, anxiety, and depression significantly increased despite controlling for sex, economic level, body mass index, underlying disease, and health self-management.
Practical Implications: Intervention programs that reduce sedentary behavior and improve physical activity and mental health for university students are necessary."

Exercise Benefits

The effects of yoga on stress and psychological health among employees: an 8- and 16-week intervention study
"Results: Significant reductions in stress and all psychological health measures were found within the Yoga group over 16 weeks. When compared to the control group, yoga practitioners showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, and general psychological health, and significant increases in well-being. The group who did not practice yoga showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia after they crossed over and practiced yoga for 8 weeks."