Much does not always help a lot: When making important decisions and solving problems, it pays to breathe from time to time and just do nothing. Why that is so, explains the science.

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Sleep for better decisions

One often hears “sleeping one night over” when important decisions have to be made. In fact, sleep actually helps to make such decisions, precisely because you go about it rested: when you are resting, information is processed unconsciously. At least that's what scientific studies have shown.

The Greek doctor Dimitros Trichopoulos, for example, discovered that those who sleep for more than 30 minutes at least three times a week in the afternoon are reduced Risks dying of a heart attack by 37 percent. The study was published in the US journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Sleeping helps to reduce stress

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For six years, the scientists studied the sleeping habits of 23000 Greeks Age between 20 and 86 years. Only those who did not suffer from cardiovascular diseases or cancer at the beginning of the study were allowed to take part. The researchers asked the participants whether they regularly slept in the middle of the day, and if so, how often and for how long. The subjects were also asked about their eating habits and provided information about their sporting activities.

The result: a nap helps Stress dismantling, that's what makes him so healthy. It has long been known that stress can affect cardiovascular health in both the short and long term. But only those who sleep regularly in the afternoon can prevent this risk. It is best to sleep half an hour every day. Only then does one benefit from the protective Effect and reduces your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Good ideas instead of switching off

But sleep offers other advantages: It serves as a kind of incubation period for creativity. That is also the reason why igniting ideas sometimes come at an unexpected time - for example when you are relaxed and thinking of something completely different (or: nothing at all).

On the other hand, such good ideas seldom come up when you're still thinking about the right one after a hard day's work Projects the brain racked. But science says even more: not only sleep helps to solve problems. Just switch off!

The more we think, the worse it gets

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Psychologists Neil Roese and Jeff Kuban led the University of Illinois conducted an interesting experimental study with 200 students. They had their subjects calculate math problems and measured their brain activity. In a first round, they gave a realistic time limit of 15 minutes for each task. In a second run, they allowed 30 minutes for each task, which again had the same level of difficulty, with the requirement to use the time fully. Any calculation errors should be eliminated in detail.

The result: Due to the additional time, the calculation results did not improve significantly compared to the first run. However, the researchers observed that the longer the students worked on a task, the faster their brains worked. In addition, almost all students stated afterwards that they Tasks found it harder in the second round. Roese and Kuban concluded that People Perceive tasks as fundamentally more difficult the longer they deal with them. In other words: less is more! So that means:

Catastrophizing makes the problem infinite

The longer and more detailed we are about a Problem ponder, the more difficult one appears at the end Solution of the problem. As a result, we imagine the consequences of our actions to be much worse than they are - we "catastrophe". Panic ensues. We have Anxiety, wrong to us decideto do the wrong thing. And then we often make the same mistake:

Instead of just stopping and doing something else, we ponder even more: we want to try, but still fast to find a solution. However, things usually get worse that way, we go in circles, can no longer think clearly, get even more afraid and panic - a vicious circle.

Problems take their power: 5 tips on decadastrophizing

Realize that things might not be as bad as you thought. For example, also linguistically: one tends to exaggerate like “that is all totally terrible”. Because our Brain quickly categorized for convenience, in order to be able to process new things more quickly. Such exaggerations add to the stress on us. What helps here?

  1. You have to realize that it is not so bad if you make a mistake. That 80% are often good enough.
  2. If you realize rationally that it does not necessarily lead to a better result, to make more effort, you can let it be.
  3. What also helps: Just take a deep breath. Make it clear that the problem may not be as bad as you thought.
  4. Outsmart the brain. Questioning where exactly you see the problem now. Less black and white thinking.
  5. To divide the problem mountain that you may see in front of you. This makes the problem smaller, one entkatastrophiert.

Physical exercise helps to switch off

Since that's not so easy, exercise can help to simply switch off: doing sport that physically exhausts you. relaxation exercises or yoga. To bring your stress hormones back into balance. In any case, ventilate the brain. This mechanism can also be illustrated with a simple signal. The following exercise serves to make you aware of when you are slipping into brooding and to break through this thought pattern by countering it with a conscious reaction. It's called "Thought Stop":

  1. In the first step of the thought stop, just say “stop” out loud when you realize that you are starting to ponder. If you're not alone, say it softly but forcefully - or at least think so. Take a deep breath and slowly exhale, relax.
  2. You can continue to push it and slip a rubber band over your wrist, which will pull you apart and snap back to stop your thinking. No matter how, the main thing, you distract yourself from it.
  3. If you have nothing to do right now, do relaxation exercises or quickly find a little work to do. The important thing is to think about something else.

The solution: Just stop pondering

So the next time you catch yourself brooding, pay close attention to this process: In the beginning, you might have klare thoughts are yours Opinions relatively for sure. Then the first doubts come that make you think about the matter from a different point of view Perspektive consider. Very good - but you should leave it at that, even if you haven't found a solution yet.

If necessary, think about the topic later. Because if you continue to brood, you will always have more doubts, the thoughts seem to become independent. If you allow the brain a break at this point, you will occasionally be surprised to find that the topic will do itself.


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