- Remove the current class from the content27_link item as Webflows native current state will automatically be applied.
- To add interactions which automatically expand and collapse sections in the table of contents select the content27_h-trigger element, add an element trigger and select Mouse click (tap)
- For the 1st click select the custom animation Content 27 table of contents [Expand] and for the 2nd click select the custom animation Content 27 table of contents [Collapse].
- In the Trigger Settings, deselect all checkboxes other than Desktop and above. This disables the interaction on tablet and below to prevent bugs when scrolling.
Stress is a universal experience, yet its impact on the brain remains underappreciated. Prolonged stress can lead to burnout, a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion. Understanding how stress affects the brain and exploring ways to manage it are crucial for individuals and organizations alike.
What Happens to Your Brain Under Stress?
Stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, releasing stress hormones like cortisol. While short bursts of stress can be adaptive—helping us tackle immediate challenges—chronic stress has the opposite effect, leading to "allostatic load" or wear and tear on the brain and body.
Key areas of the brain affected by chronic stress include:
The Hippocampus: Responsible for memory and learning, chronic stress can cause structural remodeling in the hippocampus, even shrinking it, and impairing its function. This may manifest as impaired memory formation and recall, making it harder to retain information or solve problems effectively. This can slow down work processes and decrease productivity.
The Prefrontal Cortex: Prolonged stress can lead to disrupted connectivity in this region of the brain. Vital for decision-making and executive functions, prolonged stress weakens this region, resulting in poor impulse control and difficulty planning. Resulting in poor decision-making, reduced focus, and difficulty managing tasks. This cognitive decline hampers productivity and increases the likelihood of mistakes.
The Amygdala: Heightened stress amplifies activity in the amygdala, increasing fear and anxiety responses, often leading to a heightened perception of threat. Overactivation of the amygdala heightens feelings of fear, anxiety, and irritability, often leading to strained relationships and workplace conflicts. Emotional instability further exacerbates stress, creating a cycle of decreased morale and efficiency.
These neurological effects also take a toll on physical health, contributing to issues like high blood pressure, weakened immunity, and chronic fatigue. Left unaddressed, the combined impact on mental and physical well-being can result in burnout, absenteeism, and long-term health problems. Recognizing and managing stress is vital for sustaining both personal performance and overall health.
Stress and Burnout: A Dangerous Cycle
Burnout isn’t just about feeling tired; it’s the culmination of prolonged stress that overwhelms the brain’s capacity to cope. Stress-induced changes in the brain, such as the shrinkage of the hippocampus and disrupted connectivity in the prefrontal cortex, impair our ability to regulate emotions and think clearly.
Burnout symptoms like exhaustion, detachment, and reduced performance stem directly from these neurological changes. Organizations, particularly in high-pressure industries, are increasingly recognizing the importance of mitigating these effects to maintain productivity and employee well-being.
Breaking the stress cycle: The neurological impact of breaks
Incorporating regular rest into your routine isn’t just a way to recharge—it’s a scientifically proven method to boost productivity and protect long-term health (see more about what stress is doing to our brains here). Here’s how key neurological processes activated by rest lead to high performance and well-being:
Cortisol Regulation: Taking breaks helps lower cortisol levels, the primary stress hormone. This reduces the burden on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is responsible for the body’s stress response. By allowing cortisol levels to stabilize, rest minimizes the harmful effects of chronic stress, including fatigue, cognitive impairment, and immune suppression. Balanced cortisol levels also promote better energy regulation, keeping you alert and focused.
Neuroplasticity: Rest periods enable the brain to engage in neuroplasticity—the process of forming and strengthening neural connections. This is particularly important for the hippocampus, a region critical for memory and learning. By allowing the brain time to repair and adapt, rest enhances cognitive functions like problem-solving and creativity, empowering individuals to tackle challenges with greater efficiency.
Executive Function Recovery: The prefrontal cortex, which governs focus, decision-making, and emotional regulation, benefits significantly from short pauses. Rest restores its activity, improving your ability to prioritize tasks, make sound decisions, and manage complex responsibilities. This recovery is essential for maintaining sustained productivity throughout the day, especially in high-pressure environments.
What is critical when taking breaks is when we need breaks and the quality of our breaks matter. That is where having technology like MW75 Neuro and the Neurable App come into play. You can read more about how it here:
- Why it is so hard to know when we need a break
- How break timing can hurt or help productivity
- Scientific review on stress and its impact to the brain
Together, these processes ensure that your brain operates at its peak while reducing the risk of burnout and stress-related health issues. By prioritizing rest and recovery, individuals and organizations can unlock higher levels of performance, innovation, and resilience.
How Neurable's MW75 Neuro Headphones Help Identify and Relieve Stress
Technology like Neurable's MW75 Neuro headphones is revolutionizing how we understand and manage stress. These smart headphones are equipped with brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that monitors brainwave activity in real time. Here's how they contribute to stress relief and burnout prevention:
Identifying Stress Patterns: Neurable’s advanced EEG technology detects brainwave activity associated with stress and burnout. By providing users with immediate insights into their mental state, the MW75 Neuro enables early detection of stress before it escalates into burnout.
Personalized Break Recommendations: Based on brain activity, the headphones can recommend when to take a break, ensuring that users pause before cognitive fatigue sets in. This targeted intervention helps maintain focus and productivity throughout the day.
Promoting Relaxation: The MW75 Neuro integrates features like guided breathing exercises and mindfulness prompts, tailored to the user’s current stress levels. These interventions directly address the physiological effects of stress, promoting relaxation and mental clarity.
Real-World Utility: Unlike traditional stress management tools, Neurable’s technology seamlessly integrates into everyday life, allowing users to manage stress while they work, commute, or relax.
To read more about how we designed our app to help you build better mental healthy hygiene read this.
For businesses, these capabilities provide a scalable solution to improve employee well-being. By equipping teams with tools that monitor and manage stress, organizations can enhance workplace resilience and reduce the costly impact of burnout.
Why Stress Management Matters
Stress is inevitable, but its impact on the brain and body isn’t. By understanding the neuroscience of stress and leveraging innovative tools like the MW75 Neuro, individuals and organizations can take meaningful steps to prevent burnout. The ability to monitor brain activity in real-time, combined with actionable interventions, represents a paradigm shift in stress management.
Investing in stress management is no longer optional—it’s essential for preserving mental health and optimizing performance in a fast-paced world. Whether you’re an individual navigating daily challenges or a business striving to maintain a healthy workforce, the science and technology are clear: managing stress is a win for both brains and business.
2 Distraction Stroop Tasks experiment: The Stroop Effect (also known as cognitive interference) is a psychological phenomenon describing the difficulty people have naming a color when it's used to spell the name of a different color. During each trial of this experiment, we flashed the words “Red” or “Yellow” on a screen. Participants were asked to respond to the color of the words and ignore their meaning by pressing four keys on the keyboard –– “D”, “F”, “J”, and “K,” -- which were mapped to “Red,” “Green,” “Blue,” and “Yellow” colors, respectively. Trials in the Stroop task were categorized into congruent, when the text content matched the text color (e.g. Red), and incongruent, when the text content did not match the text color (e.g., Red). The incongruent case was counter-intuitive and more difficult. We expected to see lower accuracy, higher response times, and a drop in Alpha band power in incongruent trials. To mimic the chaotic distraction environment of in-person office life, we added an additional layer of complexity by floating the words on different visual backgrounds (a calm river, a roller coaster, a calm beach, and a busy marketplace). Both the behavioral and neural data we collected showed consistently different results in incongruent tasks, such as longer reaction times and lower Alpha waves, particularly when the words appeared on top of the marketplace background, the most distracting scene.
Interruption by Notification: It’s widely known that push notifications decrease focus level. In our three Interruption by Notification experiments, participants performed the Stroop Tasks, above, with and without push notifications, which consisted of a sound played at random time followed by a prompt to complete an activity. Our behavioral analysis and focus metrics showed that, on average, participants presented slower reaction times and were less accurate during blocks of time with distractions compared to those without them.
