What Characterizes Brain Fatigue And How To Combat It?

milkboi

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Lately I've been hitting a ceiling of fatigue after studying for about 4 hours (with breaks in-between where I go on a short walk, eat a meal etc). After I feel super burned out, like there is nothing left in my brain to give. There are days where I have a bit more mental energy, but I still will hit a limit at these days after maybe 5-6 hours. I guess it's normal to feel exhausted after mental exertion but I really want to know:

1) What is the mechanism behind brain fatigue? Excess serotonin, acetylcholine? Depletion of glycogen and/or ATP?

and

2) What to do about it, so how to stretch the amount of time I can focus intensely? There are obviously people that can work 10+ hours a day on mentally challenging tasks, and I'd love to be one of them (or get closer to their capacity at least).
Please give me all your recommendations to help reenergize the brain. Everything is fair-game, from lifestyle and diet advice, to legal and illegal supplements, drugs and hormones.

Cheers!
 
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Lately I've been hitting a ceiling of fatigue after studying for about 4 hours (with breaks in-between where I go on a short walk, eat a meal etc). After I feel super burned out, like there is nothing left in my brain to give. There are days where I have a bit more mental energy, but I still will hit a limit at these days after maybe 5-6 hours. I guess it's normal to feel exhausted after mental exertion but I really want to know:

1) What is the mechanism behind brain fatigue? Excess serotonin, acetylcholine? Depletion of glycogen and/or ATP?

and

2) What to do about it, so how to stretch the amount of time I can focus intensely? There are obviously people that can work 10+ hours a day on mentally challenging tasks, and I'd love to be one of them (or get closer to their capacity at least).
Please give me all your recommendations to help reenergize the brain. Everything is fair-game, from lifestyle and diet advice, to legal and illegal supplements, drugs and hormones.

Cheers!

I know i read about the fatigue of sports exercise being induced by increased Serotonergic transmission,the mode of operation was increased central uptake of Trp iirc.Creatine does increase time to subjective fatigue on a simple mathematics test.

Ketogenic Diet has some mechanistic backing that it improves memory retention and reduces Parkinsons Disease and Alzheimers signs,by giving a stable and unopposed optimized energysystem,not exactly what you asked for,but related.It is also an effect of diminishing recycling of ATP and increased Adenosinergic transmission and action.

For sustainment of pure mental Focus,it could be useful to either quit caffeine or microdose it,using the amount desired and consuming it at hourly or two hourly intervals,to not allow Adenosine to build up around the gaps of dosaging.
 

redsun

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Lately I've been hitting a ceiling of fatigue after studying for about 4 hours (with breaks in-between where I go on a short walk, eat a meal etc). After I feel super burned out, like there is nothing left in my brain to give. There are days where I have a bit more mental energy, but I still will hit a limit at these days after maybe 5-6 hours. I guess it's normal to feel exhausted after mental exertion but I really want to know:

1) What is the mechanism behind brain fatigue? Excess serotonin, acetylcholine? Depletion of glycogen and/or ATP?

and

2) What to do about it, so how to stretch the amount of time I can focus intensely? There are obviously people that can work 10+ hours a day on mentally challenging tasks, and I'd love to be one of them (or get closer to their capacity at least).
Please give me all your recommendations to help reenergize the brain. Everything is fair-game, from lifestyle and diet advice, to legal and illegal supplements, drugs and hormones.

Cheers!

I think for a normal individual that study time is pretty typical. Its not natural for most people to sit down and do that. Takes a special breed of people, usually naturally elevated histamine at the minimum and good diet and nutrition to help augment the other neurotransmitters and make sure they are working well to reduce brain fatigue.
 

Nnanuu

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You run out of neurotransmitters because your methylation cycle is impaired.
 

redsun

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You run out of neurotransmitters because your methylation cycle is impaired.

This may be the case sometimes but when I took a lot of niacinamide which slows methylation it reduced mental fatigue immensely almost to nothing.

Screenshot_20200524-013803_Chrome.jpg
 
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milkboi

milkboi

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I know i read about the fatigue of sports exercise being induced by increased Serotonergic transmission,the mode of operation was increased central uptake of Trp iirc.Creatine does increase time to subjective fatigue on a simple mathematics test.

Ketogenic Diet has some mechanistic backing that it improves memory retention and reduces Parkinsons Disease and Alzheimers signs,by giving a stable and unopposed optimized energysystem,not exactly what you asked for,but related.It is also an effect of diminishing recycling of ATP and increased Adenosinergic transmission and action.

For sustainment of pure mental Focus,it could be useful to either quit caffeine or microdose it,using the amount desired and consuming it at hourly or two hourly intervals,to not allow Adenosine to build up around the gaps of dosaging.

Microdosing caffeine seems like a genius idea, thanks for that.

Maybe the benefits of ketosis can be partly simulated with MCT oil, especially C8 tryglycerides?
 
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milkboi

milkboi

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You run out of neurotransmitters because your methylation cycle is impaired.

Care to provide a link which explains that phenomenon? "Running out of neurotransmitters" always sounded like an oversimplified statement to me; doesn't mean it actually is.
 
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milkboi

milkboi

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I think for a normal individual that study time is pretty typical. Its not natural for most people to sit down and do that. Takes a special breed of people, usually naturally elevated histamine at the minimum and good diet and nutrition to help augment the other neurotransmitters and make sure they are working well to reduce brain fatigue.

Good point. Let's say I don't care to be "normal".

The question remains, what exactly happens when brain fatigue hits? I guess @Nnanuu is partly right, some neurotransmitters are probably depleted, like histamine, dopamine, maybe cortisol? What else?

Plus, I'd assume there are also inhibitory signals going on, so maybe GABA, adenosine?
 
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Microdosing caffeine seems like a genius idea, thanks for that.

Maybe the benefits of ketosis can be partly simulated with MCT oil, especially C8 tryglycerides?

indeed,as you said,partly.Plain Coconut Oil is about half MCT-type fats,so either CO or MCT oil directly.As a general advice,keep an eye on your MUFA consumption like Oleic Acid,they are important,and even Butterfat is too high saturated,wild game has a more even 50:50 distribution between SAT and MUFA iirc.
For the caffeine,you will lose subjective effects of being under the influence,at least for me,if you enjoy the feeling(I do),be aware of reduction of pleasantness,and just more capacity,you have to keep track of the effects somehow,to gauge the effectiveness,but it has research backing,cant find it though,too many Pdfs.
 
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milkboi

milkboi

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The effect of histidine on mental fatigue and cognitive performance in subjects with high fatigue and sleep disruption scores - ScienceDirect @redsun

From the study: "Although mental fatigue is a very common phenomenon in modern, everyday life, very little is known about the psychophysiological mechanisms underlying mental fatigue [9]. Moreover, despite the many studies on fatigue, it is remarkably difficult to understand mental fatigue and the cognitive processes underlying its behavioral manifestations."

Also:

"Highlights

Histidine decreased the POMS fatigue score in men feeling fatigue and drowsiness.


Histidine shortened reaction times on a cognitive function battery test.


Histidine increased sensations of clear thinking and of attentiveness."


Already received my bag of bulk Histidine. Gonna try a stack with Tyrosine and P5P tomorrow.
 

tara

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Nap.
 

chinup53

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I have had been an undermethylator pretty much all my life and I have all the typical indicators of undermethylation.

I can study up to 10 consecutives hours with no brain fatigue and quite optimal performance (with some breaks, obviously). Very strong willed and perfectonism. (Undermethylation is no joke and it has very nasty effects on your physical and mental health. I wish I dind’t have it)

That being said, “reducing” methilation could help.
 
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milkboi

milkboi

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I have had been an undermethylator pretty much all my life and I have all the typical indicators of undermethylation.

I can study up to 10 consecutives hours with no brain fatigue and quite optimal performance (with some breaks, obviously). Very strong willed and perfectonism. (Undermethylation is no joke and it has very nasty effects on your physical and mental health. I wish I dind’t have it)

That being said, “reducing” methilation could help.

Thanks. @redsun basically suggested the same to me if I wanted to raise histamine (using Niacinamide). Which probably naturally comes with low methylation (high histamine that is).

If you could elaborate on the side effect I would be very thankful.

Maybe reducing methylation as opposed to reaching „undermethylation“ status would already help me out.

So far increasing Histamine through taking Histadine (at least that‘s what I assume it‘s doing) seems promising. Less fatigue, clearer head, more focus. But it‘s my first day on it, so only time will tell if it is the solution I‘m looking for.
 

redsun

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I have had been an undermethylator pretty much all my life and I have all the typical indicators of undermethylation.

I can study up to 10 consecutives hours with no brain fatigue and quite optimal performance (with some breaks, obviously). Very strong willed and perfectonism. (Undermethylation is no joke and it has very nasty effects on your physical and mental health. I wish I dind’t have it)

That being said, “reducing” methilation could help.

I was also an undermethylator naturally and taking zinc 50mg for years basically cancelled out whatever I had. My guess is it increased methylation. I was able to reverse with high dose niacinamide and it put me back to where I was as a child, all the good and ugly parts of it.
 

redsun

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How much did you take?What was your background intake?

What do you mean background intake? Got a decent amount from food as always if thats what you mean. I took 900mg for a few days, cant remember how long. I could not handle the emotions it came with, zinc was somehow able to reverse the effects of B3 on my brain and mental health.
 
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What do you mean background intake? Got a decent amount from food as always if thats what you mean. I took 900mg for a few days, cant remember how long. I could not handle the emotions it came with, zinc was somehow able to reverse the effects of B3 on my brain and mental health.

yes,i meant your B3 from Diet and/or lower-dose supplemental,from a possible MV or such.thx for the Heads-Up!
..900mg as one Dosage,or divided?with meals or without?
 

redsun

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yes,i meant your B3 from Diet and/or lower-dose supplemental,from a possible MV or such.thx for the Heads-Up!
..900mg as one Dosage,or divided?with meals or without?

It was divided 3x300mg. Basically tried to take with each meal. I progressively ate less and less as well while taking it. Some days only doing 300mg twice because I ate so little.
 

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