A new study revealed it may be possible to lower your brain’s age, and it doesn’t involve purchasing an expensive supplement or attending a pricey, wellness-immersive retreat.
One phone setting change could make a significant difference in your cognitive and even mental health, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia, published earlier this year in PNAS Nexus. Specifically, a significant number of the more than 400 participants found that their sustained attention, defined as the ability to focus on a single subject, improved so much that it was like they shaved a decade off their brain’s age.
What’s the change? With a twinge of irony (you’ll see), we encourage you to scroll on for the cellphone setting switch that could be life-changing for your brain (and you).
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The Simple Cellphone Setting Change That Can Reverse Brain Age, According to a New Study
Turning off the internet on your phone for two weeks could help your brain look, feel and function like it’s a decade younger.
To conduct the study, researchers recruited 467 Canadian and American participants whose average age was 32. Nearly two-thirds of participants (63%) were female, 29% were students and 42% had full-time jobs.
Researchers split them into two groups. One downloaded an internet-blocking app (the Freedom App) for the first two weeks of the study, while the second group used the internet during the following two weeks. Participants completed a trio of surveys two weeks apart to assess their cognition.
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Without internet access, the first group saw their screen time tumble from 314 minutes daily to 161 minutes daily—a more than 51% decline. While it ticked back up to 265 minutes per day for the next two weeks—once their ability to surf the web on their phone returned—it was 15% lower than it was before the experiment.
Even without the internet-blocking app, the second group saw a modest decrease in screen time during the first two weeks when they had carte-blanche access to the internet on their phones (336 minutes per day to 322 minutes per day). However, their screen time reports showed even lower averages when it was their turn to try the app, declining 41% from 322 to 190 minutes of screen time per day.
The data also revealed that 91% of the participants reported that their mental health improved. That’s a number greater than what scientists would find in people who took antidepressants during the same two-week span.
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Why Disabling Internet From Your Phone Might Lower Brain Age
The study’s authors believe that blocking the internet on a phone can help people better tap into two non-renewable resources: attention and time.
Studies have shown that in aging people, a shorter attention span may be a symptom of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s and dementia, likely and largely due to impacts on the frontal lobe of the brain. Further, additional studies have shown that too many choices or options can confuse and overwhelm patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia—and the internet presents a literally endless supply of ways to distract yourself. The combination of multitasking, distractions and rapid information processing can further compound impacts on attention span and cognitive health. (All this is aside from the fact that a recently published study also linked ADHD to a higher risk of dementia!)
The new study shows that removing those distractions may negate their impacts on attention span and cognitive performance.
“These findings suggest that constant connection to the online world comes at a cost, since psychological functioning improves when this connection is reduced,” the study authors wrote.
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In terms of time, Reviews.org shared data showing that the average U.S. adult spends more than five hours daily on their phone. Driving that number down opened up room in their schedule.
“When people did not have access to mobile internet, they spent more time socializing in person, exercising and being in nature,” the authors noted. Researchers told NPR that participants without Internet on their phones generally devoted more time to healthy behaviors, including getting more sleep, which also has demonstrated huge positive impacts on cognitive health.
They continued, “Our results provide evidence that blocking mobile internet from smartphones for two weeks can produce significant improvements for [well-being], mental health and the objectively measured ability to sustain attention.”
In other words, if you need an excuse to put down the phone, live in the moment and enjoy the blue sky instead of blue light, here it is.
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Sources:
- “Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being.” PNAS Nexus.
- “Screen Time and Internet Usage Statistics 2024.” Reviews.org.
- “Too Many Choices Confuse Patients With Dementia.” Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.
- “Behavior & Personality Changes.” University of California San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences Memory and Aging Center.
- “Digital Dementia: How Screens and Digital Devices Impact Memory.” Neurology Center for Epilepsy and Seizures.
