What breaks do for your brain

We already talked about the benefits of taking breaks in an earlier blog post, but did you know that taking breaks has a huge effect on your employees' brains?

Just like an athlete needs to rest after every physical effort, the brain needs to rest after mental effort. Did you know our brain has a maximum span of 40 minutes, regardless of education level or IQ? Conclusion: resting regularly matters. 

While we work, we draw on the part of our brain responsible for our mental functions and cognitive capacity: the frontal lobe.

The frontal lobe is responsible for decision-making, problem-solving thinking, planning, social behaviour... It allows us to make connections and gain insights, making it a vital organ for our mental functions to work properly.

While we work, insights and data build up in the brain. It's only by taking regular breaks that this data gets processed and stored. What's more, working (too) long causes a stress-inducing substance to be produced in the brain. Only when our brain gets a break and can let everything go for a moment does it get the breathing room it needs to process all insights and data and neutralise the stress substances. The result is that you make room again for new (creative) ideas and let your mental functions work at their best.

You've no doubt experienced getting stuck on a problem, only for the answer to magically appear later on. That's when you've experienced how taking strategic breaks helps you gain new insights. As mentioned earlier, the frontal lobe is also responsible for problem-solving thinking. So give it enough rest and oxygen to let solutions develop.

Long story short: make sure your employees 'reset' their brains from time to time, but how much time does that actually take?

Research shows that -aside from the lunch break- a break of just 10-15 minutes already boosts concentration and creativity. Although this time can vary per person. That's exactly why we recommend experimenting for yourself and finding the ideal balance between effort and relaxation. Motivate your employees to take breaks and keep track of which breaks lead to more creativity, motivation and productivity. 

Still looking for inspiration? Check out our blog post on this topic!

Discover 10 ideas for a quality break at work >>>