Boost Brain Power For Improved Academic Performance
A Review of the Literature
Thinking is the ability of human mind and intelligence to reflect, provide reason and draw conclusion from any life event or experience, or acquired knowledge or insight (Eyles, Burne & McGrath, 2013). This is an important portion of human growth and development as with this ability, human race is able to communicate, create and advance their civilization (Docquier & Rapoport, 2012). Further, using these abilities help the human mind to grow and increase its intelligence power that boosts their ability to think critically in any situation and enhances their reasoning and emotional quotient, which differentiate them for other races present on earth (Rilling & Young, 2014). However, the development of technology has increased the dependency of people on these aspects and therefore, the brain development and growth has become a major concern for the younger generation as researchers determined that they are not completely using their intelligence ability to solve their problems in academic life (Perlmutter, 2004). Intelligence abilities are compromising due to excessive use of technologies in every aspect of life (Relph, 2013). Therefore, this research is aimed to find out the aspects using which students can increase their brains ability to solve any academic issue and then find out the ability of different factors such as stress, sleep, nutrition and physical exercise in increasing the ability of human brain to function critically in any situation. Further, the need of change in lifestyle with respect to these will be discussed in this section. Therefore, influences of these factor in increasing brains ability and boosting its efficiency will be discussed.
In this global age of technology, high speed computers and internet it is easier to find out any information however, these acquired information are useful when these are known to the students using these informations. This is because, such information are not useful to pass examinations and students need to use their understanding, their intelligence to cope up with difficult situations and solve the problems. This is a continuous process as with continuous learning, people acquire learning abilities and by changing the lifestyle or habits, people are able to develop their brain and increase its power. These changes include getting more rest, minimizing stress from their life, consuming nutritious and healthy food, involve in physical and mental exercise and so on. The beneficial effect of these are mentioned in the following sections.
Sleep is the most important factor, which refreshes our brain and helps to obtain optimal brain and body health. Amen (2010) explained that it helps to rejuvenate all the cells in human body and provides a chance to the brain cells to repair themselves (p. 195). Stickgold (2006) reported that learning and memory could only be described using three functional terms. Aacquisition is the term which explains the new information which is stored in human brain whereas, Consolidation represents the processes by which a memory becomes stable. Recall refers to the ability to access the information (whether consciously or unconsciously) after it has been stored. Acquisition and recall occur during people are awake, however, researches suggest that memory consolidation takes place while sleeping during which, strengthening of the neural connections occurs and forms human memories. Relph (2013) asserted that students who are able to get enough sleep are able to form a better connection, are able to see the big picture and notice flaws, which is important to grow as a professional nowadays.
Get Enough Rest
Howard (2006) reported that due to the loss of an hour or so of sleep for two or three nights increases the level of cortisol and decreases in growth hormone and prolactin (p. 205). Due to this, they face problems in concentration and in decision making. If we lose even one night’s sleep Perlmutter (2004) confirmed that it marks a physiological effect on our body and weakens the disease-fighting cells of our immune system, increasing the vulnerability to infection. Study shows that young people who sleep less than six and a half hours of sleep at night, fall in the group of people with greater risk of insulin resistance, a prediabetic condition (p. 130) than people their age who sleep seven and a half hours of sleep a night. Another study shows that men who slept only four hours a night, they ate more candy, cookies, and cake more that fruit, vegetables, or dairy products. Therefore, stress and sleep are primary aspects of brain cell development and increased intelligence.
In small doses, some types of stress can be beneficial and can improve your short-term memory, but high chronic stress levels are unhealthy as it is observed in researches that it damages the hippocampus and thus impair memory and learning (Bendheim 2009, p. 239). Chronic stress releases stress hormone cortisol in increased amount, which circulate in the blood and become toxic. Research shows that chronic stress has poor influence for brain function and affects people of all ages. Further, it has been seen that high levels of distress can cause the death of brain cells in the hippocampus which is an area critical to the explicit memory formation. Chronic stress also impairs the individual’s ability to decide the important aspects of their life and in the absence of it energy depletion, depression, insecurity, impotence, or frigidity, apathy, emotional withdrawal, insomnia, chronic fatigue, helplessness or hopelessness, anxiety, confusion, lack of concentration, and poor memory and other emotion increases. Therefore, stress could be one of the reasons due to which, brains activity decreases.
Healthy diet and nutrition is the most important aspect for growth and development of human body and within every meal, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast is the first meal of the day which helps to concentrate on the day’s work as with better concentration, it will be easier to pay attention in class and understand the lesson. Appropriate breakfast should contain balanced in protein, carbohydrate, and fat such as cereal and milk, egg, toast, and orange juice. Morgan (1987) claimed that eating cookies, sugary cereals, and cake hinders students from performing properly, although they do better than those who miss the meal totally.
Human body is unable to make vitamins and hence we have to acquire them from the food we eat. Deficit of vitamins B-complex make us irritable, unhappy, people are suffering from depression, memory problem and dementia. Researchers show that older people who were having memory problems they improve significantly when they start taking daily these vitamins folate, B6 and B12. These vitamins we can find in meat, fish, eggs, whole grains, fortified cereals, dairy products, and in lesser amounts in fruits and vegetables.
Control Stress
Exercises are beneficial for healthy human body and brain as it is important to provide the brain and body with more energy. Consistent aerobic activities like running, walking, playing tennis, biking improves the ability of heart to pump blood throughout the body and helps maintain healthy blood flow to the brain, which ultimately increases oxygen and glucose delivery (Amen, 2005). Exercise also helps to reduce the damage of neurons due to toxic substances which is formed due to the environment and enhances the insulin action, reducing the risk of diabetes. The study also shows that exercises are beneficial not only for younger as well as older generation as regular exercise is determined to reduce the risk of dementia by 30%. When the brain cells are stimulated by new challenges, as per Khalsa (1997), brain’s size, and dendritic connections increases among brain cells (p. 325). Therefore, exercise is an important aspect for the growth and development of brain cells.
Methodology forms an important chapter of a dissertation or a thesis. According to Taylor et al.(2015), this chapter helps the researcher in critically analysing the relevant research studies previously published and adapt an appropriate study-design to proceed with the research topic. In this context, a systematic review was conducted in order to understand the factors that affect the development of the brain and enhance its intelligence ability.
In order to conduct the systematic review an exhaustive search strategy was followed to retrieve relevant literatures. A thorough search was conducted on the popular electronic databases that included, Google Scholar, CINAHAL, PubMed and Medline. The search was conducted using relevant key terms and on the basis of a set of exclusion and inclusion criteria.
According to BNS and HV (2013), key words are specific key terms that help in the identification of relevant research papers. The key terms help in associating important concepts that link with the research objectives of the retrieved research papers (Panneerselvam, 2014). In this regard, it should further be noted that the search was conducted using Boolean operators that included words such as, AND/OR.
The key-terms used for retrieving relevant papers included the following:
Intelligence power, brain development, academic performance, student, mental boost, thinking ability
According to Flick (2015), appropriate exclusion criteria helps in filtering the exhaustive electronic databases to retrieve relevant research papers and effectively narrows down the search. The exclusion criteria comprises of the characteristics that are used in order to exclude research papers that do not meet the designed research aim. The exclusion criteria included research papers that were published in foreign languages except English. In addition to this, it included papers that were extremely descriptive and did not include specific research objectives. Also, the exclusion criteria did not include any research studies that included animal-trials.
As mentioned by Flick (2015), inclusion criteria comprises of the characteristics that are used to shortlist relevant studies. The inclusion criteria helps in finding literatures that match effective key terms. The inclusion criteria included characteristics that included papers that were published in English language, included primary research design and were tightly linked to the key words.
Vitamins to Fuel Our Brain
After conducting an exhaustive search, a total of eighteen full text research articles were retrieved that ideally met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The articles were initially shortlisted after reading the abstract and papers that seemed identical were removed in order to avoid the possibility of including duplicate studies. A total of 18 research-articles were considered for the systematic review and the papers were ideally studies and critiqued using the CASP critique tool. The key findings from the studies were then discussed under key themes that helped in understanding the existing relationship between brain development and academic performance. It also helped in analysing the factors that affect the process of brain development.
On critically accessing the retrieved literatures four key themes were discussed. The themes included, impact of stress, inadequate sleep, insufficient nutrition and lack of physical exercise that contribute to fatigue and slows down brain exercise and activity. The data considered for the systematic review was based upon the data collected from the retrieved research studies. The collected data was then analysed on the basis of thematic discussions.
Conclusion:
The methodology thus considered for the systematic review helped in conducting an effective discussion on the basis of the selected literatures. In addition to this, it also helped in analysing the research gap that could help future researchers in conducting effective research studies to bridge the gap.
Conclusion
Physical fitness elicits a positive effect on brain development and enhances brain functioning. A lot of people try to keep their body in good shape, they go for running, cycling, climbing, jogging, but most of the people don’t take care about their mental capabilities. To avoid brain disease and decrease risk for memory loss people should acquire memory related training. Nowadays we have more tools which help us in studying and learning new skills like computers, internet, and we can find more information how to memorize new information rapidly. The most important aspect is realize that the hallmark of a healthy body is a healthy mind. On the basis of the discussion, it can be said that the obtaining sound sleep, leading a stress free life, participating in physical health exercises and a proper nutrition can help in leading a quality life.
References
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