An antidote to brain rot (according to a neuroscientist)
4 ways to revive your brain
Brain rot
Brain rot: the negative effects on one's mental or intellectual functioning after the overconsumption of low-quality, trivial content online.
Brain rot is not an official clinical term or diagnosis. It’s slang to describe:
Feeling foggy or distracted
Reduced ability to focus
Drained mental energy and clarity
Lack of motivation for meaningful tasks
Non-scientifically speaking, it’s the mental mush that sets in after too many hours of scrolling on social media.
Brain rot was named the Oxford Word of the Year in 2024, so this isn’t just Gen Z slang; it’s a widespread cultural phenomenon.
New research is beginning to quantify brain rot — I’ve previously written about a study finding excessive scrolling shrinks your brain.
Here are four reasons why you may find yourself “stuck in a rot” and how you can revive your brain.
1. We don’t know how to REST
ROT
Modern culture has everyone running on a hamster wheel. Working nonstop, sleep deprived, overcaffeinated, with barely time for a bathroom break.
It makes sense that as soon as you have some down time you’d grab your phone for entertainment, a brief escape, a quick hit of dopamine.
But scrolling isn’t rest.
Your prefrontal cortex (decision making, judgement, and rational thinking center) is vulnerable to lack of sleep and rest.
When you are exhausted, it’s much harder to make choices that support your brain.
REST
Before scrolling, give your brain 5-10 minutes of real rest.
What’s real rest?
A break from stimulation. No new input. No people. No technology (no, not even a meditation).
Just be.
You can walk, close your eyes, look out the window, lay on the floor. Allow your mind to wander. Try not to actively solve problems.
This break is a reset that can give you more mental clarity to choose a healthier activity besides scrolling (call a friend, cook a new recipe, go for a bike ride, practice the guitar etc.).
Plus, rest is essential for long term brain health and cognitive longevity.
2. We don’t know how to REGULATE
ROT
Many people are using their phone like a pacifier.
At the first hint of stress or an uncomfortable emotion, do you reach for you phone to distract, avoid, or numb it?
Phone use, no matter what it is (YouTube, email, or Instagram) is very stimulating to brain.
It activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode) which is why it can leave you feeling more anxious than when you started.
When your nervous system is dysregulated, your limbic system (emotional, reflexive system) takes over, and shuts off your prefrontal cortex — keeping you stuck in a rot.
REGULATE
When you have healthier ways to handle stress, it can help break the vicious cycle and prevent brain rot.
One of my favorite ways to regulate stress is with breathwork because it can activate the parasympathetic nervous system (calm, rest mode) immediately.
Try box breathing or a physiological sigh. I wrote a 3 part series on emotion regulation packed with practical strategies.
3. We can’t RESIST (instant gratification)
ROT
Your brain has Present Bias, which is the tendency to overvalue immediate rewards and undervalue larger, delayed ones.
Your reward system is wired to prioritize immediate survival needs over abstract future gains. This fuels habits of instant gratification, like scrolling and those hundreds of small dopamine hits reduce motivation for long term goals.
RESIST
How to strengthen your delayed gratification muscle:
Picture the future. Visualize the goal or outcome vividly (your healthier self, financial freedom, dream vacation).
Track Progress. Break big goals into small, near-term milestones so you can celebrate little wins along the way.
Pause. Ask yourself what you really need in the moment to rally your prefrontal cortex.
4. We don’t have time to REFLECT
ROT
The amount of information we are exposed to on a daily basis is too much to process and integrate.
The overload and overwhelm leads to surface level thinking and erodes critical thinking skills.
REFLECT
Take time to reflect on things you read, watch, or listen to. Not with everything, but with the things that are most important to you.
After you engage with information ask yourself, how could I apply this in my life right now? What’s the key takeaway I want to remember?
If you want to go deeper on the topic of improving brain performance, I’m hosting a live workshop, Brain Exercises for Cognitive Longevity, Tuesday September 23rd. Save your seat.
Recap
Rest
Regulate emotions
Resist instant gratification
Reflect (critical thinking)
If you feel stuck, I want to encourage you with the hopeful science of neuroplasticity.
You have the capacity to change and that means you have agency over your brain and your life. And remember, real change takes time, so be patient with your brain.
See you next week with more ways to protect and strengthen that beautiful three pound ball of fat (your brain).
-Julie
Please share this if you want to help more people build a better brain.
Fun fact: The first recorded use of ‘brain rot’ was found in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden. Thoreau criticizes society’s tendency to devalue complex ideas, or those that can be interpreted in multiple ways, in favor of simple ones, and sees this as indicative of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort: “While England endeavors to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” (Oxford University Press, 2025)
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References
Yousef, A. M. F., Alshamy, A., Tlili, A., & Metwally, A. H. S. (2025). Demystifying the new dilemma of brain rot in the digital era: A review. Brain Sciences, 15(3), 283.
I had the strangest feeling of simultaneously enjoying this article while grimacing with a guilty feeling reading it, having picked up my phone to do so for all the wrong reasons 😬
Great article, everyone always talks about the effects of brain rot and never offers clear solutions. I will be applying these in the future.