Research shows that people who are pregnant report confusion, disorientation, and fogginess, which lead to behaviors such as putting things down in odd places, misplacing belongings, and forgetting simple work tasks. Menopause and pregnancy can both contribute to brain fog, says Dr. That said, here are a few common causes to consider. One of the challenges with understanding brain fog is that there are so many potential causes, and having brain fog alone doesn’t tell doctors what exactly is going on. In one study that examined the use of the term “brain fog” in Reddit posts, people described this experience with a range of descriptors, including “dissociation, fatigue, forgetfulness, and excessive cognitive effort.” These symptoms can all combine to give you the feeling that your thinking is cloudy. Pudumjee also says that patients describe a general feeling of cognitive sluggishness.

You’re easily pulled off task or distracted.

You can’t absorb content as well as you used to.

You walk into a room and can’t remember what task you set to accomplish.

You may feel as if you’re in a dream or trancelike state.

Words arrive at the tip of your tongue, but you can’t seem to find them.

You have more trouble grasping concepts or learning compared with before.

What that might look like can differ between people, but here are some things you may experience as a consequence of brain fog, according to Pudumjee and Danielle Wilhour, MD, an assistant professor in neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver: These can be varied but generally center around the idea that your “thinking or memory isn’t as efficient or effective as it used to be,” she says. “Brain fog is a broad term used to describe some common cognitive symptoms that folks face,” says Shehroo Pudumjee, PhD, a neuropsychologist at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Definition of Brain Fogīrain fog isn’t something doctors diagnose their patients with. Since then, more research has been done to better understand brain fog, a term that’s almost as vague as brain fog itself. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, some people started to notice a common side effect when recovering from the virus: lingering brain fog.

Since the inner clock relies on sunlight to stay in sync, winter sunrise is later and winter nights are longer, melatonin can overshoot into the day, causing grogginess or ' brain fog,' for several hours.Do you ever notice that your ability to think feels sluggish or fuzzy? You might be experiencing what’s commonly known as “brain fog.” While not technically a medical or scientific term, it describes a temporary sensation of reduced mental acuity.īrain fog is likely as old as human intelligence, but the more recent emergence of burnout culture, which created legions of overworked achievers, brought awareness to the cognitive challenges that go with it. It is not a diagnosis, and it means many different things to different people, oftentimes it's a combination of short-term memory issues, concentration, or word-finding speech difficulty.

Or they have that kind of brain fog that we hear about with long Covid.īrain fog is a symptom. I can not tell you how many people I've taken care of in the ER - who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s - who are never sick enough to end up in the ER with Covid but who now have long-lasting respiratory difficulties, or they have persistent loss of taste and smell, and they're losing weight because there's no joy from eating. People keep saying to me,' Don't be sad.' I'm not sad. I've got brain fog that won't go away, i've got an onset of clinical depression, which is not sadness. Or they have that kind of brain fog that we hear about with long Covid.

Or they have persistent loss of taste and smell, and they're losing weight because there's no joy from eating.

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