Most people spend the majority of their lives working. Whether in school or employed, people consistently work and have their lives revolve around whatever they do. Although you can believe it’s more efficient to work consistently, it’s good to have breaks and allow your brain to regenerate. Unfortunately, thousands of people overwork themselves each year, causing harmful effects on their health. Some people convey that breaks are distracting, but having them allows many benefits for your health and body instead of overworking.
Taking breaks allows your brain to refresh and benefits the body. Taking these breaks can improve your mood, performance, and focus while also helping to reduce stress, keeping people from burnout. An article, “The Importance of Taking Breaks,” states that relaxing helps you to recover by bringing your mental and physical systems back to their starting points, resetting your mood, and increasing a positive mood. Due to the stress of overworking yourself, breaks motivate you and make you more productive. Not only this, but it improves your performance. An article by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill states that breaks while working exercise the right part of your brain and rest your prefrontal cortex, which will help improve your memory and produce more dopamine, a neurotransmitter for motivation. The same article also says that taking breaks helps your brain re-focus so you won’t get off task when returning to work. Stress is the main component of overworking yourself. When taking breaks, it can help to reduce the amount of stress when working. The article “Taking Breaks is Good for Your Brain- Here’s Why” by UW Medicine states that taking time away from work and doing things that calm down your central nervous system has many benefits. The nervous system responds to stress, so when you overwork yourself, your brain goes into a flight or fight response. When the nervous system is constantly working, it affects your health. Due to the effects on people’s health when they overwork themselves, many have recommended taking a couple of steps back, going on a walk, eating, and sleeping to help you reset so that you are ready to finish your work without harming your health.
It’s necessary to be aware of what the effects of endless work can do to the body. Now that we are back at school, there are a lot of tests and work, so it’s hard to find your own time and take a break. Nevertheless, it’s good to have set times for yourself to ensure you burn out and allow your brain to rest and continue your work while staying healthy.