If poor sleep is impacting your focus

There’s nothing worse than not being able to sleep. Except, of course, for the crushing wave of exhaustion that comes the morning after a night of tossing and turning for hours, which impacts our concentration the next day.

Sleep is incredibly important for mental clarity because it’s when the body repairs itself and the brain’s glymphatic system starts clearing toxins from the brain. When we have a restless night, this process is interfered with, which is why our focus is affected the next day. “If we haven’t slept properly this can also impact our blood sugar,” says Brooks, “making us crave even more carbs and sugar.” Both carbs and sugar will give a boost of energy for a short amount of time, but it’ll lead to a crash later.

If poor sleep is affecting your concentration, Brooks suggests eating foods that will stabilise your blood sugar levels. “Have some fibre and some protein with breakfast, such as a bircher muesli with oats, natural yoghurt, berries, ground flax and chia seeds. This can fuel us better and that should keep our blood sugar more stable and thereby improve our focus.”

If you’re distracted by your phone

As soon as I start a task, I know that within 15 minutes I’ll have reached for my phone and absent-mindedly started playing Instagram reels. It’s a vicious cycle: the higher my screen time, the more likely my muscle memory will find me reaching for my phone when I have a dip in concentration.

I’m certainly not alone in this, with a recent study finding that even just the presence of a smartphone is enough to consume our cognitive resources. When we constantly scroll on our phones, it can affect the brain’s reward system, particularly our dopamine levels (aka the feel-good hormone). This can lead to addictive behaviours, especially when it comes to food. “We’ll constantly seek more engagement in a similar way to how foods with a high sugar or fat content trigger a dopamine response in the brain,” says Brooks. “This leads to a desire to consume more and in the long term can lead to lowered dopamine levels with lower mood, energy and more cravings.”

If you feel in need of a dopamine reset, along with reassessing your relationship with your phone, it’s also a good idea to eat food rich in tyrosine. “This is an amino acid, which is a building block for dopamine,” says Brooks. “It’s found in lean protein like chicken, eggs, fish, nuts, seeds and legumes.”

“Foods rich in magnesium are also needed for dopamine production, such as leafy greens, nuts and seeds,” says Brooks. “Other foods that have a positive impact on dopamine include green tea, berries and dark chocolate.”

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