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Like it or not, our daily habits have a powerful impact on our brains.
Do you know that many of the world's most brilliant scientific minds were also fantastically weird? They may have some peculiar habits that will make your jaw drop.
From Pythagoras' outright ban on beans to Benjamin Franklin's naked "air baths", the path to greatness is paved with some truly interesting habits. But what if these are more than superficial anecdotes?
Scientists are increasingly realizing that intelligence is less about sheer genetic luck than we tend to think. According to the latest review of the evidence, around 40% of what distinguishes the brainiacs from the blockheads in adulthood is environmental.
Of all history's great minds, arguably the master of combining genius with unusual habits was Albert Einstein – so what better person to study for clues to enhance our minds? Check his peculiar habits bellow:
It's common knowledge that sleep is good for your brain – and Einstein took this advice more seriously than most. He reportedly slept for at least 10 hours per day. But can you really slumber your way to a sharper mind?
When we fall asleep, the brain enters a series of cycles. Every 90-120 minutes the brain fluctuates between light sleep, deep sleep and a phase associated with dreaming, known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM), which until recently was thought to play the leading role in learning and memory.
Non-REM sleep is characterised by bursts of fast brain activity, so called "spindle events" because of the spindle-shaped zigzag the waves. A normal night’s sleep will involve thousands of these, each lasting no longer than a few seconds.
Intriguingly, those who have more spindle events tend to have greater "fluid intelligence" – the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns – the kind Einstein had.
And though the more you sleep, the more spindle events you'll have, this doesn't necessarily prove that more sleep is beneficial.
But a recent study showed that night-time sleep in women – and napping in men – can improve reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Einstein's daily walk was sacred to him. While he was working at Princeton University, New Jersey, he’d walk the mile and a half journey there and back. He followed in the footsteps of other diligent walkers, including Darwin who went for three 45 minute walks every day.
These weren't just for fitness – there are mountains of evidences that walking can boost memory, creativity and problem-solving.
Walking distracts the brain from more cerebral tasks, and forces it to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling over.
By walking, the brain adopts a totally different style of thinking – one which may lead to insights you wouldn’t get at your desk.
It's well known that the brain is a food-guzzling greedy guts, consuming 20% of the body’s energy though it only accounts for 2% of its weight.
Just like the rest of the body, the brain prefers to snack on simple sugars, such as glucose, which have been broken down from carbohydrates.
Sugars can give the brain a valuable boost, but unfortunately this doesn't mean binging on spaghetti is a good idea.
"Typically the evidence suggests that about 25g of carbohydrate is beneficial. For perspective, that's around 37 strands of spaghetti, which is a lot less than it sounds," says Gibson, a lecturer in psychology and physiology at the University of Roehampton.
