Concentration problems: causes, solutions and when to worry

Spotting the signs

Concentration problems: how to recognise them.

We talk about concentration problems when it becomes hard to hold your attention on a task, to see it through, or to remember what you have just read. Everyone has off days. What should alert you is when those days become the rule.

• You read the same paragraph three times and still do not take it in.
• You open a tab, then another, and forget what you were looking for.
• You start plenty of tasks but finish very few.
• You lose the thread of a conversation or a meeting.
• You need your phone every five minutes.
• Your mind feels foggy by late morning or mid-afternoon.

On their own these signs say nothing about the cause. They are a starting point. The most useful thing is to note them down for a week, with the time and the context: that is usually where the cause appears.

The most common causes

Ten causes, ten first leads.

Concentration depends on many things at once. Most often it is not one single cause but several small ones adding up. Here are the most common, each with a first lead.

Anaemia, nutrient deficiencies, thyroid disorders, depression, attention disorders or medication side effects can also play a part. Only a doctor can identify them.

Sleep first

No trick replaces a good night's sleep.

This is cause number one, and the most underestimated. When you sleep badly or too little, attention is the first thing to suffer. The trouble is that you barely notice: you get used to the tiredness and end up believing it is your normal state.

A well-known American study, run by Hans Van Dongen and his colleagues, showed this strikingly. Healthy adults were limited to 4, 6 or 8 hours in bed for two weeks. After 14 nights at 6 hours, their attention performance had fallen to a level comparable with a sleepless night. And yet they only felt “a little tired”.

The lesson is simple: if you regularly sleep less than 7 hours, start there. Every other lead in this article works better on a rested brain.

For anyone who struggles to fall asleep, our Sleep+ formula contains melatonin, which helps reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, together with reishi, valerian and magnesium bisglycinate.

Screens and interruptions

The enemy is not the screen, it is the interruption.

A notification, an email, a message, a tab opened “just to check”: every interruption forces the brain to switch context, then come back. That back and forth has a cost. It often takes long minutes to return to the level of concentration you had before being disturbed.

Even a silent phone is not neutral. In a study of nearly 800 participants, Adrian Ward and his team found that people whose smartphone was face down on the desk performed worse on working memory tests than those who had left it in another room. The mere presence of the phone was enough to capture part of their attention. Also worth reading: Maritime pine: benefits, dosage and precautions.

And even without a phone, our mind wanders on its own. Surveying more than 2,000 adults at random moments of their day, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that they were thinking about something other than what they were doing almost half the time.

• Turn off every notification except calls from family.
• Put your phone in another room during important tasks.
• Close your inbox and only open it at set times.
• Work with a single tab open, the one for the task at hand.
• Tell your colleagues when you are going into a block of focused work.

Stress and mental load

When your head is full, nothing else gets in.

Stress sharpens attention in the short term: that is its job. But when it lasts, it scatters it. Thoughts go round in circles, the lists in your head get longer, and it becomes hard to stay on one thing.

Mental load plays a big part here. Holding everything you must not forget in your head — appointments, shopping, deadlines — permanently takes up part of your attention. Emptying your head onto paper is not a gimmick: it is a very concrete way of freeing up room for what you are doing. To go further, discover the benefits and dosage of rosemary.

If stress has become your baseline, take it seriously. Our guide to high cortisol and its symptoms sets out the signs that should alert you and the everyday levers. On the routine side, our Anti-Stress Complex formula combines ashwagandha, reishi, holy basil and schisandra with vitamin B6, which helps reduce tiredness.

What is on your plate

Steady fuel, steady attention.

The brain uses a large share of the body's energy. It does not need miracle foods, but a steady supply. Big swings — a skipped breakfast then a heavy, sugary lunch — are often paid for with a slump.

Breakfast is not compulsory, but if you have one it is better with protein and fibre than sugar alone. Lunch is often the cause of the afternoon dip: a meal that is too heavy or too rich in fast sugars makes it worse. Hydration is, finally, a simple and forgotten lever: even mild dehydration can weigh on alertness.

And coffee? It helps in the moment, there is no doubt. The problem is excess: four or five cups a day, the jitters, then the crash, and a shortened night that feeds the next day's tiredness. Cutting the dose without giving up the ritual is often the best option. That is the idea behind our Brainstoorm, a mushroom coffee with 20 mg of caffeine per cup and 1,000 mg of lion's mane.

Genuine Trustpilot reviews from Brainstoorm customers, quoted as written and translated from French. These are personal experiences.

Methods that help you focus

Improving your concentration: the methods that work.

Concentration is not only a matter of willpower. It is also a matter of organisation. A few simple methods create the conditions for it to settle in.

No method is universal. Test one for a week before you judge it.

A typical day

A day designed for concentration.

There is no need to change everything. Here is what a day that protects your attention can look like, with nothing extreme about it.

Plants and mushrooms

Ginkgo, bacopa, lion's mane: what we know.

Once your lifestyle is in place, some people like to add a routine based on plants and mushrooms. Let us be clear: no capsule makes up for a short night. But several ingredients have been studied, with interesting results and limits worth knowing.

These five ingredients come together in our Focus formula, as a 30-day course. As the bacopa study shows, this kind of routine is judged over several weeks, not a few days. For a wider overview, read our guide to natural nootropics for concentration.

Depending on your situation

Students, home working, parents: different needs.

Concentration problems do not look the same at 20 during exams and at 45 between work and children. Here are the priority leads depending on your situation.

For anyone combining intense days with physical tiredness, the Entrepreneur Pack brings Focus and Energy together, without caffeine.

When to see a doctor

When you should raise it with a doctor.

Most concentration difficulties are explained by lifestyle. But they can also be a symptom of something else. Do not stay alone with problems that last.

A blood test can reveal anaemia, a deficiency or a thyroid disorder, for example. And if you are on treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, ask for advice before starting a food supplement.

Sources

1. Van Dongen H. P. A. et al. (2003). The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation. Sleep, 26(2).
2. Killingsworth M. A., Gilbert D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006).
3. Ward A. F. et al. (2017). Brain drain: the mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2).
4. Kennedy D. O., Scholey A. B., Wesnes K. A. (2000). The dose-dependent cognitive effects of acute administration of Ginkgo biloba to healthy young volunteers. Psychopharmacology, 151(4).
5. Stough C. et al. (2001). The chronic effects of an extract of Bacopa monniera (Brahmi) on cognitive function in healthy human subjects. Psychopharmacology, 156(4).

Keep reading

Going further.

Concentration is built on several fronts. Discover our other guides, or browse the guide to mushrooms and adaptogenic plants.