There’s a Reason You Have Brain Fog

As restrictions ease and stimulation returns, your capacity will bounce back

Photo: Siora Photography/Unsplash

Early last summer, after stringent shutdown orders were lifted and, cautiously, friends began gathering in outdoor environs, the act of stringing a coherent sentence together was a personal struggle. The verbal equivalent of sea legs, my words felt wobbly and clumsy, and in group settings, I found it easier to observe in silence than contribute in any meaningful way.

Beyond conversation skills, social isolation also dulled many of my other cognitive capacities. My memory wasn’t so hot and conjuring creative or critical thoughts was nearly impossible — which isn’t great when your job requires you to have critical and/or creative thoughts. Throughout the cold and lonely pandemic winter, everyday tasks like writing emails and remembering to eat certain foods before they rotted in my fridge were nearly impossible. They either took five times as long to perform or I’d forget them completely. I felt like my brain was irreparably broken.

An experience felt widely by others lucky enough to sequester themselves while working from home, the loss of any sort of deftness, wit, or mental clarity seemed to take hold. In March, Ellen Cushing of The Atlantic called this feeling “the fog of the late pandemic.” Far enough from the start of the pandemic that we can no longer remember what it was like to be normal, our brains are now adapting to a new life of limited stimulation.

The likely culprit of our lagging brains is social isolation, according to a new study. Researchers from Scotland sought to measure the effects of social isolation on cognitive function — things like memory, perceptual ability, and executive function — during the country’s spring lockdown, from May to June 2020. At five points over 13 weeks, participants between the ages of 18 and 72 were asked to complete online tasks measuring attention, memory, decision-making, time-estimation, and learning.

As lockdown restrictions eased in the real world and mood improved, participants performed the tasks more efficiently, which suggested: “that even relatively short‐term social isolation — specifically, reduced social contact with those outside the household — has a negative impact on…