How Stress Drains Your Brain — and What To Do About It | Nicole Byers | TED

翻译人员: Ruixuan Chen 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

I came home from vacation recently, jet-lagged, tired,

我最近度假回家，

时差。疲倦。 航班延误、行李丢失，

after delayed flights and a lost bag,

with my cranky preschooler

先得顾着我那学龄前小孩， 还得管着我身后的丈夫，

and my husband trudging behind me,

and I forgot the code to my front door.

我居然忘了家门的密码。

We've lived in this house for seven years.

我们在这所房子里住了七年。

I'd put the code in the door hundreds of times before.

我先前开门至少输入过上百次密码。

And as I stood there, staring at the keypad, I thought,

当我站在那里，盯着键盘时，

我想：“天啊，我终于失去理智了。”

"Oh boy, I'm finally losing my mind."

Our brains have an incredible capacity to store memory,

我们的大脑具有令人 难以置信的存储能力，

but not all of that information is accessible at once.

但并非所有这些信息都可以同时调取。

An article in “Scientific America[n]” estimates

《科学美国》上的一篇文章估计

the human brain can store 2.5 million gigabytes of data.

人脑可以存储 250 万千兆字节的数据。

That's about 5,000 iPhones.

那大约是 5,000 部 iPhone。

But if you've ever forgotten a password before,

但是，如果你以前忘记过密码，

you know that memory is not always easy to access

你就会知道大脑内存 并不总是那么容易调取的，

because memory is not just one system.

因为内存不只是一个系统。

Those different systems have limits,

这些不同的系统有局限性，

and a number of factors in our daily lives can impact our memory efficiency.

我们日常生活中的许多因素 都会影响我们的记忆效率。

There was a famous neuropsychology case study

有一个著名的神经心理学案例研究，

of a patient referred to as patient HM,

该患者被称为 HM 患者，

who became like a real-life Ten-Second Tom

在脑部手术治疗癫痫发作障碍后，

after brain surgery to treat a seizure disorder.

他变得像现实版的 只有 10 秒记忆的汤姆一样。

In terms of his seizures, the surgery was a success.

就他的癫痫发作而言，手术取得了成功。

They were less severe and less frequent.

它们不那么严重，频率也较低。

But after his surgery,

但是在手术后，

HM became unable to consciously learn new things.

HM 变得无法自觉地学习新事物。

For example, he worked with the same neuropsychologist for years.

例如，他与同一位神经心理学家合作了多年。

He never remembered meeting her,

他从来不记得见过她，

he’d introduce himself each time.

每次他都会自我介绍。

And he never remember doing the different tasks

而且他从来不记得做过那些测试，

that she would bring to test his memory.

为检验他的记忆而设计的测试。

But here's the interesting part.

但这是有趣的部分。

His performance got better on some of those tasks over time.

随着时间的推移，他在其中 一些任务上的表现变得更好了，

He never remember doing them.

他从来不记得做过。

He always thought he was doing them for the first time.

他一直以为自己是第一次这样做。

But his brain had learned the procedures without him being aware.

但是他的大脑在他没有意识到的情况下 就学会了这些程序。

We learned from patient HM and others like him

我们从病人 HM 和其他像他一样的人那里了解到，

that there are different types of memory.

记忆有不同的类型。

Some memories come to mind almost automatically.

有些回忆几乎会自动浮现在脑海中。

Like if you're walking through a garden and you smell the flowers

就像你在花园里散步，闻到奶奶 以前放在厨房桌子上的花朵的味道，

that your grandma used to keep on her kitchen table,

and all of a sudden, you're thinking of your favorite memory with your grandma.

突然之间，你想起了 你与奶奶在一起的美好回忆。

But other memories take more brainpower and effort to recall.

但是其他记忆需要 更多的脑力和精力才能回忆，

Like trying to remember my new computer password.

就像尝试记住我的新计算机密码一样。

Because some memories take more brainpower and effort to recall,

由于有些记忆需要更多的 脑力和精力才能回忆，

they're also more prone to interference.

因此它们也更容易受到干扰。

You're at the grocery store,

你在杂货店，

and you’re trying to remember 10 things that you need to pick up.

你正在努力记住需要买的 10 件东西。

But you run into your neighbor in the produce section,

但是你在农产品区遇到了邻居，

and after a few minutes of chit chat, hearing about their new car,

在闲聊了几分钟， 听说他们的新车之后，

you can only remember two of those 10 things.

你只能记住这 10 件事中的两件事。

Even though our memory storage is pretty impressive --

尽管我们的内存存储空间相当可观，

5,000 部 iPhone 的大小，

5,000 iPhones big --

the short-term memory that you're using to keep track of your grocery list

你用来记录购物清单的短期存储器

is more like seven, plus or minus two, bits of information.

更像是七位，加上或减去两位信息。

And it's really easy to throw that active short-term memory off track.

而且很容易让活跃的短期记忆偏离正轨。

The problem?

问题出在哪里？

We live in a very distracting modern world.

我们生活在一个非常 分散注意力的现代世界中。

You're at a meeting at work,

你正在参加工作中的会议，

and you're trying to remember all the details of a project

你正在努力记住你正在开发的项目的

that you're working on

所有细节，

so that you can share it with your team.

以便与你的团队共享。

But at the same time,

但与此同时，

your brain is paying attention to what your colleagues are saying,

你的大脑确实正专注于同事的话，

trying to ignore all the email alerts popping up on your computer,

却试图忽略电脑上 弹出的所有电子邮件提醒，

家人发来的询问晚餐吃什么的短信，

distracted by text messages from your family

asking what's for dinner,

and wondering if they're going to take a break soon

同时还在想着会间休息是什么时候，

because you could really use some more coffee.

因为你真的可以多喝点咖啡。

Ignoring all those distractions and competing priorities

忽视所有这些干扰因素和相互竞争的优先事项

takes up a lot of energy.

会消耗大量精力。

When our brains are juggling 400 things,

当我们的大脑在处理 400 件事时，

we're more likely to make a memory error,

我们更有可能犯下记忆错误，

like forgetting a colleague’s name in a meeting

比如在会议上忘记了同事的名字

or missing a key part of your presentation,

或错过了演示文稿的关键部分，

and then beating yourself up for the rest of the day

然后在一天余下的时间里 因为犯了这个错误

for making that mistake.

而自欺欺人。

Which brings us to another brain-draining habit

这使我们养成了另一种 消耗大脑的习惯，

that can mess up your memory

这种习惯可能会破坏你的记忆力，

and make it hard to remember where you left your keys:

让你难以记住你把钥匙放在哪里：

stress.

压力。

Doesn't have to be huge or major stressors, either.

也不一定是巨大或主要的压力源。

All those day-to-day stresses, pressures and deadlines take up brain space, too,

所有这些日常焦虑、压力 和最后期限也占用了大脑空间，

and force our brain to do a bunch of mental multitasking.

迫使我们的大脑进行大量的多任务处理。

Last summer, I locked myself in a stairwell twice in the same week

去年夏天，我在同一周 把自己锁在楼梯间里两次，

because I was trying to do this mental multitasking.

因为我正在一心多用。

I was packing up at the end of the day,

一天结束时我正在收拾行装，

and at the same time,

同时，我在想明天要打的电话，

I was thinking about phone calls I needed to make tomorrow,

and ideas for a project that I was working on

以及我正在做的一个项目的想法，

and what I was going to make for supper that night

以及那天晚上我打算做些什么做晚饭，

and whether I should pick up my daughter before or after I get groceries.

以及我应该在买到杂货 之前还是之后去接我的女儿。

And I left my keys in my office.

然后我把钥匙留在了办公室。

Twice in the same week.

同一周两次。

Apparently, door locks aren't my thing.

显然，门锁和我不共戴天。

An article from Queen's University estimates we have 6,200 thoughts each day.

女王大学的一篇文章 估计，我们每天有 6,200 个想法。

That's a lot of potential for distractions.

造成干扰的可能性太大了。

There was a study at the University of California

加州大学的一项研究发现，

that found when we're interrupted, like with distractions or multitasking,

当我们受到干扰时， 例如分心或一心多用，

we try to compensate by working faster.

我们会尝试通过加快工作速度来进行补偿。

But this makes us feel more stressed.

但这让我们感到压力更大。

And as you can imagine, it's not very efficient.

正如你可以想象的那样， 它的效率不是很高。

We've all been in situations where we feel a bit stressed out

我们都遇到过这样的情况： 永无止境的待办事项

and overwhelmed by our never-ending to do lists.

清单让我们感到压力和不知所措。

Between emails and phone calls and Zoom meetings and project deadlines,

在电子邮件和电话 、Zoom 会议和项目截止日期之间，

we’re coming home from work feeling tired, and our brains are burnt out.

我们下班回家时感到疲倦，大脑也精疲力尽。

There was an article published in the journal “Science of Learning”

在《学习科学》杂志上发表的一篇文章

that showed stress not only impacts our memory retrieval,

表明，压力不仅会影响我们的记忆恢复，

so it's hard to remember that door code when you need it,

因此在需要时很难记住门禁密码，

stress also makes it hard for our brains to problem-solve

压力也使我们的大脑难以解决问题

and think of creative solutions,

和想出创造性的解决方案，

like how I'm going to get into my house when I can't remember my door code.

比如当我记不起门禁密码 改如何进入我的房子。

We know all those day-to-day stresses, pressures

我们知道所有这些日常压力

and deadlines can mess up our memory.

和最后期限都可能弄乱我们的记忆。

But what about bigger stresses,

但是，更大的压力呢？

like the uncertainty and change of living through a multi-year pandemic,

比如多年疫情中生活的不确定性和变化、

financial pressure, family stress?

经济压力、家庭压力。

These stresses drain brain resources, too,

这些压力也消耗了人脑资源，

making us more likely to make mistakes

使我们更容易犯错误，

and making it harder to remember the things we need to remember.

也使我们更难记住需要记住的事情。

So memory errors are normal,

因此，记忆错误是正常的，

especially when you’re tired, overworked

尤其是当你感到疲倦、劳累过度

or stressed out.

或压力过大时。

That's great to know,

很高兴知道这一点，

but I still need to get into my house at the end of my vacation.

但我还是需要在假期结束时回家。

How do we boost our memory in these situations

在这种情况下，我们如何增强记忆力，

and recharge those brain cells?

为脑细胞充电？

It's tempting to try and just think harder,

尝试更努力地思考很诱人，

but that doesn't always work.

但这并不总是奏效。

Have you ever been trying to think of the name of a movie or an actor,

你有没有想过电影或演员的名字，

and it's right on the tip of your tongue, but you can't quite remember it?

这个名字就在你的舌尖上， 但你记不清了？

And then four hours later, you're driving home from work

然后四个小时后，下班开车回家，

and that name comes to you out of the blue?

你突然想到了这个名字？

Yeah, me too.

是的，我也是。

Totally normal.

完全正常。

When it comes to our memory,

当谈到我们的记忆时，

thinking harder doesn't always work.

用力思考并不总是奏效。

Because of a process of competitive inhibition

因为大脑中的神经元会受到竞争性抑制。

of the neurons in your brain.

Basically, when you try to think too hard about one super specific piece of memory,

基本上，当你试图认真 思考一个超级特定的记忆片段，

like a name or a code,

比如名字或密码，

the brain cells in that part of your brain get overloaded and blocked.

大脑那部分的脑细胞 就会超负荷并被阻塞。

They need time to recharge.

它们需要时间来充电。

That’s why, four hours later, that memory comes back to you.

这就是为什么四个小时后， 那段记忆又回到了你身边。

It's still there, still in your memory storage,

它还在那里，还在你的内存存储中，

just the access route has been exhausted and needs time to reset.

只是访问路径已用尽，需要时间才能重置。

Plus, remember how stress makes our brains less efficient?

另外，还记得压力如何降低 我们的大脑效率吗？

When we're worried about making mistakes,

当我们担心犯错误时，

we're more likely to make more mistakes.

我们更有可能犯更多的错误。

Do this instead:

改为这样做：

if you’re feeling more forgetful than usual,

如果你感觉比平时更健忘，

or your brain feels stuck

或者你的大脑感觉卡住了，

and you can't seem to find the memory you need,

似乎找不到你需要的记忆，

it might be a sign that your brain needs a reset.

这可能表明你的大脑需要重置。

Can’t remember a code or a password, standing at your door like me,

记不起密码或密码了， 像我一样站在你家门口，

and you can think of every four-digit code you know,

除了你需要的那个之外，

except the one you need?

你能想出你所知道的每一个四位数的密码？

Think about something else for a few minutes.

想一想别的事情几分钟。

Anything else.

想什么都可以。

Chat with the store clerk at the grocery store about the weather

与杂货店的店员聊一聊天气情况，

instead of staring at the debit machine,

而不是盯着借记机，

trying to remember your bank code,

试图记住你的银行密码，

or pull out your phone and scroll social media for a few minutes.

或者拿出手机在 社交媒体上滚动几分钟。

This works because instead of exhausting the brain cells

之所以奏效，

是因为你不需要耗尽脑细胞来寻找记忆，

you need to find that memory,

you activate other parts of your brain,

而是激活大脑的其他部分，

giving those memory centers a chance to recharge and reset.

让这些记忆中心有机会充电和重置。

Making more mistakes than normal at work,

在工作中犯的错误比平时多，

you can’t seem to send an email without a typo

你似乎无法在没有错字的情况下 发送电子邮件，

or you’re stumbling over your words in a meeting ...

或者你在会议中偶然发现自己卡壳……

get up and take a real break.

起身休息一下。

Go for a walk around your office

去办公室里散步

or do something fun for a few minutes.

或者做点有趣的事情几分钟。

These micro breaks refresh your mental resources

这些微小的休息可以刷新你的心理资源，

and give your brain back the energy and focus it needs

让你的大脑恢复寻找这些信息

所需的能量和注意力。

to find that information.

Memory errors aren't a sign you're losing your mind.

记忆错误并不是你失去理智的标志，

They might be a sign your brain needs a little break and a reset.

它们可能表明你的大脑需要稍作休息和重置。

Thank you.

谢谢。