Screen, chair and stale air: the quiet cause of fatigue and anxiety

THREE HABITS THAT WORK TOGETHER
I see a particular danger in the combination of three bad habits: long sitting, a strained stare into a screen, and a shortage of fresh air. Taken one at a time, each looks harmless — so what, you sat at the computer for a while. But together they form a closed circle: stillness makes the blood stagnate, the screen overloads the brain with an unbroken stream of images, and the stale air robs that stagnant blood of oxygen. This way of living looks like the norm — but the body is built differently.

Signs that the circle has closed

Tiredness from the very morning, though you "rested". Trouble concentrating on a book — your attention slides off. There is sleep, but no rest. Irritation over trifles. Anxiety with no visible cause. All of this is often not a disease of the nerves, but a brain starving while the blood stands still.

How to break the circle — without heroics

• The half-hour rule. Every 30–40 minutes at the screen, get up and move for two or three minutes: walk about, stretch, look out of the window into the distance (that rests the eyes as well).
• Air. Work by a slightly open window; three times a day, ten slow deep breaths at an open window, the exhale longer than the inhale.
• A walk of 30–40 minutes every day — at a brisk pace, in any weather. This is the main thing that gets stagnant blood moving.
• An evening without a screen for an hour before bed and an aired bedroom: the brain recovers in cool, clean air.
• Warmth for the outflow. Warm baths and breathing help blood drain away from the head; Zalmanov's methods also used chest wraps — I go through those in my books.

What happens to the brain when blood stagnates

Professor Klossovsky, in his book "Cerebral Circulation", described the finest vessels of the brain — capillaries seven or eight microns across, through which the tissues receive oxygen and nourishment. With long sitting and shallow breathing the blood flow in that network drops, and the brain cells — the hungriest for oxygen in the whole body — are the first to be put on short rations. No amount of willpower can replace oxygen for the brain.

The screen is a load of its own

A strained stare into a screen is not only about the eyes. It is an unbroken stream of images the brain has to process without a pause, and a frozen posture with a clenched neck through which the blood travels to the head. Television in the evening "to relax" is the same load: the body is still, the eyes are strained, the brain is overloaded with images. Real rest for the brain is movement, air and a distant horizon in front of the eyes.

Improving the outflow, not only the inflow

The brain needs not only to receive fresh blood but also to give up the used blood. The outflow is helped by warm baths, calm deep breathing with a long exhale, a walk before bed and a raised head of the bed. Zalmanov's methods used chest wraps and compresses for this; such procedures are possible only in the absence of contraindications and under the supervision of a specialist.

A word of caution

If anxiety, insomnia or low mood are pronounced and have lasted a long time, do not diagnose yourself: see a doctor. The practices in this article are support, not a replacement for help.