Are vacations good for the brain?
Experts say yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.
With the exception of a cluster of elected officials who weren’t going to let the small matter of a global pandemic get in the way of their beach holidays, most Canadians are probably feeling pretty overdue for a vacation.
Realistically, though, most of us aren’t going to have a holiday to look forward to until, oh, say, fall. And that’s a best- case scenario.
All of this means we’re all missing out on some valuable things — Vitamin D, family time, a break from work stress and, depending on the holiday, increased physical fitness. Add to this list, a lost opportunity to beef up our brains — at least according to the many “this- isyourbrain- on- travel” articles that claim going on holiday is like taking a supertonic for the grey matter.
Is this true? We decided to ask an expert, Andrea Wilkinson, PhD in psychology and cofounder of BrainShape Inc., a brain vitality program and podcast. Turns out, it’s not just internet wisdom — travel is good for our brains.
“Anything that is a new or different experience for you is going to create new neural pathways,” said Wilkinson. “So, if you’re in a different environment, that’s going to turn your brain on, just because it has to figure out how to navigate this new environment.”
Some vacations, though, are better for your brain than others, Wilkinson told me. “The Amazing Race,” for example, would be a lot better for your brain than a Disney Cruise.
“If you go to a fancy resort and you don’t have to do anything except lie on a beach and someone brings you all your towels and tells you when your meals are, that’s going to lead to less neuroplasticity than if you were, say, dropped in the middle of Hanoi, Vietnam, and told to navigate your way to a location that you didn’t know how to get to,” she explained.
“In the second example, our brain is going to actually have to figure out the safest route and do a lot of problem- solving and looking for directions which will have more impact on your brain plasticity.”
So, what is this “neuroplasticity” or “brain plasticity”? The terms describe the fact that our brain is constantly changing by growing and reorganizing itself as it takes in new information. That’s a good thing because the more complex and dynamic a system our neural networks are, the more resilient our brains will be, which can be especially important in later life.
“Often times, when people who have a resilient brain develop something like Alzheimer’s disease, they don’t show the outward symptoms until a lot farther along in the progression of the disease,” Wilkinson said. “So, you actually have more years of what appears to be healthy aging because your brain is so resilient and dynamic. Because it has all of these different roadways and neural pathways to utilize, it’s able to work around the parts of your brain that aren’t functioning properly anymore.”
Even planning a trip can start to “wake up” the brain, since we’re spending time looking at maps and doing research on things we might like to see while we’re away. That’s true about any new activity, but the other thing about travel is that, for a lot of us, we get more exercise than we do when we’re at home. The combination of moving around and fresh scenery is like a double dose of brain tonic, Wilkinson noted.
“Every day, the human brain grows around 700 new brain cells, but not all of those brain cells survive,” she said. “Some of them don’t attach to any existing neural network and just die away. But when we exercise, research shows that we can double or even triple the number of new brain cells that we are growing and these brain cells are growing predominantly in our hippocampus which is the brain’s learning and memory centre.”
Possibly moreimportant is the role of “brain- derived neurotrophic factor” ( BDNF), a molecule that helps new brain cells survive and attach to a neural network. And, you guessed it, the more exercise you do, the more BDNF you produce.
Since we’re missing out on our vacations, we’re also losing a great opportunity to give our brains better “muscle tone,” which might sound like bad news. The good news, though, is that you can get a lot of the same benefits just by being active and changing up your scenery. Walking, in particular, is good for building neural pathways.
For at least 10 months, I haven’t been on a subway or streetcar or in a taxi cab, let alone an airplane. I’ve covered a lot of ground on foot. The problem is that it’s getting harder and harder to find ways to find new scenery, largely because I’m always starting and finishing in the same place. Wilkinson told me to keep trying to find new streets and new blocks to walk around, but also to try developing something more like a “vacation mindset” when walking.
“When you are living your everyday life and doing your regular routine, you’re not really present in each of your moments,” she explained. “When we’re on vacation, it’s like, ‘ oh my gosh, look at the ocean’ and ‘ this mango tastes delicious’ and we’re loving everything and really being present in our experiences.”
She continued: “So, if we can bring that same logic into our everyday lives and just notice the things around us like the wind blowing in the trees and the squirrels running around, the stress doesn’t exist in that moment. So instead of walking and thinking about our bills or problems in the future, I think humanity would benefit from being more focused on the present moment, since constant stress is bad for brain health, too.”
So, pretend to be on vacation, while we wait for the real one. I can do that. It’s either that or run for office, I guess?