Sunny vacations have a bigger impact on your brain than you think: expert

Neuroscientist and TED speaker Sarah Baldeo joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison on the importance of sunny vacations and taking breaks.

 

Kent Morrison: Vacations are not just a way to escape the ordinary, they can actually have a big impact on your brain in a good way. Sarah, I'm very much looking forward to this conversation here in August, when a lot of people are on vacation. What happens to our brain when we take a break?

Sarah Baldeo: Your brain is kind of like an engine, right? You've got all these pistons firing, and the worst thing is when you're overloading one piston. So imagine you go on vacation, you get all this great stimuli, and that lights up multiple areas of your brain, and it really distributes the energy across all those pistons. That's what we want. We want that real big brain energy.

Kent: OK, this is kind of putting science behind a feeling that many have when they take a step away from work and just go do things recreationally. Are there different destinations that are more beneficial to our brain health?

Sarah: Yes, any new environment is going to stimulate your brain, but keep one thing in mind. Sunny vacation spots are going to give you that burst of vitamin D. Harvard health did a study and people think, "If I have seasonal affective disorder or maybe I can just take the vitamin D supplement.” Harvard health showed that you only absorb 60 per cent of vitamin D when you ingest it, versus 100 per cent when that vitamin D is produced through your skin. Vitamin D actually counteracts cognitive decline and even ageing. So it's really important to get out in the sun and get as much sunshine as you can and try to go to those sunny places.

Kent: Well, that's maybe a catalyst for people out there who are thinking about a vacation, come winter time. Are there certain activities while we're on vacation that can also help?

Sarah: Definitely. Think about hiking up a mountain. That's your motor cortex. You're visiting a museum. It's actually activating the most important part of your brain, that frontal cortex that helps you be creative and think logically. You go to Paris, you're trying to navigate a subway system, you're using your parietal cortex. Tasting new foods, that's your gustatory cortex. Even speaking in different languages than you normally do at home, that activates something called Wernicke's area. Listening to the sound of the ocean, that activates your auditory cortex. I'll give you a bonus one. If you are looking at a beautiful vista on the side of a mountain, that is activating your vision Center, which ironically, is at the back of your brain. So you're really lighting up all these different areas of your brain.

Kent: Very interesting stuff. Now, there is a lot of debate on how long a vacation should be. Some people say your vacation can stretch too long. They don't feel rested by the time they come back. Is there an ideal time frame for these vacations?

Sarah: There is. There was a study done in 2017 by the University of Tampere in Finland, and the ideal time frame is about seven to eight days, but you need to take that span of time in a new location, not a staycation, at least once every two years. This brings up something that we've been seeing a lot in the news. What about that four day work week? A staycation, a two-day vacation, is not going to have the same impact because you need at least 48 hours to reset your nervous system. When we talk about that four day work week, science actually proves that this makes sense, why we need a long period of time to really reset our nervous system and help activate our brain and really get us out of that stress level.

Kent: If you'd like to follow Sarah on Instagram, she's got all kinds of great information. Her Instagram is @TheSarahBaldeo.