A physical reaction to my mental incompetence.
I was reading up on information theory today, and I managed to keep track of everything for a while. But then the information got slippery, and I could feel the muscles in my head tighten. I kept reading, and I lost track of everything. My forehead was so tense I felt it would collapse on itself. By the end of the page, I was exhausted and I closed the book and took a breath. This happens to me every time things get hard. It's like I am lifting weights but I can only do a few reps before I completely crash. If I keep crashing, eventually I'll get a headache that will put me out of commission for the day.
I'm sharing this because I am curious how others feel when they reach their mental limit, either short term or long term. Does anyone else have a similar physical reaction or any physical reaction?
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I noticed that my eyes strain when concentrating intensely, and as I age the strain becomes more and more severe, and then yeah the headache that disables me for the day.
A pair of reading glasses greatly increased my stamina for studying like this, and now I'm fine. The crazy part is I only need the slightest of correction; I have can see clearly at a distance with 20/20 vision, but need like 1 diopter of correction to see up close. I can't even tell the difference, except for the headache that comes after a bit of focusing.
I am 21. I see your point but I usually don't get headaches when I am reading light subject matter, like forums or novels.
Jaw and neck muscle aches. That's more biomechanics of bad posture than frustration at my inability to grasp the material.
I suspect more than a few people here have had the experience of 12+ hour stints of study, programming, writing or gaming, where you simply lose track of the time.
It's possible to train yourself to over-focus, where you tune out the normal bodily signals to change position which allow muscle relaxation and circulation. At the extremes, this blind devotion to study can have long-term consequences - bursitis in joints held fixed too long, pinched nerves, scoliosis, and kidney/bladder problems.
I can say (with a long spell of orthopedic care in progress for shoulder and hip bursitis) that however productive a mental "flow" state seems, uninterrupted sessions of inactivity are not good for your health. Set a timer, get up and move, do a few yoga stretches every 15 minutes or so. You'll find it's easier to master new material if you aren't beating up your body and mind.
This is solid advice that I really need to implement. I am curious how inactivity might affect my kidney/bladder. Is it because over-focus leads to ignoring cues to get up and relieve yourself?
Desensitization to urge cues, for sure. Also, forgetting regular water intake, as well as pressure on the sacral nerves and weakening of the bladder and abdominal wall muscles from extended sitting.
In women, inactivity/long sitting is a risk factor for frequent UTI's; in men, prostatitis and bladder stones; in both genders, renal dysfunction and kidney stones.
Fucking yikes. Who would've thought doing nothing would fuck you up so bad?
Ask me that when I've lost the 40 lbs. I gained and fixed the other health problems from two years of a stressful job that involved some very, very long desk days. Seriously, don't forget to move.
I will try not to forget.
I've been going through something similar the last couple of days. I usually end up with a jaw ache (I'm a teeth grinder) and a stress headache.
I think I am grinding my teeth too, but pretty infrequently.
If I do anything mentally intensive for more than a few hours I start to get a... "fizzy" tense sensation in my head. Reading a book for more than a few hours, writing code for a couple hours straight, talking with someone intensely for too long. I'm not sure what the cause is but I always take it as an indication to take a break. Powering through will get me nowhere at that point.
It's really hard fighting the urge to keep going. Inertia really is a bitch. Keeps us from stopping and starting.