The symptoms of brain fog can manifest in ways you might not notice at first.
Maybe you read back an email you’re sure you proofread three times and find a mistake. Maybe you find yourself zoning out in an important meeting. Or maybe you’re finding it impossible to concentrate on your tasks.
In one of these moments, you might think: something’s off. And that instinct is worth heeding.
You could be burnt out, experiencing decision fatigue, or just having a bad day at work. But if you consistently feel like your brain isn’t as sharp as usual, you may be suffering from brain fog — and this sensation can be disconcerting.
Brain fog might affect your focus, concentration, and even mood. But you can healthily cope if you know how to identify and prevent brain fog symptoms and when to seek help.
What are the symptoms of brain fog?
Identifying a new feeling in your body can be unnerving. If you start getting a sore throat, your head might spin, worrying a cold is coming on. If you feel excessive tightness after the gym, you might be concerned you pulled something. And if you feel like you can’t access your full cognitive function, you might write the sensation off as fatigue. But you also may worry the issue is more severe if it becomes persistent — and that concern is normal.
Don’t power through your concerns or try to self-diagnose. Instead, seek advice from a medical professional. Whether you’re suffering from brain fog or another condition, a doctor is the most qualified person to help.
In the meantime, you can use the following list of brain fog symptoms to familiarize yourself with this health concern:
1. Clouding of consciousness
Clouding of consciousness most closely describes the term “fog” in “brain fog.” While the condition comes with other symptoms, this one is the most literal. Cloudiness can make you feel like you’re not as awake or aware as usual, and you might find it hard to concentrate. This is the symptom that could cause you to make a spelling error you’d usually catch or forget your keys at home.
2. Fatigue
Fatigue is a state of sustained exhaustion. Unlike the drowsiness you may experience after a late night, mental fatigue implies a general lack of physical and mental energy — one that doesn’t go away after sleeping well.
If you’re suffering from fatigue, finding the energy to engage with everyday tasks might be challenging. You may also experience apathy, becoming less concerned with the outcomes of tasks and conversations and more with just getting through the day.
3. Confusion
Everyone loses their train of thought sometimes, but if you frequently drift off mid-sentence or forget what you’re doing, you might be suffering from confusion as a symptom of brain fog. It could also cause you to slur speech, get lost, or struggle with time management.
Confusion can induce stress when you experience brain fog under pressure, like forgetting your place in a presentation at work or grasping for a word during a job interview. And the anxiety of those moments could make you even more on edge.
4. Lack of focus
When you lose focus, you can no longer concentrate on the task at hand. You might succumb to distractions easily and have trouble completing work as a result. If you stop while writing a line of code to check your social media accounts or char your dinner because you begin to drift off while cooking, you could be suffering from a lack of focus.
Over time, this brain fog symptom can negatively impact productivity, causing you to fall behind on work or in life. Even if you have the motivation to do something, your lack of focus could hold you back.
5. Poor concentration
Once you focus on a task, you enter concentration mode. You filter out distractions and background noise and completely immerse yourself in the work, giving it all of your mental energy.
But if you’re having difficulty concentrating, you may note an inability to retain information or engage with activities. You might feel less connected to your profession or passions, or sense that it takes immense effort to get through the day. Like lessened focus, low concentration can lead to distraction and affect your productivity.
6. Forgetfulness
Short-term memory loss is another common symptom of brain fog. If you’re chronically unable to recall information you just heard, like a new colleague’s name or an important save-the-date, you may be experiencing the type of forgetfulness that this condition might bring.
What are the causes of brain fog?
The term brain fog entered the news — and likely your vocabulary — in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s because medical professionals tracked a correlation between respiratory illness and patients' reports of suboptimal brain function, according to a 2023 report from the American Medical Association.
But COVID isn’t the only potential catalyst for brain fog. Here are other medical and emotional conditions that may spur this set of symptoms:
1. Chronic stress
Stress is the body’s response to negative internal and external pressures. If you’re on a deadline and feel overwhelmed, tired, or moody, you’re likely suffering from short-term stress.
Chronic stress, however, refers to long-term discomfort involving symptoms like irritability, muscle tension, and gastrointestinal pain. Fatigue and lack of concentration also make the list, meaning that your case of brain fog might be due to chronic stress.
2. Sleep deprivation
Not getting enough hours of sleep can have long-term effects on your body and mind. Sleep deprivation could cause larger concerns like kidney disease, high blood pressure, and depression, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. But the same report says that sleep deprivation also leads to trouble focusing and sleepiness, which can contribute to brain fog.
3. Hormonal changes
Hormonal shifts might also spur brain fog. For people with uteruses, fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels in menopause and pregnancy may cause memory loss and a sleepy feeling in the brain, according to Harvard Health. And hypothyroidism and high or low levels of testosterone can also drive sluggishness or cloudiness.
4. Diet
A healthy diet keeps your body and mind functioning at their best. A review in Nutrients says that vitamin B, for example, which exists in animal products like cheese and meat, keeps your brain healthy — and lack of it can cause fog symptoms like fatigue or memory loss. Having an imbalanced diet might lead to nutrient deficiencies, impairing your brain and body’s ability to function.
Many foods, from dark chocolate to leafy greens, are also linked to concentration and focus. If you aren't getting enough of them, it could be the reason for your mental cloudiness.
5. Mental health conditions
Mental health conditions like anxiety and depression can also cause fog. According to Medical News Today, when you feel anxious, you may have trouble concentrating or thinking clearly. And depression can also negatively affect brain function, impacting decision-making skills and interrupting sleep.
6. Medication
Harvard Health reports that medications like sleeping aids, antidepressants, and pain medications can all cause you to feel mentally groggy. And according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), these effects might be more likely to appear in older adults, causing memory loss, confusion, and generally declining brain function.
People undergoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment can also experience brain fog — a symptom sometimes known as “chemo brain.”
7. Dementia or Alzheimer’s
If you or an older adult in your life is experiencing brain fog, it could be related to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. According to the World Health Organization, symptoms of these illnesses include many of those associated with brain fog, like forgetfulness, confusion, and challenges in making decisions.
8. Other medical conditions
There’s a long list of other medical conditions that can cause brain fog, which is why it’s so important to seek the advice of a medical professional if you’re struggling with symptoms. Your doctor can rule out the following causes or diagnose you correctly and provide adequate treatment. Here’s a non-exhaustive list from Medical News Today:
- Not enough exercise
- Concussion
- Autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis, celiac disease, and lupus
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS)
- Fibromyalgia
- ADHD
- Autism
- Sleep apnea
Brain fog after COVID
Contracting COVID feels different for everyone. According to the CDC, many people present respiratory symptoms like a dry cough, a fever, and a headache, but others experience gastrointestinal issues, loss of smell, and a runny nose.
These symptoms arise while the virus is active, but some patients experience chronic illness. This condition is now known as Long COVID — when the virus affects someone’s well-being for weeks, months, or even years after infection. And one of its symptoms is brain fog.
A 2022 study from JAMA Network Open found that around 40% of patients report brain fog after having COVID. Another from the NIH demonstrates a correlation between COVID and the stimulation of a human immune cell that could cause the brain to struggle with regular functioning, negatively impacting learning and memory.
If you think you may have COVID-related brain fog, seek the support of a medical professional. Post-COVID cloudiness is real, even though pinpointing and describing some symptoms can be challenging. A doctor can send you for neurology scans or lab work to investigate further.
Brain fog treatment
Brain fog — no matter the cause — can signal a mental or physical health problem. The first line of treatment is going for a check-up with a healthcare professional who can help you determine the root of the issue and get proper medical treatment.
In addition to whatever your doctor advises, there are some best practices you can apply in daily life to improve symptoms and boost your body’s natural resilience. Here are three to try:
1. Improve your sleep habits
Good sleep helps you feel refreshed and improves your mood and health. And since sleep deprivation could contribute to brain fog, getting enough rest can help you recover.
You can encourage better sleep hygiene by establishing a nighttime routine that helps you wind down. Avoid stimulating activities like exercise before bed, turn off the blue light of your phone and TV, and try journaling or stretching to get into a tranquil headspace.
2. Eat and hydrate well
Water and food provide your body with the nutrients to thrive, and that means not getting enough can affect your health in big ways.
A study from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health shows that dehydration affects short-term memory, attention span, and even self-esteem. If you’re experiencing temporary brain fog, a glass of water could do the trick to fix it. It’s also important to stay hydrated to normalize your body’s systems.
Nutrition also plays a powerful role in brain function. According to Harvard Health, diets rich in fatty, sugary, processed foods can make it more difficult for your body to regulate insulin, but when you eat well, you get a boost of serotonin. This happy hormone regulates sleep, controls mood fluctuations, and even lessens pain.
3. Implement relaxation techniques
You can mitigate the stress affecting your concentration by implementing meditation, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques. These routines look different for everyone, but may include journaling about your day or getting physical activity like walking. Any practice that brings you into the present moment, helps your body or mind relax, and increases your focus is an excellent choice.
Don’t let brain fog hold you down
Feeling like you can’t access your brain’s full potential is frustrating — especially if you enjoy multitasking and doing sharp, focused work. And over time, that initial frustration can turn into worry as you wonder how long the sensation will last.
You can try to reduce brain fog symptoms by fostering healthy habits and getting advice from a medical expert. Once you identify the root cause, you can move toward mental clarity. And in the process, try boosting other aspects of your health by getting more rest, understanding and treating underlying conditions, and taking control of your diet.
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