Do You Have Pandemic Brain?

A new survey shows one in three Montanans are suffering from 'pandemic brain' after nearly two years of limited social interaction and non-stop stress. Pandemic brain is described as a decline in cognitive abilities that makes you feel as though your thinking is sluggish - like, how many times have you put the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge? Studies show chronic stress can actually cause your pre-frontal cortex to shrink. That's the part of the brain responsible for focus, memory and learning. The study also suggests that the unrelenting stress of the pandemic has a lot of Americans feeling down. The most common emotion they reported in a new study was BOREDOM. Nearly 1 in 3 said they're bored after months of social isolation. The next most common complaint is laziness - 24% said they just can't work up the steam to exercise like they want to. Nearly one in five aren't sleeping well and 7% say they've let the house go - it's a mess. Spider Solitaire says it asked 3000 people across the US about their pandemic experience and found the lack of social interaction has been hard on every group - but most think Gen Z - many are teens and young adults - have missed the most.