Tired of going to work? Think your working day is too long and your vacation is short? Everything is relative. We have prepared a selection for you, in which we have collected information about the specifics of labor legislation different countries the world.

But first, let's recall what we have. Based on Art. 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a working week in Russia cannot exceed 40 hours. This is the total maximum working time for all workers, whether permanent, temporary or seasonal. Officially, Russia has a five-day working week with two days off. As a rule, these are Saturday and Sunday. For some categories of workers, a six-day period is also provided in our country. People employed in production work 6 days a week, where a five-day week seems impractical (for example, in trade).

During pregnancy, working women are given 70 - 84 days off before childbirth and 70 - 110 calendar days after childbirth with payment of social insurance benefits for this period in the amount of average earnings. Further (until the child reaches the age of 1.5 years), an allowance is paid in the amount of 40% of earnings.

And what about the others?

  1. The longest vacations in the world are enjoyed by residents of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria and Canada. Employees rest here for at least 5 weeks a year. And the shortest vacations are for residents of the Philippines, Mexico and Singapore. Workers in these countries have the right to rest 5, 6 and 7 days a year, respectively.
  2. In addition to vacation days, Israeli employers also provide employees with "health" days. The number of those and others depends on the length of service. The Israelis with a work record of at least 19 years have the maximum rest. They are entitled to 28 vacation days and 9 "wellness" days.
  3. The shortest working week in the Netherlands, it is 30.5 hours (for comparison: in Russia - 40 hours).
  4. In Egypt, the employer must increase wages by at least 7% annually. If an Egyptian citizen is simply present at the workplace, but shirks from performing his duties, he can count on half the salary. If a person leaves for on their own, he is obliged to pay the full amount for the month.
  5. Japanese labor law treats pregnant women quite harshly: if a Japanese woman has worked in an organization for less than a year or has a wealthy spouse, she may be denied payment for parental leave.
  6. In some countries, the weekend is not Saturday and Sunday, but other days of the week. For example, Israelis go to work on Sunday and end their work week on Thursday or Friday afternoon. In Algeria and Saudi Arabia people work from Saturday to Wednesday, and in Iran from Saturday to Thursday.
  7. A feature of US labor law is the discrepancy between Federal law and the laws of different states, which sometimes overlap. The US Federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets the minimum hourly wage for a citizen over the age of 20 - at least $ 7.25 per hour. However, due to discrepancies in federal and state laws, this rule is not always followed.
  8. In China, all over the country - six days with a 10-hour work day. At the same time, citizens have the right to leave only 10 days a year.
  9. Swedish enterprises are gradually switching to a six-hour working day. “The shift from 8 to 6 hours shows that we are investing in our employees,” Linus Feldt, director of Stockholm-based Filimundus, admitted in an interview. "If your staff is happy, then the whole company is happy as well."
  10. After the collapse of the USSR, the former Soviet republics accepted labor codes with a work week of 40 hours, as in Russia.

V modern world there is a huge number of very different specialties, their number is so great that it is hardly possible to count them. It was noticed that every year some specialties lose their relevance and simply disappear, while others, previously unknown, are formed. But the full database of vacancies in Russia, including in Perm, can be found on the portal
Jobsora Perm. Believe with this service you will definitely be able to choose for yourself suitable job... And this article contains the most interesting moments, one way or another, related to working moments.

1. England (18th century) - in order to attract hermits to the work process and maximize their interest, they initiated the construction of huts.

2. Low-paid and not prestigious profession is referred to as - "McJob".

3. New Jersey - it was there that there was an employee who managed not only to live to the age of 100, but also to continue to fulfill his professional duties at this age!

4. Belgium - the longest working day was recorded for a resident of this state. For 78 hours in a row, the woman fried the famous French fries!

5. It was noticed that almost 50% own life, the majority of citizens spend on the implementation of labor activities.

6. Ronald Reagan (America) - known for the fact that before taking the post of President, he worked for some time as a lifeguard. On his account - 70 saved lives.

7. Antarctica - only there you can find such a specialty as a penguin lifter! The duties of such a person include the timely raising of animals, which, due to their curiosity, periodically end up on their backs.

8. Todd Gordon (USA) is the only person in the world whose profession is to work with a smile.

9. Japan - residents of this country spend 60% of their time in offices.

10. Career is a priority for 2/3 of the representatives of the beautiful half of humanity - there is no question of children.

11. According to the survey, women sincerely believe that they cope with their duties many times more efficiently than their male counterparts.

12. Britain - stylists of local beauty salons use bull semen in their practice, considering it the best hair conditioner.

13. Monday is a hard day, as almost all the inhabitants of the planet believe.

14. Research conducted by employees of one university showed that the internal climate has a significant impact on the performance of the team.

15. According to the great scientists from Britain, those employees whose workplace located as close to the window as possible, they work much more efficiently.

16. Portugal - this is where the largest number of women who have achieved incredible success in work are recorded.

17. Flying into space is recognized as the most difficult and dangerous labor activity.

18. Plant producing Coca-Cola - its staff members are not entitled to divulge the secret of the preparation of the drink.

19. Many scientists, for some reason, came to the conclusion that the increase wages employees need to exercise only on Wednesday and not on any other day.

20. Microsoft - at the beginning of its journey (first year), its income was only 16,000 thousand dollars.

21. India - famous for its restaurant, erected on the territory of the former cemetery. Before serving a visitor, waiters are obliged to bow to the deceased.

22. Restaurant "Dick's Last Resort" - if a visitor needs napkins, he has to do something to the service staff.

23. Company NIKE, bought the rights to this logo from its creator for only 35 dollars.

24. It is proved that every day about 60 people become millionaires.

It is believed that our head contains not one, but three different brains.

John Medina - molecular evolutionary biologist, director of the Center for the Study of the Brain at Seattle Pacific University, head of the Department of Bioengineering medical school at the University of Washington. John Medina has been named the best teacher at US universities three times.

What you and your kids need to know about the brain

To improve your mental capacity- move more. Exercise provides blood to the brain, delivering glucose for energy consumption and oxygen to cleanse toxic particles. It also stimulates the production of a protein that helps build neural connections.

Full-fledged physical exercise twice a week, halves the risk of mental illness and reduces the risk of Alzheimer's by 60 percent.

2. There are three different brains

It is believed that our head contains not one, but three different brains. The first - the primitive brain, is responsible for the natural functioning of the biological organism; the second controls emotions; and the third, located on top of the first two, like a thin layer of jelly, and makes us highly developed, intelligent creatures.

3. We can only focus on one object at a time.

Centers of attention in the brain can only focus on one object at a time. Multitasking doesn't exist for the brain.

We perceive logical connections and abstract concepts more easily than remember details.

Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.

Listeners may start to get bored after ten minutes of a monotonous lecture or presentation, but their attention can be brought back with an emotional hook.

4. Short-term memory: repeat to remember

Memory is characterized by four stages: memorization (or coding), preservation, reproduction and forgetting.

The information that enters the brain is instantly divided into fragments, which are transmitted for storage in different areas cerebral cortex. Most of the events that take place in the learning process are also remembered in the first few seconds of learning. The more carefully we encode information in memory at the very beginning, the better it is remembered.

You can increase the chances of recall by simulating the conditions under which information first entered the brain.

5. Improving the reliability of long-term memory

Most of the information disappears from memory within minutes after perception, but the one that survives this period will become fixed over time.

The brain paints us only an approximate picture of reality, as it mixes new knowledge with memories from the past and stores them as a whole.

Long-term memory can be made more reliable by entering new information gradually and repeating it at regular intervals.

6. Good dream- good thinking

The brain is constantly in a state of confrontation between cells and chemicals that seek to send you to sleep, and the cells and chemicals that keep you awake.

The activity of neurons in the brain during sleep is extremely high and rhythmic - possibly due to the reproduction of information received during the day.

The need for sleep and rest varies from person to person, but the need for midday sleep is common to everyone.

Lack of sleep negatively affects attention, ability for purposeful activity, working memory, mood, logical thinking and even motor skills.

7. Stress negatively affects the brain's ability to learn

The body's defense system - the release of adrenaline and cortisone - is designed to trigger an immediate response to a serious but short-term threat to life. Chronic stress, such as an unfavorable home environment, has a devastating effect on a system designed for short-term reactions.

In chronic stress, adrenaline causes scarring in the blood vessels, which can lead to heart attack or stroke, and cortisone destroys cells in the hippocampus, impairing the ability to learn and remember.

The greatest stress is caused by a feeling of lack of control over the situation, that is, a feeling of helplessness.

Nervous stress impairs children's learning ability and decreases employee productivity.

8. Sensory Integration: Engage More Senses

We perceive information about an event with the help of our senses, translate it into electrical signals, which are sent to certain parts of the brain, so that it reconstructs the general picture in fragments.

The brain relies in part on previous experience when deciding how to combine signals, so two people perceive the same event differently.

Our senses work together - vision affects hearing, for example, etc. - therefore, we learn better when several senses are stimulated at the same time.

Smell has the ability to evoke memories. Perhaps this is because olfactory signals (nerve impulses) are analyzed in that area of ​​the brain that is involved in the formation of emotions and motivation. And emotions, as you know, are closely related to memory.

9. Vision is more important than other sensory organs

Vision is more important than other senses, and a good half of the brain's resources are spent on it.

What we see is what the brain commands us to see, and the accuracy of the reproduced picture is far from 100 percent.

Analysis and processing of visual information occurs in stages. The retina of the eye stores light energy in short-term, movie-like information tracks. The visual cortex of the brain processes the received signals (some of its areas register movement, others - color, etc.) and combines them into a holistic representation.

Visual information is better remembered and reproduced than printed text or spoken language.

10. The brains of men and women are different

Men have one x chromosome, and women have two, despite the fact that one of them is in reserve.

Genetically, women are more complex, since the active x-chromosomes of cells are a set of maternal and paternal cells. Males get the x chromosomes from their mother, and the y chromosome contains fewer than 100 genes, while the x chromosome carries about 1,500 genes.

In terms of structure and biochemical composition, the brains of men and women are different - for example, in men, the amygdala is larger, and serotonin is produced faster.

Men and women react differently to severe stress: women use the amygdala of the left hemisphere and memorize the details of emotions. Men use the amygdala of the right hemisphere and take in the heart of the problem. published by

Man is a social being. He cannot fully develop without contact with other people. Only by constantly learning, we become stronger, we get access to the most secret corners of our soul. Kinds human activity are closely related to the understanding of their predestination. Choice life path depends on the character, ambitions, living conditions, readiness to act, despite significant obstacles, that is, it is determined by external and internal components. With some effort, we have the opportunity to fully move forward.

Consider the main types of human activity. It is worth noting that not all of them will be manifested in the life of a particular individual, since much depends on the level of consciousness, on how much the person is ready to take responsibility. What kinds of human activities are there? Let's try to figure it out.

The game

It is a rather entertaining component that will certainly accompany any development. Play as a form of human activity deserves special attention. After all, it is with her that the active process of cognition of the surrounding world begins. Otherwise, it would hardly have been possible to learn something, to prove oneself in outside world... If you watch a child at play, you will notice one interesting feature: it simulates different situations of interest to him, solves important problems. Huge fantasy forces him to come up with complex plot moves, his consciousness literally gushes with ideas.

Passion for the game process helps to get rid of disturbing thoughts, to learn to look differently at the surrounding reality. This type of activity acts as a way of knowing the world through playing a variety of models and roles. Main feature is that in a game a person is not afraid to make decisions and acts intuitively, relying on his inner vision.

Communication

All types of human activity are closely related to each other. It is impossible to imagine one without the other. Interaction with others is as necessary as learning, the ability to conduct research activities... Communication is a form of human activity aimed at satisfying a deep need for recognition and understanding. Establishment warm relations impossible without trust.

Education

Ideally, it should be carried out throughout life for effective self-improvement. Learning is a type of human activity aimed at obtaining new information, which later becomes our knowledge. In the process of acquiring new skills, a person improves his abilities, gets the opportunity to fully work on himself. A mature person understands the need for such changes, since she is aimed at internal transformation. V childhood training implies, first of all, acquiring new knowledge. There are many things a child needs to learn before they can go into adulthood.

In many cases effective teaching becomes a reason to start being proud of your accomplishments. Here, everyone will have individual merit. A distinctive feature is the fact that in order to implement the learning process, it is necessary to make efforts on your own, because knowledge will not appear by itself.

Physical work

For many, this activity is an indicator of a beneficial pastime. Many people are imbued with sincere respect for those individuals who are engaged in this activity. Physical labor in society is valued and encouraged. It is believed that such a person really earns money honestly and therefore can be considered noble. This kind activity is also necessary because it allows you to develop physically, remain hardy. This is extremely important in our time of rapid development of hypodynamia. People who have chosen such an activity for themselves retain an excellent physical fitness, can cope with any unforeseen situation, if only it requires strength and activity.

Brainwork

This activity is the lot of sophisticated and intelligent people. As a rule, mental activity is chosen for themselves by those individuals who are focused on performing an intellectual task. This type of human activity largely determines the scientific and social progress. The more a person is engaged, the sooner it develops into a branch that is significant for itself. The development of thought occurs gradually, under the influence of certain components.

Mental work has always been valued, especially in certain circles. Intellectual consciousness is a seeking character who constantly strives to come to an understanding of complex things. Concentrating on the main thing, it can become an amazing guide to the world of intellectual components. To engage in mental activity, you need to have a certain temperament, constantly work on yourself. How more people reads books, studies something, the more powerfully he develops intellectually, and the sooner his capabilities expand.

The science

Propensity to research work largely determines the character warehouse. Science is a type of human activity that requires a developed analytical mind. This is a prerequisite. Otherwise, the activity will not have significant success. The main feature is that all conclusions and conclusions are made on the basis of logical components. Catching up scientific activities, it is imperative to prove something based on the theoretical approaches of scientists and their practical experience. Here you cannot just draw conclusions if they are not supported by appropriate knowledge. Science demands the utmost clarity and precision. It is impossible to act at random without knowing the subject of your research. It is noteworthy that scientists, getting used to building complex inferences, then begin to treat life as an incessant chain of assumptions and conclusions. It is very difficult to get rid of such a worldview by making decisions based on a purely scientific approach. The thing is that life sometimes turns out to be much more complicated than any research work.

Art

It is a type of human activity aimed at meeting the needs of the intelligentsia. The ability to understand works of art is an indicator of the development of aesthetic taste. Real literary works, pictures of great masters and music can not be appreciated by everyone. To do this, you need to have a refined perception of the world and at least an increased interest in a particular type of art. Such people are distinguished by exquisite taste, they often have additional talents. The main feature is that individuals who are fond of art are often so immersed in a fictional world that they stop noticing the surrounding reality.

Art always requires a certain dedication from a person. After all, such an activity would never have been able to develop if it had not been given enough time and attention. A person who is passionate about art always sacrifices something in order to do what he loves. As a rule, life always guides such people, helps them constantly feel the lasting meaning of the actions they are taking. They necessarily have a high goal that justifies and admits everything. They do not act for the sake of money, but in the name of a bright idea.

Trade

A form of human activity that has flourished since ancient times. A person who has chosen trade for himself, as a rule, highly values ​​his own material wealth. He is able to assess the benefits and notice meaningful prospects in any situation. In most cases, people do well in their chosen occupation if they have a penchant for it. Trade is an integral part of life. Such a person differs in that he is aimed at obtaining material wealth and values. It matters to him what kind of clothes he wears, what he eats, how great his well-being is. Traders in many matters act quite calmly and purposefully. They do not lend themselves to the influence of emotions and therefore achieve significant results faster. Representatives of other spheres could envy them with great enthusiasm.

Marketing

This direction undoubtedly originates from trade. Marketing is a type of human activity entirely aimed at obtaining material benefits. This area assumes that a person knows how to understand complex issues, act based on his own forward planning. Great importance has such a thing as self-organization. Only by fully focusing on the task can you solve it. Competent planning is essential. Marketing assumes that a person will act clearly and in accordance with the requirements of modern society.

A banal mistake can lead to irreparable consequences, so self-control, the ability to keep feelings under control is extremely important here. Of course, not everyone succeeds in this. A successful marketer is one who is free of his own doubts and worries. The main distinctive feature such a personality is self-confidence. After all, the ability to make quick decisions really leads to success.

Creation

The need for creation is inherent in each of us. Another question is whether the person is working on himself, whether he is ready to devote enough time and attention to his work. This activity requires not only great dedication, but also colossal endurance and patience. Sometimes you need to have strong will in order for something to work out. Creative way can never be called simple and easy. Sometimes a person needs to go through many trials in order to succeed. A person is forced to make every effort, because only in this case he develops, becomes self-sufficient and self-confident.

Self improvement

It occupies a special position in the life of an individual. If we stop working on ourselves, it will be difficult for us to cope with our own emotions. Such a personality begins to degrade over time, ceases to develop existing abilities. Self-improvement is an integral part of any activity. Whatever a person plans to do, he must definitely pay Special attention your inner world.

Working with feelings and emotions is very important. Thanks to her, we begin to better understand what is truly valuable in life.

Instead of a conclusion

Thus, the main types of human activity are labor, play, science or art, and each deserves special attention. It is important that the personality develops by all means, and does not stand still. This is facilitated by complete dedication.

You have the most incredible computer on Earth in your head. He has the ability to memorize billions of pieces of information and retrieve them almost instantly. It can recognize noise or odor, handwritten text or drawing much faster and more reliably than electronic computers. Of course, this is your brain. It is so complex that only a few years ago scientists began to understand how it works and what it is capable of. Here are some helpful passages and interesting stories about the human brain from the books "How to memorize (almost) everything and always", "Light yourself up", "Healthy brain".

How does the brain work?

Our brains are about the same size and shape as two fists of an adult placed together. It is divided into two hemispheres, which are connected by the so-called corpus callosum. The halves of the brain look the same but perform different functions... Each one "looks after" its half of the body.

A special part of the brain is called the hippocampus, from the Greek hippokampos, which means seahorse, because of its curved shape. She is responsible for short-term memory and memory of events that happened to you personally. The cerebral cortex (or "gray matter") covers most of the brain. The memory is stored throughout its entire area.

Fun fact: the left half of your brain controls the right half of your body, while the right half of your brain controls the left half of your body. This is known because people who have suffered from an injury or stroke in one of the cerebral hemispheres always suffer opposite side body.

The work of neurologists has led to many discoveries about how the brain works. First, the brain itself does not have pain receptors, a kind of pain sensors. This means that you can be awake while neurosurgeons are digging in your brain and not feel anything.



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Left- and right-handedness depends on how your brain is powered. In left-handed people, the control regions, which are usually located in the left hemisphere of the brain, may be in the right hemisphere. It is still unclear why this is happening. Surprisingly, most animals don't tend to be "right-footed." For example, what kind of paw is your dog pitching? Which paw does your cat use to open the door when needed? Scientists have found that about half of the time they use their right paw and half of the time they use their left.

Although our memories are distributed across both hemispheres of the brain, they themselves work in different ways. For example, words and meanings are usually stored in the left hemisphere of the brain, while melodies and images are mostly stored in the right. We know this from studying people whose brains have been damaged in one way or another. One person with a stroke in the left hemisphere was unable to speak but could still sing!

In another case, a patient whose brain was split in the middle and the two hemispheres were severed was shown an image of a banana. In this case, the right eye

the patient was closed. Right hemisphere the patient recognized a banana and knew it was a fruit, but was unable to name it. When the right eye was opened, the left hemisphere came into play, and the name popped up in the mind.


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Most people remember very little of what happened to them before the age of five. It is extremely unusual to recall events from less than three years of age. For many children, the earliest memories are exciting or scary.

Most two-year-olds, if they were promised a gift, will remember this and will often remind their parents about it; however, their memories won't last too long. Even as children grow up, their memories are very short. Some are only 10 seconds long - just as long as you need to, if you are not trying to remember something forever.


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Forgetfulness

Forgetting is useful, it helps to remove all unnecessary things and concentrate on what is really important. At times, you may consciously desire to get rid of memories that are painful or saddening.

People forget information if they store it but never use it. You may be aware that Guinea pig in French - cobaye. It is also possible that you have learned this only now. There is also the possibility that you will never need this information again. Naturally, the word will soon disappear from your memory. To keep it, you need to repeat it very often.

Longest of known cases amnesia happened to the American John R. Crosswhite in 1936. He was in a car accident, and when he regained consciousness, he decided that his name was John Cross. As a result of this mistake, John Crosswight was reported missing and officially dead in 1940. John Cross later married, and his family did not know that he already had a wife and children. In 1973, this man had a stroke, and as a result of the changes in the brain, he remembered who he really was.


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The smart ones forget too

Some very smart people seem to have terrible memories. A friend of the famous math genius David Hilbert once showed him a complex formula on a blackboard.

Gilbert was very impressed and said, “This is amazing! Who wrote it?". "You!" - answered the friend. And this does not mean that Hilbert has a bad memory. Lot smart people often absent-minded, that is, inattentive, because their brain is busy with too many things.

Sometimes the urge to make the brain work can go too far. American William James Sideis was the son of a psychologist from Harvard University. WITH early age he was trained to memorize and learn. By the age of seven, William graduated from eight years schooling in six months and learned five languages! He entered Harvard University, graduated with top marks, and became a university lecturer at the age of 14. However, at 25, he worked as a regular accountant. When asked why this is so, he replied: “I am happy. This work allows me to forget. "


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The brain is needed only for a moving living being, notes neurophysiologist from New York University Rodolfo Llinas. As an illustration, he cites the example of a small, jellyfish-like marine animal called the ascidian. Once born, it attaches itself to the coral and slowly eats away at its brain. Since the ascidian does not move, it does not need a brain.

As human species evolved, the purely physical skills of its representatives turned into abstract abilities to predict, evaluate, communicate between phenomena, plan, observe oneself, make judgments, correct mistakes, change tactics, and then remember everything that was done in order to survive. Those neural circuits that our distant ancestors used to make fire, we today use, for example, to study the French language.

By doing physical exercise, especially those associated with complex movements, we also train those parts of our brain that are included in mental activity. Automatic thinking and motor functions are controlled by the basal nuclei, the cerebellum and the trunk - ancient zones that researchers have until recently associated only with motor functions... The transfer of fundamental skills and knowledge to these areas of the brain associated with our subconsciousness frees up other important parts of it to work on adapting to the environment. This element in the structure of the brain is very important. Imagine that we would need to stop for a while and remember how to make the usual movement. We would be exhausted before we even had a cup of coffee in the morning. That is why, by the way, jogging in the morning is so important.


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Risk factors

Memory loss... You instantly forget the names of new acquaintances; put your car keys somewhere and after a few minutes you cannot find them; if you do not write down an important thought, then you can not remember it? Surprisingly, your the main problem is not about memory: your brain knows where the keys are and what time you need to be at the doctor. The problem is, you can't get to that information at the right time. Gradually, of course, you will remember where you put the keys, but before that you will rush about for several minutes in search. And two days later, the time of the missed appointment with the doctor will pop up in memory.

If you find it difficult to remember recent events, but what happened several decades ago, you remember very well, your memory is already seriously weakened. Memory loss is associated with a whole host of factors: age, improper diet, lack of nutrients in the diet, diseases. But with a change in lifestyle, memory can be restored.

Difficulty focusing on the task... Do you find it difficult to return to work after being distracted? If there is a radio or TV in the room, do you find it difficult to read or concentrate? The fact is that you are getting worse and worse at doing several things at the same time. If you use a popular computer term, you can say that multitasking is more difficult for you. The young brain is capable of multitasking and absorbing huge amounts of information very quickly. And the brain of an older person sometimes gets stuck. He is overloaded with information and cannot process it quickly.

Decreased learning ability... When the brain begins to lose efficiency, it becomes more difficult for us to master new things. The brain loses the power of the "hard disk", due to which the perception of new information requires more and more effort. For example, you may find it harder to teach new language or even follow the plot of the novel. Here's what happens in this case. Your brain is made up of billions of cells - neurons, each surrounded by a protective membrane. Neurons have tiny branches that look like branches called dendrites. Here they are playing important role in the learning process: when the brain collides with challenging task, it forms new dendrites, which activates communication between brain cells and improves your intelligence. And although new dendrites can form at a very old age, this process seriously slows down over the years, which makes it more difficult for you to keep information in your head, be it phrases in a new language or intricacies of the plot of a new book.

Fatigue of the brain. Do you feel like your brain is terribly overworked? If you find it difficult to produce in your mind simple calculations or keeping track of the score in a tennis match is definitely a sign of brain fatigue. You can find it increasingly difficult to complete tasks that require prolonged concentration (say, writing a report on work). You are now unable to process information as quickly as before, and you probably notice that you are thinking slower. Why do you now have to spend half a day looking for glasses or car keys? There are mechanisms inside your brain that, if left unchecked, can destroy it. All aspects of your life - sleep patterns, medications you take, diet - can either slow down these destructive processes or speed them up.