Summertime conditions can impair memory, thinking, and concentration.

These effects are driven by sleep disruption, heat, dehydration, and smoke exposure.

Awareness and simple habits can help protect cognitive performance.

As summer approaches, you may find yourself forgetting things, struggling to concentrate, or generally feeling cognitively slower. You may wonder, “Is this normal? Does this happen to everyone?”

In past summers, this has certainly happened to me. For instance, I’ve struggled with more tip-of-the-tongue words than usual. The ever-elusive names—but also common words. Words like…what do you call that thing you put on the dog? Not a collar—the one with four straps?(Two minutes later): Harness.

Is there something about the summer months that causes worse brain fog and a sluggish memory?

Research shows the answer is yes. In fact, scientists have identified four key factors. And, fortunately, if you’re aware of these harmful conditions, you can mitigate their effects.

Feature #1. Longer Days—And Shorter Nights

Our brains require a steady diet of quality sleep to perform optimally.

But some research has shown that sleep suffers in the summertime. A study done in the Netherlands revealed that sleep duration—measured objectively with wrist-worn activity monitors—was shorter in summer than winter.

In another study, researchers in Germany examined brain activity during sleep across 12 months of the year. Although they found that overall time asleep did not change across seasons, REM sleep did. In this study, REM sleep was reduced in spring and early summer and increased during the winter months.

And the REM periods of sleep are known to be important for some memory and thinking skills, such as consolidating emotional memories in long-term memory.

What’s causing poor sleep in the summer? A major determinant seems to be extended daylight.

For example, a study conducted in the Arctic summer—with some periods of 24-hour sunlight—showed that extremely long daylight was associated with disrupted circadian rhythms, delays in melatonin secretion onset, and worse sleep.

Feature #2. Hotter Temperatures

Here’s a sentence I never envisioned writing: Maybe Mel Tormé was right: It’s just tooooo darn hot.

Do sweltering temperatures also diminish our thinking abilities?

A group of scientists in the UK investigated this.........

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