Cognitive Fatigue and Reading

Reading used to be a passion of mine. I was an avid reader. I could read a book in a couple of days at times but definitely read a couple of hours a day. I bought tons of books and had a stack of To Be Read pile pending. Books lingered in every room of the house.

Now? I can read. Not every day. And it makes me tired pretty fast. So for short periods of time. It makes me sad, of course. Because there are so very many things I want to read. From fiction to non-fiction. And a stack I want to get through.

I wondered why this was. Specifically.

It turns out reading is cognitively demanding. Yep. That is about it.

One way to measure a cognitively demanding task is that it is fatiguing. Cognitively fatiguing which we find in a lot of chronic conditions and illnesses alike.

Focusing “on cognitive fatigability (CF), defined as performance decline on tasks requiring sustained mental effort, and captured as decreased task accuracy, increased response time , or as an increased intraindividual performance variability . Studies on patients with neurological conditions have shown that CF can be induced during a short task if sufficiently cognitively demanding” Du Gruyter Brill

In regards to chronic pain and this study in 2024 cognitive fatiguability was associated with “processing speed in attention-demanding tests, most salient in an executively demanding condition, indicating an association between processing speed and CF in chronic pain.” This makes a lot of sense since processing speed changes are referenced in chronic pain research.

Some things like Fibromyalgia, Migraines and Multiple Sclerosis can affect:

• Attention: Like my prolonged attention span. And staying focused over a long period of time. At anything, but I noticed it at this specific thing.
• Processing speed: This would be taking in and absorbing the text I am reading. The actual comprehension.
• Working memory: A problem with pain overall can be working memory. And this would affect holding information in our minds while moving from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph.
• Visual processing: Tracking the text

All this can make reading specifically draining and down right exhausting.

This can all lead to:

• I find it causes fatigue from reading in a very short span of time
• Sometimes I have to read paragraphs or sentences over again. Very brain fog.
• I can have trouble tracking words. I think of this as visual fatigue and stop reading.

Fatigue is a major symptom of mine from fibromyalgia to MS and “affects 70 to 90% of people with MS. Many patients describe fatigue to bas the disease’s worst symptom.” And with Fibromyalgia there is the infamous brain fog and cognitive issues.

With MS higher levels of fatigue linked to poorer cognitive function. Results showed 57.8% had clinical fatigue and lower on cognitive tests. Specifically, lower performance in poor verbal learning, visual-spacial memory, and information processing speed (IPS). Cognitive fatiguability in MS being strongly reported and researched.

Tips

• A main tip for cognitive fatigue is pacing yourself and that is no different for reading. Reading in shorter bursts is better. Ten minutes to twenty minute sections.
• Another tip for cognitive fatigue is schedule rest. And with reading that is basically take reading breaks. This is part in parcel with pacing as well. But if you need to read something long, scheduling breaks goes a long way.
• Some people use audio books of text-to-speech. I do not. For some reason this causes me more fatigue.
• With an eBook, I will increase the font size to make it easier to process and read. Easier for the eyes to track. With an actual book I will read one with small text for shorter durations.
• Read during the time of the day that is best for you. Earlier is best for me. In the afternoon I will have so much more mental fatigue.
• Reduce all distractions as this will reduce cognitive overload.
• If the text you are reading is for studying then you might want to remember to stay hydrated and have a snack to help with focus. And maybe also take a break where you walk around. All help with focus.

I painfully did some physio the wrong way