Is Screen Time Robbing Your Brain? How to Fix It

This is Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takaro from the corporate office to the cab of a truck. They're here to inspire and empower women in all professions. So gear down, sit back and enjoy.

Welcome. We're an award winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights. No topics off limits on our show. We power women on the road to success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need. I'm Shelly, and Kathy's on assignment. Too many of us are on our electronic gadgets. Too much. Parked in front of the computer or staring at our cell phones.

Thank you so much.

This is going to be a fascinating conversation and you know, your work has gotta be so rewarding, and the discoveries and strides you've made had helped so many people. Could you tell our listeners how you began and what guided you in this direction?

Oh gosh, that's a an interesting uh story. So I'll try to tell you the the short version of that. I um I I'm a previous women's basketball coach and I played college basketball. And um I was hired in a um I was hired in the capacity of a neuropsychologist. at a private school in Santa Barbara, California. And they heard that I'd coached the basketball team at Beverly Hills High. So they wanted me to coach the basketball team as well. And apparently they hadn't won any games in years.

to me

after the season was over and he said, Can you do what you just did with that basketball team? Can you do that with academics? And I said, I I don't know, what are you thinking? He said, if we send you to Harvard and to Berkeley and all these different colleges, can you gather the new brain research, bring it back? and see if we can build something.

哇

And I said, I know. And I said, oh my gosh, that would be amazing. So that's what we did. So I went and I I gathered all this new brain research. No one was using it. I brought it back and I developed Skill building activities just like a coach develops skill building activities for a basketball team.

That's amazing and what a fortuitous man he was to ask you to do that.

Oh I know, I know. It was and it was fabulous because it was right in my wheelhouse because You know, there's fundamentals of sport. Uh like if you were playing tennis, for example, you need a forehand, a backhand, and a serp to do well, right? Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Well, if you're learning in the classroom or you ha in just an everyday life You need visual processing speed, you need auditory processing, you need working memory. Those are the fundamental skills for learning in the brain. And so when I realized that the brain trained exactly the way muscles trained, I thought, my gosh, I was built for this. Like, you know, it was, it was so, it was like breathing for me to be able to develop those.

What a concept that the brain is a muscle, essentially. It's not something that I don't think that most people usually use as an analogy, but it makes sense and Is it true as we learn, we increase our gray matter? Is is that true or

It is. It is. I mean, neuroplasticity is just the brain's ability to grow and adapt and change. based on its experiences. And so what you practice is what you hardwire.

Now

It's important to make sure you're practicing the things that will move you in the direction of your goals because the brain is always practicing. So you kind of have to ask yourself, is my brain practicing things that are gonna move me in the direction of my goals, or is my brain practicing something that's gonna move me away from that? Does that make sense? Yes.

And you have to wonder, with all of the gadgets we have today, are people really moving in the right direction to expand their gray matter and really exercise their brains?

Well, I think That I mean, don't get me wrong, technology is a wonderful thing and it and there's a lot of convenience in it and it can be really helpful. uh there's also some downsides to that and I think it's really important that as we use technology that we also do the things that offset any uh you know damage that we may do by staying on screens too long or

Yeah, a lot of people are addicted to their phones and I've heard that it's actually based on the way social media is structured, it's lowering our attention spans because we're used to seeing things that are in short little spurts. So that makes it problematic if you're trying to sit in class or learn something that's going to take a lot longer than that.

Oh, I know. I know. And what are what are they saying? Like uh sixty-one or sixty-seven research uh projects now that show that um those short videos on TikTok or the just the short videos in general are affecting not only attention, but self-control.

Oh.

So the recommendation is that you sit down and watch a movie, you know, something that that lasts, something that where you sustain your attention to offset that. Because if we're just doing those little snippets and then we definitely um are eroding our our attention.

Is it making our brains lazy, you think?

Yeah.

Well, I don't know about making it lazy, but you know, you have to use something. You use it or you lose it, right?

Yeah.

And so we've known that for a long time. So And again, you know, we only have preliminary research regarding AI right now, but You know, the even the preliminary research says that if we're offloading, you know, our critical thinking skills and our memory and all of those kinds of things to AI, our creativity. then we are eroding our own skills somewhat. So again, using it to enhance our thinking and not do the thinking for us.

I agree with that. Yes, we don't want AI to be the new creators of uh marvelous things, but it seems like it's going in that direction. And uh I think sometimes people like shortcuts. Especially if it's boring. Our brains don't like to do things that are boring for some reason.

I know it's it's interesting'cause it it it does take a lot of repetition to to train an athlete or even to train a brain. It takes repetition. And sometimes the students when we're they're going through I run brain labs at Stanford and here in Pebble Beach and different places and in those brain labs kids have a lot of repetition.

Some of it seems stupid. It's like, why am I doing this?

You know.

Ha ha ha.

For more of Women Road Warriors. Coming up.

Dean Michael, the tax doctor here. I have one question for you. Do you want to stop worrying about the IRS? If the answer is yes, then look no further. I've been around for years, I've helped countless people across the country, and my success rate speaks for itself. So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems, what are you waiting for?

avec Shelley Johnson.

If you're enjoying this informative episode of Women Road Warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success. We feature a lot of expert interviews. Plus, we feature celebrities and women who've been trailblazers. Please check out our podcast at WomenRoadWarriors.com and click on our episodes page.

it wraps myelin around the brain circuit, so it makes whatever you're trying to do easier to do. The more myelin you have wrapped around the circuit, then the easier something becomes. When you've when you're a beginner in something, um You know, you you need that repetition to and you need to make mistakes because mistakes are a huge part of success in the brain. So you make a mistake and then the brain says, oh, okay, we'll need to do it differently this next time.

Now you said, Mylon, what is that?

Myelin. It's it's just the uh uh interesting without going into all the the science of it. So if you can just think of uh that the thicker the myelin is wrapped around the circuit. the easier something becomes. So think of something that you do really well

Okay. Now what happens I'm I'm trying to think of something that I've experienced uh I used to play piano a lot. I have gotten away from that. If I were to sit down and play the piano again Uh d I'd have to do remedial practice. Obviously I haven't used the same muscles in quite some time, so it's a matter of the dexterity issues. But what's going on in the brain there? It it takes a while to get back in the swing of things.

It does. But remember that I I'd still go back to the athlete scenario. Remember athletes don't lose their skill in the off season. They're just better when they in when they're in the season where they're practicing. So as soon as you go back to it and you start practicing, you'll pick it up much quicker because you're like an athlete not in season right now.

Okay. So y you never really lose it. It's it's still there. It's w it's just kind of what, dormant?

Yes. Right. It's you're just better when you're when you're in season, when you're practicing.

That makes sense.

Oh gosh. I think that depends because everybody's brain's different, right? I encourage parents to use screen time as a reward instead of an everyday practice. Now I know some of the schools are on screens constantly, but um I I encourage them to use it. um in moderation as much as possible.

Huge.

if you're doing um, if your socialization is huge for the brain. Uh jigsaw puzzles. People think it's crossword puzzles, but crossword puzzles don't. keep the brain fit. It doesn't hurt the brain, but it's jigsaw puzzles that are great for the brain. And then board games, uh brain something called brain cards, which are hard categorization.

A lot of

activities are a lot of things that offset that screen time. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. And of course, when you're exercising, um, you're introducing oxygen. Is that part of the reason that it's so good for the brain too?

It is. It's just all around exercise is just super great for the brain that

It

uh gives the brain the the right chemicals it needs. It's it's just overall the number one thing I tell in my adult brain lab classes and with the students that exercise is Amazing for your brain.

And you're saying socialize. That's something we're starting to lose.

I know. I know. And it's so important. It is so important that we stay social. And it's hard for me because I'm very much an introvert. So it's one of those things I really work at. I make myself get out and be social. I make myself be around my friends and have conversations and those kinds of things. It's not that I wanna stay home and be on technology. I just

of Women Road Warriors coming up.

Dean Michael, the tax doctor here. I have one question for you. Do you want to stop worrying about the IRS? If the answer is yes, then look no further. I've been around for years, I've helped countless people across the country, and my success rate speaks for itself. So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems, what are you waiting for?

Welcome back.

If you've ever felt mentally drained after spending hours online, scrolling your phone, answering emails, or jumping between screens halte, you're not alone. Research continues to show that excessive screen time can affect focus, sleep, attention span, and even emotional regulation. But our guest today, Dr. Terry Lindsay, says we can actually train the brain to function better through intentional habits and exercises.

Well, interestingly enough, I always tell my friends when when Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming around, I always say, You know, turkey is one of the best things you can eat for your brain because of tryptophan. Um, the that same uh part of turkey that makes you a little bit sleepy is also the part of it that's great for the brain. So I always tell my friends, you you know, eat some turkey, eat some sweet potatoes, eat Eat healthy to offset that pumpkin pie and those

These techniques that you're talking about Those would be beneficial to just about anybody. Uh would it also be helpful if someone has had uh say a stroke or they've suffered a concussion? Uh are these some of the things that uh you implement in in some of your Therapies are these things that can be beneficial to people.

Absolutely. We we work with I've worked with a few adults that have had strokes. We work with lots and lots of concussions. Um even like things like early onset dementia and Alzheimer's things like that to slow the process down a little bit. I'd had people come in and and ask um about that. But I had an interesting thing. I think you'll you'll find this interesting. A few years ago I had a Navy SEAL come in and ask me uh to go through the brain lab.

You specialize in brain optimization. Now, what exactly do you do when you're optimizing somebody's brain?

Well, like I talked about earlier, we're doing Targeted fundamental activities. actually target those areas of the brain like working memory, auditory processing. memory and visual processing, any of those areas. We're targeting those areas and then we're taking them through drills. just like an athlete would do to get better at a skill, we're taking them through those drills that will then improve those areas of their brain.

Good way to describe it. Yeah. No, I would I would imagine that this same technique can help with somebody if they've suffered a head injury or a stroke or something like that. Do you use MRIs and that sort of thing to See the improvements in the brain? Are there ways you can measure this sort of thing?

Well I just measure it by having another psychologist retest at the end of it. Um, or sometimes they'll just ask me to retest and I'll retest that area. But I'm not using any MRIs right now. Um, but definitely retesting those subtests just to to uh see. And we usually use a different test than we used in the beginning so that we can kind of get a better measurement of

So do you have maybe any specific examples of the kind of improvements you've been able to achieve with people?

Well, when it comes to students, these are some of the most wonderful compliments that I've heard from parents. My child started reading for pleasure now. he never read for pleasure before because it was so hard for him.

Or

the kids will say, it takes me like I I don't take hours and hours to do my homework anymore. Like I can sit down and and get through my homework in a decent amount of time. Or I can sit down and take a test and not have test anxiety, or I can finish the test. And before I wasn't able to finish the test in in the amount of time that was allotted to me. Those are some of the things. When it comes to SAT scores and ACT scores, we have definite results about raising their

Let's go.

Let's take him through the program. So we took him through the program and then, you know, of course I don't hear anything from them. That's always the good news, right? Because they move on and and they uh you know, they got what they needed and and they're moving on. But in about

Wow, they immediately assumed the worst. How awful.

Uh

Instead of maybe investigating it further to see what maybe that there was something that went on where he could improve.

Right. So it was it was great. And every once in a while I still hear from him. You know, he's grown and and doing well. And every once in a while I still hear from him, I'm sh everything's still going well. So um so I I think it's uh there's a lot of as you said before, it's it's really rewarding. It's fun for me and it's really r rewarding.

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Today's conversation is so relevant because so many people are mentally overloaded without fully understanding why. Between notifications, streaming, multitasking, and constant digital stimulation, our brains can rarely get a break anymore. According to Dr. Terry Lindsay, our brains are capable of remarkable change through neuroplasticity.

At any age. We know now the brain can be changed at any age.

I understand you have some adult brain labs that you put in at the Pebble Beach Club in California. What does that entail?

You can actually go in, do your cardio, do your weight training, and then go upstairs and take a 55 minute neurobics class or brain lab. So you can actually kind of like one stop shopping for help, you know, come in and just knock it all out.

That's a great concept. Is anyone else doing that?

Not that I know of, but we're we're definitely gonna do it here. And I think um we've got the population here that um are really excited about it. I I did a brain fitness uh presentation and we had so many people sign up that we had to break it into three sessions. So I think we've got uh people here who value education and they're paying attention to what's going on with the brain and they really they really want this.

You know, I think people are learning more about how the brain functions and realizing that one size doesn't fit all. I think in terms of being a student, everyone learns in their own different way. And if things aren't presented properly, maybe it turns you off. I mean, there's so many things that go into being human, obviously. You're going to feel like you're inferior, you're stupid. P you know, people, especially kids, they can be so cruel.

Well, for me, I approach it from the angle of some things in our brain are really developed because we practice that a lot, and some things are a little bit less developed. And now that we know we can change the brain, um I mean, you know, again, there are some that are more severe than others, but for the most part, I think we all have different areas of our brain that are a little bit less developed. Um

Mm.

Brains. I always tell them you have a BMW brained and we need to bring it in and tune it up and get you back out on the road. Well.

That's a good way to describe it. I like that.

Yeah, because even a BMW doesn't run well if it's not tuned up.

That's true. You have to take vehicles in for service and change the oil and rotate the tires and do all of those things. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And so it just and then they feel like I think they feel relieved a lot of times, you know, they're like, oh, okay, all right, that's what that was. You know, they they I think they there's some relief, a lot of relief in that for them.

So how do we increase our neuroplasticity so that we can learn more, learn faster, be resilient? I mean, everybody I think people want to move so quickly today. And how do we do that? I mean, I think we're stressed out because the world just keeps flitting by us, especially when you're looking at these devices. How do we keep our brains functioning and and adapting?

Well I think again it goes back to that. Offsetting, right? It it does. I mean, we know the things that keep the brain fit, like socialization and exercise, and racket sports and brain cards and jigsaw puzzles and board games. We know those things. help keep the brain fit. So offsetting that, you know, technology time with these things that we know keep the brain fit. I think it's gonna be really important to keep that to definitely keep that balance for us.

Well when you think about it, I'm not not sure our brains are designed to look at all of these devices, to be focused on them. We're not living in the moment. We're not aware of our surroundings. And I would think that that would make children

Well again, the f I think uh moderation is is gonna be the key. And then m the younger they are, I think the less spring time they need. But that's that's just my opinion. And I know Um, I mean there's a lot of research behind it, but I also know that

Sometimes

it's an easier thing, right? To to just hand them the phone or put them on the computer. It's not the most beneficial. But again, if you can offset that with some exercise later on or um, you know, something else uh that will offset it. then it's not as much damage, I don't think, done.

Well, I find it interesting that excessive screen time, it's not good. It can disrupt your sleep, your attention, your memory, and maybe even affect areas of the brain tied to focus and emotional regulation. So you have people who can't focus and then maybe they have tantrums. I mean, human uh even adults have tantrums. It just exhibits in a different way, but that's not good at all.

No, no. But I think I think we know this. I think we just have to um again Moderation. I always tell kids if everything could be done on the computer, then Olympic athletes would train on we. Because it turn it turns out you have to do the thing that you want to get better at.

That makes sense. And we're kind of designed that way. I mean, you really have to do what you want to get better at. In in my case, playing the piano. If I didn't have a piano to play, I wouldn't learn the technique. That wouldn't have worked.

Right. So what you practice is what you hardwire. And I think that's the the to it is to check in on what our daily practices are. I think that's really important for parents to model that to their kids and for them to help guide them. in those better practices? What's best practice for screen time and best practice for brain fitness, those kinds of things. But also I think we have to model that for students. As well.

Yes, that a good example. And I do see a fair amount of parents sitting looking at their phones. So

That's true. And I'm I'm guilty of it. I'm guilty of it myself. When I come home I try to, you know, go for a walk or, you know, go play some ping pong or do something that will kind of offset it when I have to be on the computer all day.

Makes sense to me. So you've seen a lot of improvements when you've worked with people with dyslexia, ADHD. Uh do you also work with neurodivergent children and and students and that sort of thing? And uh are you able to to assist them as well?

I am, I am like... I would say that what gravitates to me might be, you know, pretty pretty bright kiddos with just maybe one or two areas of the brain that might be a little bit less developed. So then maybe they're frustrated, maybe they don't read as fast or as well if some of the dyslexia symptoms are coming up or

What happens in in the area of the brain if there's an area of the brain that's less developed? Why is that, and how can you strengthen it?

Well, it again, if you go back to what you practice is what you hardwire, for su for whatever reason, that particular area of the brain didn't get a lot of practice. Now we don't know. So we don't know how much is nurture and how much is nature, right? But for whatever reason, what we do know, if it's not as developed, then it wasn't getting the practice that it needed to develop.

And once it's built, it's there to stay, correct?

For the most part it is. It is. They um you know, in the summer they I ask'em to, you know, continue to do their brainy parts'cause they get to take those home with them or Or I'll say, you know, make sure you're doing make sure you're out in sports or you're staying active or whatever. But yes, once once we um create that pathway in the brain, then they it usually just take off because

True. That's why I think when people go back to school they say it's a little bit tougher to get back into the swing of things. It is haven't been doing it. Yeah.

Yeah, I do get a lot of people going through my program that are going back to school or moms who, you know, will come in and say I feel like when I went through menopause, my IQ dropped forty points, you know, or something like that. And then uh we'll take them through the brain lab, but um I think it's beneficial. I mean, it's so great that we now know that you can change the brain at any age. So

You've got your book, Measuring Up the Go-To Guide for Parents and Students Looking for an Edge in the Hyper Competitive World of Education. That sounds like there's a lot of information there that everybody could actually benefit from. What do you talk about in that?

Well, mostly I it was I wrote it as a guide to help parents navigate public and private schools. And um, because it's tricky, you know, it's tricky to navigate. And I, since I work in both of in in both public and private schools, it was easier for me to know the ins and outs. And so I wrote that so that they would understand how to navigate that so that their child could.

This is pretty exciting because you can increase a student's cognitive skills or reshape some, leading to better scores and results and it is competitive. When people want to get into college, they have to start planning at the age what, what eighth grade? it's kind of crazy just to get into a good school, the kind of competition that goes on. And everything you're doing. I think that you're benefiting so many different people. What would you say is different that you do versus what

Well, I think a couple of things. You know, we run it more like sports so the kids really have fun and that's one of the times that the amygdala is wide open. So you're really taking it all in. And I think that making it fun is really important. And then um we ha we had our clinical trials, so we know it worked.

Um

You know, I think the sports part of ours, uh, probably is a little bit different. And it's probably just because that's my background and I enjoyed sports so much and I think there's so much to be learned from that. So when kids uh most of the kids that come through the program are doing at least some sport and if they're not, they're oftentimes doing music or dance or something.

Well, when I think about it when I had teachers that kept me interested, a lot of them were kind of fun. Rather than the boring way that they presented history. With stupid questions on the test, like when was the war of eighteen twelve?

Yeah. Right. Novelty. We loved those professors that did something novel that got our attention.

Yeah. I still remember in eighth grade the teacher that um when we arrived in class it was history and we were studying the Revolutionary War and he was dressed up as a British officer. Oh that's

So great.

Yeah. Yeah, we didn't expect that. It's like, huh. And and then of course he explained himself as to why and all of that. So it was really kinda cool. But I understand that your neurology laboratories, they've expanded internationally.

Right. Well in California, uh, right now mostly. You know, we've we've run them in China and India and some of the other places that we've been invited and and that's been really fun. Um I run everything out of this the Pebble Beach area right now. And then we're in you can find us at Stanford, UCLA, some of the the colleges here. Um if they want to reach out, they can go on Brain Matters with a Z, brain matters dot com.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like to take advantage of this and is this something that would be covered by insurance or not?

You know, I think it might be a little bit too cutting edge right now. Uh, but if they get when they get the neuropsych evaluation, that is definitely um almost always covered uh if they're having their child you know, when they're getting the baselines to see um what uh you know, kind of what's developed and what's less developed, that's usually covered. But going ahead and retraining the brain, we're not quite there yet. But I I'm hopeful that we might be someday.

Where did people find you again?

Brain Matters with the Z, BrainMatters dot com.

Excellent. I could cover all kinds of topics here with you and pick your brain, if you don't mind. I mean we we have a limited amount of time, but I think we covered a lot of territory. It's pretty fascinating how the human brain works.

It really is. It's there's so much that we don't know. And um I mean it it's exciting what we do know, but there's just so much that we don't know still.

It's a mystery. Is on top of our shoulders, but it's the most misunderstood part of our body, I think.

It is and probably the most important because it's directing everything.

It truly is. Thank you so much for being on the show. This has been fascinating and I think that Kathy and I would love to have you back and maybe we could talk about a particular topic because I'm sure there are gonna be a lot of things you hear in the news and and maybe we could reach out to you and say, Hey, what do you think of this? What do you suggest?

That would be great. I would love that. This has been really fun.

I've enjoyed it. Thank you, Dr. Lindsay.

Thank you so much.

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You've been listening to Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Takaro. If you want to be a guest on the show or have a topic or feedback, email us at sfonson at womenroad warriors.com.