[n_u_l_l]

Thank you for writing this.

Last December I started getting some kind of weird 'fog' in my head. I didn't take it seriously when it first started and thought it would go away on its own. But instead it became worse and I got severely cognitively impaired. My speech got slow, I forgot basic words, I forgot names of people I knew, my logical thinking was impaired. It improved a little bit but I'm still incredibly cognitively impaired.

I spent hours searching online, using complex search queries and APIs to gather a lot of info on other people that report the same symptoms. This wasn't because I felt anxious, but I just really wanted to continue with my life ASAP and my symptoms seemed very vague. The conclusion was that, besides some medical causes, people with the same symptoms usually had anxiety.

Since I don't feel anxious or depressed and it appeared suddenly I still want to rule some medical causes out. But it is comforting to know that when all medical causes are ruled out, there is still a huge chance of it being just anxiety.

[milesvp]

You may want to attempt to improve your sleep. Foggy head with reduced cognition and memory loss are pretty major symptoms of long term inadequate sleep. They’re very common symptoms that parents of young children complain about, and can have some very long recovery times. Personally it took almost 6 months to recover once my first child started sleeping through the night. All it takes is an hour a night deficit for an extended period of time to really impact mental acuity, but you might not notice because it’s almost enough on a daily basis, and by the time the cumulative effects show up, it’s not always obvious sleep is the culpret.

[n_u_l_l]

Thank you!

Actually right around the time my cognition became bad the quality of my sleep also got worse. I sleep 8 hours every night but most days I don't really feel rested, although I neither feel sleepy during the day. I've done a sleep study and I'm seeing a neurologist specialized in sleep later this month to hear the results, I hope he has an idea.

[pratap103]

I had a really rough month where my 2yo was jet lagged and waking up crying multiple times a night. After that I've had two months of anxiety on and off, this is really helpful. Have always suspected that sleep could have been the trigger but didn't realize that an hour a night could make such a huge difference. Cheers!

[taneq]

And of course this is a self-reinforcing downward spiral. Sleep quality destroyed by kids, underperformance in all areas of life due to sleep deprivation, anxiety and stress due to underperformance, making it harder to get to sleep...

[taneq]

I was going to say the same. That sounds like my on chronic sleep deprivation, and as you say, after months or years of sleep deprivation it can take weeks of consistent good sleep for the symptoms to fade.

[PascLeRasc]

I experience brain fog about once every two weeks in exactly the way you describe and I've thought it's anxiety as well. I tried describing this to a psychiatrist and a cardiologist and neither of them took me seriously and said it's nothing. The only thing that helps me is meditation followed by weightlifting, and it helps tremendously. The hard part is that it always occurs around late-morning/early-afternoon, so if I'm at work I just have to suffer at my desk and get nothing done for the rest of the day.

[n_u_l_l]

I came across the mental disorders 'depersonalization' and 'derealization'. People usually describe it as feeling foggy or like a dream. Maybe that might be what you mean and help you explaining it.

The 'depersonalization' is probably the 'fog' I'm talking about. But I know that sleep deprivation can also cause it, so I hope that I have something treatable related to my sleep.

[dragonsngoblins]

I had this problem and assumed I was just getting older and dumber... In my defense my thinking was impaired at the time. I had a sleep apnoea so I echo people mentioning sleep issues as a potential cause.

[dave84]

Sounds like Sleep Apnea, maybe get a sleep study.

[agent008t]

Did you by any chance get tested for glandular fever?

[blaser-waffle]

Ok I'll bite: glandular fever is commonly known as Mono. What that got to do w/ the heart problem and anxiety?

[dave84]

They're not replying to that comment, they're replying to the comment about the brain fog.