STATE OF BRAIN HEALTH IN AMERICA
2022 Muse Brain Health Report
In recent years, the topic of “brain health” has become increasingly common as a comprehensive indicator of wellbeing across cognitive, sensory, emotional and physical aspects of one’s life.1 Maintaining a “healthy brain” is often cited as a means to improve one’s overall quality of life and reduce the risks associated with aging.2
Muse’s 2022 Brain Health Report provides insight into the many aspects of people’s lifestyle that positively contributes to or alternatively, detracts from, one’s overall brain health exploring six key areas commonly associated with brain health, including: memory, focus, sleep, mood, productivity and creativity.
METHODOLOGY: Muse's Brain Health 2022 survey was conducted in collaboration with online poll provider, Pollfish, and surveyed 5,000 adults aged 18+, located in the United States. Responses were collected between August 27, 2022 and August 30, 2022. The survey included self-reported scores on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the six key aspects of brain health including memory, focus, sleep, mood, productivity and creativity. Cumulative self-reported scores for brain health were calculated using the combined total scores across the six categories, for a total potential self-reported brain health score of 60. Survey responses spanning both personal and work related topics were cross-tabulated to identify behaviors that coincided with differences in self-reported brain health scores.
KEY AREAS OF BRAIN HEALTH:
CREATIVITY
FOCUS
MEMORY
MOOD
PRODUCTIVITY
SLEEP
BRAIN HEALTH TRENDS
Brain Health Aspects Ranked
Americans ranked memory as the most important aspect of brain health, yet sleep was their biggest struggle.
While each of the six categories play an important role in one’s brain health, Americans widely agree that the most important aspect of one’s overall brain health is their memory. Meanwhile, sleep ranks fourth in importance to brain health, yet it is the most poorly ranked area on average, making sleep the biggest struggle for Americans when it comes to maintaining a healthy brain.
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
*Cumulative scores for brain health were calculated using the combined total scores across the six categories of brain health, for a total potential brain health score of 60.
BRAIN HEALTH TRENDS
Generational Perceptions of Brain Health
Younger audiences such as Gen-Zers showed the lowest self-reported brain health scores, while older generations showed the highest.
Despite being the youngest of the four primary generational groups, Generation Z’s average self-reported brain health scores were the lowest across the six key categories as compared to the older generational groups. In contrast, the eldest generation, Boomers, ranked themselves the highest across nearly every category of brain health. Millennials and Gen-X fell in between with only a slight difference between the two in average self-reported brain health scores.
BRAIN HEALTH TRENDS
Mapping Brain Health across America
When assessing brain health perception across the country, states with the highest self-reported scores in key areas of brain health were Rhode Island, Nebraska, Maine, Virginia and Minnesota. On the other end of the spectrum, states with the lowest self-reported scores were from Colorado, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah, Kentucky.
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
Activities associated with higher perceived brain health include:
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
BRAIN HEALTH & PERSONAL WELL-BEING
Top Activities Positively Associated with Self-Reported Brain Health Scores
Higher self-reported brain health scores are associated with those who eat healthily, exercise and participate in leisure activities multiple times per week.
Healthy eating was by far the most significant source of influence on higher perceived brain health, followed by exercise, participation in leisure activities, following a morning routine and spending time outdoors. When comparing those who do the following activities multiple times per week or more, compared to those who don’t, the following differences showed in their self-reported brain health scores:
BRAIN HEALTH & PERSONAL WELL-BEING
Top Activities Positively Associated with Self-Reported Brain Health Aspects
Eating a healthy breakfast leads when it comes to the most common activity that supports improvements to people’s daily brain health across the key categories of sleep, productivity, memory, focus, mood and creativity.
MEMORY
FOCUS
SLEEP
MOOD
PRODUCTIVITY
CREATIVITY
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
BRAIN HEALTH & PERSONAL WELL-BEING
Top Factors Negatively Associated with Self-Reported Brain Health Scores
Perceived brain health declines over the past year are largely attributed to stress, poor sleep and less social interaction due to COVID-19.
Americans perceived that their brain health scores decreased since the past year. While normal aging was a factor for 36% of Americans, most attribute the changes to other extenuating circumstances including stress, poor sleep and changes to their lifestyle due to COVID-19. The top factors negatively associated with self-reported brain health scores include:
BRAIN HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE
Overworked & Burnt Out
Nearly half of Americans feel overworked or burnt out
Given the significant amount of time that Americans’ spend at work and engaging with co-workers, it’s understandable that 8 in 10 Americans say one’s work life plays a major role in overall brain health. Yet unfortunately, many Americans always or frequently feel overworked (44%) and burnt out (43%), which ultimately takes a toll on overall brain health.
In the past 90 days, American workers reported feeling:
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
BRAIN HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE
Impact of Work-Life Changes
Many workers have either considered or have actively made changes to their professional life in the past year
Ongoing trends in the workforce, such as the widespread transitioning of jobs that came with the Great Resignation to the shift in workplace mentality born from the growing trend of "quiet quitting", are likely responses to workers feelings of burnout and stress, yet the big question is whether or not these actions being taken by American workers are, in fact, improving their brain health.
Impact of work-life changes on brain health
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
BRAIN HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE
Quiet Quitting
In the workplace, a quiet-quitting mentality appeared to negatively impact self-reported brain health scores, while striving for a promotion or raise appeared to positively impact self-reported brain health scores.
The trend of quiet quitting, when one “quits” going above and beyond their job’s requirements, has gained popularity in 2022. Surprisingly, those who have “quiet quit” in the past year show a negative percentage difference in their overall self-reported brain health score, while those who have taken alternative courses of action within their careers, such as striving for a promotion or becoming a location-independent nomad show a positive percentage difference in self-reported brain health scores.
When asked to compare common work categories such as compensation and stress, workers preferred their new job over their last job on average. However, stress levels were reported as relatively equal between their last and new job.
Of those who've changed jobs in the past year, when it comes to key areas of their jobs, workers prefer the following:
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
BRAIN HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE
Work Activities Positively Associated with Self-Reported Brain Health Scores
Americans with a higher self-perceived brain health are taking physical breaks and practicing meditation exercises daily during the workday.
By comparison, lifestyle changes make a much greater impact on worker's self-reported brain health, when compared to sweeping changes such as quitting or relocating. The people with the highest self-reported brain health scores are taking action during the workday in hopes of regulating their brain health and maintaining their overall well-being.
The primary activities positively impacting brain health in the workplace include:
Source: Muse 2022 Brain Health Survey
Methodology
Muse's Brain Health 2022 survey was conducted in collaboration with online poll provider, Pollfish, and surveyed 5,000 adults aged 18+, located in the United States. Responses were collected between August 27, 2022 and August 30, 2022.
The survey included self-reported scores on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the six key aspects of brain health including memory, focus, sleep, mood, productivity and creativity. Cumulative scores for brain health were calculated using the combined total scores across the six categories, for a total potential brain health score of 60. Survey responses spanning both personal and work related topics were cross-tabulated to identify behaviors that coincided with differences in brain health scores.
The concept of "brain health" encompasses a wide range of definitions and inclusions of various elements of brain functions that contribute to health and wellbeing. Those referenced in the development of Muse's six criteria of brain health are included below:
- Brain Health is defined by the World Health Organization as "the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioural and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders." [Source]
- The Lancet, Neurology Journal adds to the prior definition of the World Health Organization, explaining brain health as a "a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing through the continuous development and exercise of the brain." [Source]
- The Center for Brain Health defines brain health as an active term for management of one's wellbeing, describing brain health as "making the most of your capacity to thrive in life." Their research shows that better brain health helps people thrive within the context of their personal life. [Source]
About Interaxon Inc.:
Interaxon is a late-stage venture company in the neurotechnology space, with a brain and biosensor platform of hardware and software products, a sophisticated data-cloud infrastructure, popular consumer and licensable B2B products, the largest database of brain data in the world, and an IP fortress with several fundamental granted brain, biosignal, VR and AR patents with early priority dates. Interaxon is currently completing a second investment round to support converting the company's current up-front cost model to an integrated subscription model. Interaxon is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and has subsidiaries in the U.S. and Ireland.
Milestones we’re excited about:
- Community: More than 500,000 Musers globally
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- Research institutions using Muse®: The Mayo Clinic, NASA, Harvard, MIT, U of T, UCL, UCSD, Inria, UVic, UBC, and many more.
- Meditating with Muse® works: Muse has been used in over 200 published studies, including Mayo Clinic who demonstrated meditating with Muse increases quality of life, and decreases stress and fatigue in cancer patients.
- Better Sleep with Muse® : A recent 2021 study with ~200 participants led by Western University, Cambridge Brain Science, Hatch, and Interaxon that used Muse S EEG-sleep support technology showed a 20% improvement in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) after 6 weeks of following Muse protocols.
- Untangle Podcast: With more than 11 million listens, and growing daily, Untangle® hosts Patricia Karpas and Ariel Garten interview thought-provoking authors, experts and leaders in areas related to neuroscience, mindfulness, sleep, brain health practices, and more.
