Can the gut explain the three o'clock collapse in concentration?
The afternoon crash is usually blamed on the clock. It may be the wrong suspect.
Very often, yes - and there is nothing mystical in it.
Some seventy per cent of your immune system sits in the gut, and the creatures living there manufacture neurotransmitters - serotonin among them - that reach the mind directly. The conversation runs both ways. This is why the gut has earned the name of a second brain: it is not a metaphor, it is a wiring diagram.
When that inner population is in order, you have steady energy and a clear head. When it is not, what you feel are precisely the symptoms everyone blames on a bad night or too much work: fatigue, fog, a mood that turns without cause.
So look again at three o'clock. A dip in the day's rhythm is real. But a gut that is absorbing poorly makes the same dip - and that one does not lift however long you sleep.
Is Your Gut Helping or Hurting Your Productivity? sets out the signs.
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