What My Brain Taught Me About Doomscrolling (and Maybe Yours, Too)
This spring, my students and I in the Neuropsychology Lab ran a study on brain activity in three conditions: focused, relaxed, and phone scrolling.
We were both the researchers and the participants, scanning each other, including myself.
As I was analyzing the EEG data, I noticed that my brain activity looked different compared to my students', particularly in the phone scrolling condition.
Roughly speaking, a healthy brain operates in two main modes: it generates stronger Alpha frequencies while idling to rest, and stronger Beta frequencies while focusing at work.
These two states—work and rest—have been known to humanity forever.
Over many centuries, the human brain had the opportunity to adapt to them and create a stable alpha-beta relationship.
But modern life introduced a third state—one our brains were never built to handle.
In our study, we added the phone scrolling condition.
Unknown to humanity historically, today it is one of the most common activities. People go on their phones to kill time or to rest.
When looking at my own brain data, I noticed two moments that made me different from my students:
Intentional Rest
My brain, even at rest, showed some signs of activity as if it was still working—as if I was working to intentionally rest.
Not just chilling, but chilling with purpose.
It wasn’t surprising to me, since I normally "rest" by changing activities (I love doing dishes or gardening—it quiets me down).Hypervigilance During Phone Scrolling
The biggest difference between my brain activity and my students' was during the phone scrolling condition.
While my students were relatively calm, my brain treated the mindless scrolling as a threat.
I remember that during the experiment, I didn’t see anything particularly upsetting; it was just a typical Instagram feed.
But my brain reacted as if I had entered dangerous territory.
My beta frequency was chaotic, indicating constant shifts of attention, and my alpha frequency was almost absent, signaling an inability to rest.
Here is what it could mean and what I decided to do:
I am a 49-year-old woman who went through a lot.
In some aspects, PTSD brain and perimenopausal brain activity may look similar—particularly in generating very weak alpha during the resting state (inability to achieve a true rest state, constant hyperarousal).
But they arise from different roots:
Traumatic events trigger a psychological need to be on guard. Vigilance becomes not just a habit but a survival behavior. Trauma teaches that rest is not safe—that what is needed is scanning for potential threats.
Perimenopause is associated with hormonal imbalance that switches the brain into a state of high vigilance and anxiety. Insomnia often adds to that as well.
Although I have both—a history of trauma and my age—my brain did not show a full-blown PTSD or perimenopausal anxiety pattern.
I was able to generate Alpha frequencies at rest.
I believe it is because I’ve trained how to rest with purpose (hello meditation and mindfulness!) and to HRT (hello Winona).
However, my brain went nuts on Instagram.
And here’s what I think happened:
Each reel overstimulated my brain, keeping it locked in hypervigilance with no chance for rest.
My poor brain was treating every tiny sensory input as a potential threat.
Meanwhile, my students did not show the same level of vigilance during phone scrolling.
Their Alpha activity was not as strong as during resting conditions, but it didn’t collapse the way mine did.
They had the actual rest when resting, but still were able to stay calmer on their phones and relatively “rest.”
I could not.
Although I DID NOT NOTICE IT AT ALL, doomscrolling for my brain was traumatic.
I felt like anyone during mindless scrolling—nothing much.
But what it might have been was numbing out from overwhelming my brain.
My EEG data showed that what I experience is not just “in my head”—it literally is in my head.
After seeing it with my own eyes—my own brain—it became so much easier to put the phone down.
