When my brain is tired at the end of a long day, I want to recharge by watching YouTube and playing video games. But in my experience, though I hate to admit it, those activities make my brain even more tired and I usually am less effective the next day.
What things to do you to relax your brain and recharge? Am I the only one that feels like social media and entertainment tire me out?

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The author feels that activities like watching YouTube and playing video games actually make them more tired rather than helping them recharge after a long day. They are seeking suggestions for better ways to relax and rejuvenate.

How do you recharge?

I’ll give you a summarized answer to “solve the problem” without going into details (that I can put into a blog post, which I will release in an unknown amount of time) but the gist is:
<pre><code class="language-md">If your mind is tired then playing games or watching videos or mindless scrolling won&#x27;t make things better. All three that you listed require the left side of your brain. 

A better solution would be to meditate or go for a walk, or exercise, do yoga. Depends on what you like to do more. 

Another less effective solution would be to do creative habits. As a developer, it would not work for me, because instead of enjoying I will use my left-hand side of my brain. If &quot;the shoe fits though&quot; as they say, i.e. if it works for you, then go for it!
</code></pre>

Former neuroscientist here. Forget the left brain right brain thing. Real tasks and activities are rarely divided along such neat lines.
For most people, work leans heavily into visual parsing, language and communications, logic and intellect, and creativity.
Social media, videos, video games, also lean into all of the above to various extents depending on the content.
So, you are continuing to use the same faculties of the brain, just to a lesser, more simplistic degree, which is why you can do it even though the brain is tired, and if it is entertaining and low effort enough, it draws your attention and engages you, like addiction to a stimulant, fooling you into thinking you are ‘relaxing’, when in fact you are overusing the already tired parts of the brain.
To relax, one must do things that utilize other aspects of the brain and body.
For people whose work involves computers and typing (most work these days), that means doing things that more physical and engages the mind and the senses on a more primitive level.
Cooking is a great example. The more one cooks, the more a person develops a sense of how each ingredient tastes and how it will combine with other ingredients, then smelling, tasting etc., and working with one’s hand to chop and stir, engages a person in a completely different way.
Exercise or sports done purely for the pleasure of it, where one does not push themselves too much, are not driving themselves to ‘perform’, can also work well.
Going out with friends to a completely different context, such as a bar, and unloading/venting to friends and listening to them and empathizing , is also a way. Don’t get too buzzed, though.
Usually a combination of such activities, a couple a day, or rotated throughout the week, engages other aspects of one’s body and mind allowing to truly unwind, and then wind down for sleep.
So, my money is to put on some light music and cook something. Optionally open a beer or wine, but again don’t get buzzed.

To tackle such situation, I usually do one of the following:
<ol>
<li>
Take a nap which turns out to be a nice 1-2hrs of sleep. 😅
Sometimes it feels like OMG I lost 2hrs but the fact that my brain
got the rest it deserved makes me calm down, not always but most
of the times.
</li>
<li>
Spend time with loved ones. 🤩
Being a kid with kids is fun. Yeah, unless they don’t annoy you all
the time. Or maybe it’s time for a hangout with homies.
</li>
<li>
And sometimes, I take it as a cue to grow my spirituality, strengthen
my relationship with my Lord, and give all my worries and fears to
Him to take care of. 😇😌
</li>
</ol>
And here’s a quote that motivates me to challenge the obstacles.
“You don’t get frightened of these furious violent winds, ego these were only to make you fly higher”
Hope this helps! 😄

Perhaps you have two problems. I find that when I’m tired, games wont help, but if I’m stressed they can. The issue is if I’m tired and stressed. In which case, just resting helps more than actively playing games. At least by the end of the rest I’ll be rested enough to figure out how to deal with the stress next.

Mine are mostly right-brain activities.
I would hit the gym and lift weights with a friend or walk/run to the beach and teach some tricks to my dog.
Sometimes (less often than I wanted, though) I feel very inspired and I may also write some poetry/novels or play the piano for the joy of my neighbour 😅.
Context switching with physical activities helps me a lot (ex obese here, so I’m biased 🙃). There’s some evidence about it on pubmed.
I hope you find your way to fully recharge 💪