NPR journalist Manoush Zomorodi and her latest book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Wellbeing.

Flatiron Books/Tory Williams/NPR

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Flatiron Books/Tory Williams/NPR

The internet in my apartment went out last Saturday. For three full days!

I’m used to having multiple faucets of information open and drinking from them all at once. The television, the laptop, the phone and even my tablet, if I was really thirsty.

He felt terrible.

So you know what I did? I pulled one of my Shakespeare books off the shelf and started rereading it. Othello. Since I wasn’t trying to use all my devices at once, I was able to relax and focus.

I’m used to “multimedia multitasking,” a term I learned from the TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodiwhich describes double or triple detection devices. But when you consume too much information, it can be difficult to absorb something. And you end up feeling tired and overwhelmed.

Zomorodi talks about how digital habits like this can drain our attention and energy in Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Wellbeingpublished in May. Co-authored with a behavioral medicine scientist. Keith DiazThe book analyzes the physiological effects of our digital lives and offers evidence-backed strategies to combat them.

Zomorodi, who also hosted the NPR podcast electric bodytalks to Life Kit about the science of information overload. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What happens in our bodies when we multitask?

Every time you change tasks, you use glucose. And every time you use glucose in your brain, you are burning a finite amount of it, as well as the oxygen needed to burn it.

Your brain has the ability to eliminate CO2 which is leftover from burning all that glucose and oxygen. But at a certain point, it starts to add up if you overload. That’s when you start to feel tired and confused, mentally fatigued, maybe even feel it in your body.

If you multitask, do the opposite: do a single task. One thing at a time, until the end. Then take a break. Then tackle the next task.

What’s the best way to regain focus?

Take a break, move. Don’t take a break on your phone, because that’s burning glucose again. Literally get up and walk around the room. That stimulates your muscles. Your muscles can then pump more blood, which contains oxygen and glucose, back to the brain.

That moment in the afternoon when you say, “Oh, I need a lot of chocolate,” well, of course I do. You literally have little glucose in your brain. That makes a lot of sense. But if you take a walk you will refresh your cognitive capacity and also protect your physical health.