“I only meant to watch for a minute, and suddenly 30 minutes had passed.”
Has this ever happened to you while watching Instagram Reels, TikTok or YouTube Shorts?
Short videos, each just tens of seconds long and flowing one after another, seem perfect for a quick break.
Yet even though your body is resting, you may finish watching and feel that your head is somehow tired, or that it is hard to concentrate.
In recent years, researchers have begun to study the relationship between short-video use and cognitive fatigue.
A 2025 Study of 745 People
In 2025, the psychology journal Acta Psychologica published a study examining the relationship between short-video use and cognitive function.
The participants were 745 social media users in Saudi Arabia.
The study looked not only at how often and how long people watched short videos, but also at difficulties with attention, working memory and cognitive fatigue.
It reported that people who tended to watch short videos frequently and for long periods were more likely to notice:
• Difficulty sustaining attention
• Disruptions in working memory
• Cognitive fatigue
in themselves.
Working memory is the ability to hold information in your mind temporarily while you work with it.
We use it when we keep track of a conversation while continuing to talk, remember numbers while doing math, or think through the steps of a task at work.
Is the Key “Not Being Able to Stop” Rather Than “What You Watch”?
Another interesting idea in this study is “scroll immersion.”
This describes a state that is not purposeful viewing, such as
“I’m watching this because I want to see this video,”
but rather:
On to the next one, without really thinking.
And the next.
Before you know it, you have been scrolling endlessly.
That is the kind of state it refers to.
The study found that the more strongly people were immersed in scrolling, the more likely they were to notice difficulties with attention, problems with working memory and cognitive fatigue.
In other words, it may matter not just how many minutes you watch, but also how you use short videos.
Information That Changes Every Few Seconds
A defining feature of short videos is that they switch to completely different information in a very short time.
One moment you are watching a cooking clip, the next it is animals.
Then news, travel, beauty, comedy.
Not only the images but also the music, voices, captions and sound effects keep changing.
Each time, we redirect our attention to the new information that appears.
So even while sitting still on the sofa, you can think of it this way:your head is taking in a large amount of new stimulation in a short time.
Not moving your body does not necessarily mean your mind is resting.
Don’t Fill Your Breaks With Information, Too
These days, we use computers at work and smartphones on the go.
It is not unusual to check social media on breaks, watch videos after getting home and keep touching our phones right up until bed.
That means we spend most of the day in contact with some kind of information.
That is exactly why, when your head feels tired,
put down your phone.
Close your eyes.
Gaze absently out the window.
Spend a few minutes doing nothing.
Deliberately making this kind of time, when you take in no new information, is one option.
When it comes to breaks, you might think not only about what to do, but also give yourself the choice of doing nothing at all.
Making Time Away From Information
At La HEAD, in a calm, fully private room, you can step away from your phone, close your eyes and let us slowly care for not only your head but also your neck, shoulders and arms.
These days, beyond physical tiredness, we also have less and lesstime away from constantly receiving information.
When you finish work and your head feels tired, try putting down your phone before watching just one more short video.
Even for a few minutes, why not create a clear contrast between time spent taking in information and time spent taking in nothing?
Please note that the 2025 study introduced here is a cross-sectional study based on self-reports. For this reason, it does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship in which watching short videos causes cognitive fatigue or reduced attention.
It is also possible, for example, that people who already find it hard to concentrate tend to use short videos for longer, so further research with objective cognitive tests and long-term studies is needed.
Even so, for anyone who keeps looking at their phone in the name of taking a break, this study may be a good prompt to ask, “Am I really getting any rest?”
We look forward to welcoming you.