{
  "title": "What a short break can and cannot do",
  "prepared": "2026-09-27",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "meta",
      "title": "Albulescu et al. (2022): Give me a break!",
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272460",
      "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0272460",
      "scope": "Main random-effects analyses in Table 3; 22 independent samples from 19 publications, 2335 participants overall. Outlying fatigue and performance effects excluded by the authors. No new pooling performed.",
      "access": "Full article and Table 3 checked; table also verified in indexed PMC copy."
    },
    {
      "id": "ariga",
      "title": "Ariga and Lleras (2011): Brief and rare mental breaks keep you focused",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007",
      "readableCopy": "https://content.lesaffaires.com/LAF/lacom/mental_breaks.pdf",
      "scope": "84 students assigned to four conditions. Switch condition n=23. Two in-task digit judgments during a 40-minute visual vigilance task; a final digit probe followed the task.",
      "access": "Full primary paper inspected in a publicly accessible publisher-formatted PDF copy; DOI destination was unavailable through the research tool."
    },
    {
      "id": "helton",
      "title": "Helton and Russell (2012): Brief mental breaks and content-free cues may not keep you focused",
      "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-012-3065-0",
      "doi": "10.1007/s00221-012-3065-0",
      "scope": "498 participants; related vigilance experiment with brief task switches, content-free cues and controls. Decline in sensitivity and increase in latency across groups.",
      "access": "Publisher page and indexed primary abstract inspected; paywalled full text not accessed. No unreported numerical effect inferred."
    },
    {
      "id": "physical",
      "title": "Huang et al. (2026): Effect of breaking up prolonged sitting with physical activity on executive function",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-026-01942-9",
      "doi": "10.1186/s12966-026-01942-9",
      "scope": "22 randomized crossover trials, 418 participants. Low-certainty evidence for a small acute executive-function effect. Physical activity during prolonged sitting, not seated gaming or generic leisure.",
      "access": "Primary abstract at PubMed PMID 42337595 inspected; used only for the intervention-specific scope and its reported low certainty."
    }
  ],
  "metaAnalysis": {
    "year": 2022,
    "publications": 19,
    "independentSamples": 22,
    "participants": 2335,
    "breakDefinition": "Interruptions of 10 minutes or less; a review inclusion boundary, not a recommended duration.",
    "rows": [
      {
        "id": "vigor",
        "outcome": "More vigor",
        "measure": "Self-reported energy",
        "d": 0.36,
        "low": 0.16,
        "high": 0.55,
        "k": 9,
        "interventionN": 614,
        "controlN": 299,
        "n": 913,
        "color": "#2855cf",
        "pale": "#edf3ff",
        "summary": "Small average benefit",
        "detail": "The pooled estimate favors increased vigor. It describes a group average, not a guaranteed change for each person."
      },
      {
        "id": "fatigue",
        "outcome": "Less fatigue",
        "measure": "Self-reported tiredness",
        "d": 0.35,
        "low": 0.19,
        "high": 0.5,
        "k": 9,
        "interventionN": 528,
        "controlN": 275,
        "n": 803,
        "color": "#08756b",
        "pale": "#eef9f5",
        "summary": "Small average benefit",
        "detail": "The sign is oriented toward improvement: positive means less fatigue. It is not a 35% reduction."
      },
      {
        "id": "performance",
        "outcome": "Better performance",
        "measure": "Mixed task-performance measures",
        "d": 0.16,
        "low": -0.04,
        "high": 0.37,
        "k": 15,
        "interventionN": 711,
        "controlN": 421,
        "n": 1132,
        "color": "#b8412d",
        "pale": "#fff1eb",
        "summary": "Overall result inconclusive",
        "detail": "The 95% confidence interval crosses zero. The overall analysis did not establish a performance benefit; it also does not establish that every kind of break is ineffective."
      }
    ],
    "axis": {
      "min": -0.2,
      "max": 0.6,
      "ticks": [
        -0.2,
        0,
        0.2,
        0.4,
        0.6
      ]
    },
    "measure": "Cohen's d, with positive values oriented toward benefit; horizontal intervals are 95% confidence intervals, not prediction intervals.",
    "limits": [
      "Outcome samples overlap; do not sum the three participant counts.",
      "Activities, tasks, populations and comparison conditions vary; some comparison groups also took a break.",
      "Vigor and fatigue were self-reports. Performance combined different measures.",
      "The authors excluded one extreme fatigue effect and one extreme performance effect from these main results.",
      "Performance p-value is inconsistent in the source: Table 3/abstract .116, results prose .17. This article reports the matching d and CI, not a p-value."
    ]
  },
  "planner": {
    "kind": "Original editorial planning aid, not a validated intervention or personalized health advice.",
    "activities": [
      {
        "id": "away",
        "label": "Step away",
        "verb": "step away from the screen",
        "note": "A different screen would not meet a goal of time away from displays.",
        "symbol": "↗",
        "color": "#2855cf"
      },
      {
        "id": "change",
        "label": "Change activity",
        "verb": "switch to one chosen leisure activity",
        "note": "Pick something you want to do; enjoying it is separate from proving a performance benefit.",
        "symbol": "↔",
        "color": "#b23b57"
      },
      {
        "id": "quiet",
        "label": "Quiet pause",
        "verb": "pause without adding another task",
        "note": "You do not have to fill the pause with content or make it productive.",
        "symbol": "Ⅱ",
        "color": "#7040c7"
      }
    ],
    "boundaries": [
      {
        "id": "time",
        "label": "A time I choose",
        "phrase": "until the time I choose",
        "note": "Choose your own stopping time. The research here does not supply a universal ideal duration."
      },
      {
        "id": "commitment",
        "label": "My next commitment",
        "phrase": "until it is time for my next commitment",
        "note": "Name that commitment before starting, and leave whatever transition time it needs."
      }
    ],
    "storage": "No storage or submission is implemented for the planner. Text stays in the current page state."
  }
}