Deloitte, PwC & Accenture reveal why our brains are hitting decision fatigue — and how to protect your mental wellbeing this holiday season.
Holiday shopping in 2025 has become something new entirely. Once a ritual of browsing, anticipation and cosy festive energy, it’s now a multi-tab, multi-sale, multi-pressure marathon that triggers more panic than pleasure. With Deloitte, PwC and Accenture all warning of unprecedented holiday shopping stress, it’s no longer surprising that most of us feel frazzled before December even begins.
What’s changing fast is not just how we shop — but how our brains respond to the growing tidal wave of choices, notifications, discounts and expectations. According to leading consultants and clinicians, we are entering the era of cognitive burnout, a state where the brain becomes so overwhelmed with decisions that it struggles to regulate mood, focus, or emotional resilience.
The New Reality: Holiday Shopping Stress Is Hitting Record Levels
The data from the world’s top consultancies is astonishing — and a sign that something deeper is happening culturally. Deloitte reports that 58% of consumers now describe holiday shopping as stressful, a rise that correlates with financial anxiety and digital overload. Accenture’s findings sharpen the picture further: 85% of online shoppers abandon their carts because they feel uncertain, confused, or overwhelmed. PwC adds that 84% of people expect to spend less this holiday season, citing rising costs and economic instability as major stress amplifiers.
This combination — economic pressure, endless choice, and increasingly complex digital shopping environments — creates a perfect storm for decision fatigue, one of the core drivers of holiday overwhelm in 2025.
And according to psychiatrists, the neurological effects are very real.
The Neuroscience Behind Holiday Overwhelm
Dr. Hannah Nearney, clinical psychiatrist and UK Medical Director at Flow Neuroscience, explains that the modern festive season forces the brain into an abnormal state of constant decision-making. Every choice — what to buy, when to buy, which discount to use, who to shop for — taxes the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for planning, emotional regulation, and self-control.
“When people say holiday shopping is exhausting, they’re not exaggerating,” she explains. “Constant micro-decisions drain the brain’s ability to stay calm and focused. If this continues for weeks, it becomes cognitive burnout, where mood, sleep, motivation and emotional resilience all decline.”
This form of burnout is not dramatic or sudden. It builds silently, especially when holiday shopping is layered on top of everyday stress, work demands, and money worries. What makes the 2025 season particularly challenging is the heightened financial pressure. Deloitte reports that 57% of consumers expect the economy to worsen, the firm’s most negative sentiment in nearly 30 years.
“When the nervous system is already in a heightened alert state due to financial uncertainty, the brain becomes even more sensitive to pressure,” Dr. Nearney says. “This means smaller decisions feel bigger. Simple choices feel draining. And the joy that we associate with the holidays becomes overshadowed by a sense of dread.”
The Psychological Cost: When Festive Becomes Fatiguing
What many people describe as “Christmas overwhelm,” “Black Friday anxiety,” or “holiday burnout” is often a sign that the prefrontal cortex is overstretched. The symptoms — irritability, brain fog, procrastination, fatigue, emotional sensitivity, and inability to make even basic choices — match the clinical picture of decision fatigue.
This also explains why so many people feel mentally blocked when trying to choose gifts, plan social events, or commit to festive plans. The brain simply has no capacity left to evaluate choices. And because the holidays come with a cultural expectation of “joy,” many feel a hidden shame for not enjoying a season that’s supposed to lift their mood.
The truth is that the environment we’re navigating is neurologically overwhelming. It’s not a personal failure; it’s a cognitive overload response.
Gen Z: The First Generation to Actively Protect Their Mental Energy
There is, however, one surprising bright spot in the data: Gen Z is coping better than any other age group. According to PwC, they plan to reduce holiday spending by 23% — the most significant cutback of any demographic — and they’re intentionally shifting their purchases toward wellness, mental health tools, and products that preserve emotional energy.
“Younger people are realising that mental energy is finite,” Dr. Nearney says. “They’re treating calm, focus and emotional regulation as tangible resources that deserve protection.”
This shift marks a cultural turning point. Instead of trying to buy their way into holiday joy, Gen Z is opting out of mindless consumption and investing in routines, tools and rituals that help regulate the nervous system. It’s a psychological boundary-setting trend that older generations are only beginning to adopt.
Wellness Tools Are Rising Because People Are Overloaded — Not Indulgent
Part of Gen Z’s resilience comes from the increased adoption of at-home mental wellbeing tools, including tDCS brain stimulation devices like those from Flow Neuroscience. These tools are being used as proactive stress support rather than reactive crisis management.
Clinical research now shows that brain stimulation therapy can improve mood, emotional regulation, and anxiety symptoms, with 66% of users reporting improvement within three weeks, based on real-world data.
While not suitable for everyone, these emerging technologies reflect a broader trend: people want solutions that address stress at the source — the brain itself.
How to Protect Your Brain From Holiday Stress in 2025
Preventing holiday cognitive burnout requires a mix of psychological strategy, nervous system care, and realistic expectations. Instead of a list of quick fixes, think of this as a gentle flow that supports your brain’s capacity rather than pushing it to its limits.
Start by recognising that your brain was not designed for hundreds of daily micro-decisions combined with financial worry and dopamine-charged online shopping environments. Give yourself permission to pace your choices. Setting aside one or two intentional “decision windows” per week helps reduce prefrontal overload drastically. It’s not about doing more — it’s about protecting the quality of your cognitive energy.
Another powerful strategy is to create pockets of sensory rest. Screen breaks, short walks, stretching between tasks, or even stepping into another room can disrupt the cycle of compulsive scrolling and re-engage the parasympathetic nervous system. This shift pulls the brain out of “threat mode,” making decisions feel easier and less emotionally charged.
Reframing holiday preparation also helps. Instead of asking “What do I need to buy?”, try shifting toward “What would actually feel good and sustainable for me this season?” Your nervous system responds differently when choices are values-led instead of pressure-led. This small mindset change reduces anxiety, impulse spending and perfectionism — all major drivers of stress during Black Friday and the final holiday rush.
Finally, consider incorporating wellbeing tools — whether traditional mindfulness, nervous-system-regulating habits, or technology-supported methods — as part of your routine long before the peak of holiday chaos arrives. Supporting your emotional regulation early makes you more resilient when the pace quickens.
The Bigger Picture: Holiday Joy Comes From Capacity, Not Consumption
The truth behind 2025’s holiday shopping stress is simple: our brains are doing too much, too fast, for too long. Cognitive burnout is what happens when constant decisions collide with financial pressure, digital overwhelm, and the emotional weight of trying to make the season “perfect.”
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
By pacing our choices, reducing digital noise, and treating mental energy as a resource instead of an afterthought, we create space for the holidays to feel grounding again. Joy isn’t found in the buying — it’s found in the capacity we protect.
A calmer December starts with a kinder November.