Games to Boost Mental Acuity

If you’re experiencing common memory problems as you get older, you may be able to sharpen your mind with entertaining games designed to prevent brain aging and bolster its response time and fitness.

Word-based games such as completing jumbles, searches or crosswords can help you sharpen your mental acuity by keeping your brain active. You can find tips for solving crossword puzzles and brainteasers themselves in books, newspapers or even online and in phone applications if you’d prefer to work on them without a pencil and paper.

Trying to figure out the clues and recall facts that will help you solve problems will not only be relaxing, but also helpful because it will serve to keep your thought process active. Try to work on a puzzle each night before bed to exercise and stimulate your brain on a regular basis.

Even if you’ve never been a fan of math, activities that involve numbers, such as Sudoku can exercise your brain. It’s even touted as delaying such memory-related conditions as dementia by training yourself to take different approaches to numerical problems

As you work to place numbers one through nine in different places on the grid without repeating the same number in the same column or row, you’ll be visualizing and calculating what digits you have and which you still need. The challenge will have you using different parts of your brain, which will keep it sharp and prevent mental decline.

Although you may think assembling that 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of cats by the fireplace is simply relaxing – and a little bit frustrating – the activity actually has a beneficial effect. These tasks work both sides of your brain as you’ll require not only logic, but also creativity to put the pieces together.

Not only do completing these activities boost your problem-solving skills, but also help your short-term memory as you work to recall where pieces should go to build the picture. Operating with bits of the image also improve visual-spatial reasoning, a skill that will assist your brain as you try to read a map or pack a suitcase, for instance.

As you sit across from a friend or family member, you may not realize that the friendly game of chess you’re playing can actually boost your cognitive ability. Calculations and conundrums that you work on as you move your bishops and pawns, for instance, can stimulate the communication of neurons in your mind, making them operate more smoothly and quickly.

This activity – along with using both sides of your brain to recognize patterns and devise movements for the objects on the board – are said to stave off brain deterioration which can lead to such conditions as Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Playing similar board games can also improve problem-solving skills which can enhance your critical thinking.

If you don’t have time to play a lengthy game of chess nor the desire to work on a jigsaw puzzle each night, you can still improve your mental acuity by playing game applications on your phone. Titles like Lumosity or CogniFit Brain Fitness, for example, feature short activities designed to improve memory and concentration.

The timed puzzles are intended to be played daily to keep your mind sharp. The apps also include a tracking feature that allows you to see your progress from day to day and discover which skills you need to work on.

Although games designed to train your brain may not actually make you smarter, the activities can help sharpen your ability to retain and recall information. Choose puzzles and pastimes that are not only challenging and enjoyable, but will also improve your acuity and sharpen your abstract thinking and reasoning.