One of the best ways to stay alert and support brain health is to constantly present your mind with new concepts to understand and challenges to connect with. Brain exercises are frequently used to accomplish this. Maintaining brain activity is crucial throughout life, much like maintaining physical activity. Puzzles and brain games provide mental exercise that lowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. Brain exercises offer a quick way to enhance your memory and problem-solving abilities.
Choosing the Right Activities
A loved one should be considered when choosing games. Do them a favor and refrain from purchasing Sudoku puzzles if they vehemently detest the game. Seniors can choose from a wide variety of brain games, so there's no need to force themselves to do something they don't like. While doing brain training games, it's crucial to mix things up.
Caregivers need to find games that are challenging but not overly frustrating. For example, if you're looking for brain games for a loved one who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, you should pick ones that are manageable for their current cognitive capacity. For more difficult problem-solving tasks, start slowly with some simpler puzzles and work your way up to harder puzzles.
How can You Benefit from Brain Exercises?
A study funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research found that senior adults who engage in consistent activities that train memory, reasoning, or speed processing have a slower or little to no decline in their ability to perform daily tasks. It is also important to learn new things that challenge your brain rather than repeating activities that you have already honed since it will leave you stagnant, brain-wise.
What are Good Brain Exercise Games and Activities?
As with many age-related problems, prevention is key, and brain exercises for seniors can be a great addition to a daily routine to keep your parent's senses sharp throughout their senior years. Here are some activities that aid in improving a senior’s brain function:
Puzzles and Brainteasers
Word association and recall memory can be easily improved with the aid of puzzles and brainteasers like Sudoku, crosswords, word jumbles, and word searches. The expense is minimal because daily editions of local newspapers typically include at least one, if not all, of these activities. Many websites and apps also offer these games without charge, so the price might be zero.
Play a Musical Instrument
Join a choir or get an instrument lesson. Learning new and complex skills is beneficial for the aging brain, and although there is limited research, a previous review article in The Gerontologist suggested that musical pursuits (such as playing an instrument, singing in a choir, or taking piano lessons) held particular promise for healthy brain aging.
Learn New Recipes
Learn to prepare a new type of food. Smell, touch, sight, and taste are just a few of the senses used in cooking that engage various brain regions. Additionally, you'll employ cognitive abilities like organizing, multitasking, and problem-solving as you plan the meal and create a grocery list, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Exercise
Being physically active is as beneficial as brain exercises if not more. Maintaining physical activity improves blood and oxygen circulation throughout the body, and a healthy body promotes a healthy brain. Start with a low-impact sport, like yoga or golf. Golf has the added benefit of promoting the use of physics and anticipatory thinking, both of which are excellent for mental acuity, similar to how yoga focuses on strengthening the mind-body connection.
Test Your Short-Term Memory
Make a list of everything you need, from groceries to tasks to anything else that comes to mind, and learn it by heart. See how many things you can remember an hour or so later. For the most effective mental stimulation, make the list as difficult as possible. Writing lists and organizing them may improve senior adults' ability to recall word lists, according to a small past study.
Computer Programs and Mobile Applications
A mobile phone, tablet, or personal computer can now be used to access a seemingly endless variety of cognitive applications that can be downloaded. To focus on cognitive abilities such as attention, reasoning, language, and memory, look for options that let you choose or adjust the level of complexity.
Always try to learn new things and challenge yourself to make the most of the benefits from these brain exercises. It is important to know that these exercises and activities do not put an end to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or dementia but they can aid in slowing them down and improve or retain a senior’s memory or sharpness.
In Need of Assistance?
Unified Pledge is a leading provider of in-home senior care solutions in Palm Beach County and Broward County. We offer free, no-obligation in-home consultations, cost estimates, and insurance policy benefit reviews.
We also provide other types of home care services such as in-home nurse care, long-term care, and physical therapy.
Give us a call so we can help you create a custom home care solution for yourself or your loved one.