Does your brain need a boost? Brain games are a great way to enhance your memory and focus.
If you want to exercise your brain, you can spend a few minutes answering quizzes or doing crossword puzzles every day. Other aspects of brain cognition like attention and brain speed also advance when you play brain games.
Not only are these games fun to do, but you’re also giving your brain much needed care to avoid deterioration. You learn to polish up your vocabulary or introduce new tricks to your brain with this exercise.
You’ll find a lot of mental workouts like this on the internet. There is also a massive list of mobile apps on Android or Apple devices with brain games you can choose from. Another example is the Rubik’s cube which helps with spatial recognition that is good for the brain.
In this article, Cognitive Health and Wellness Institute lists down brain games you can play by yourself or with friends and family.
Best brain games to play with friends
We curated the first five (5) brain games in this list based on their focus on playability with others. These are multiplayer games best played with your best friends, siblings, classmates or neighbors.
Scrabble
Scrabble is one of the classic games you can play against an opponent to increase your vocabulary. Learning new words fast and unscrambling letters and words push your mental capacities to keep your brain active.
Scrabble helps increase IQ and impedes brain degeneration. Your memory improves as you try to recall words that you already know. You are also challenging your brain to remember new words that you discover.
Chess
If you haven’t seen Netflix’s original show, Queen Gambit, you should. It’s about a young girl from an orphanage with an incredible talent for chess. Studies showed that this brain game mainly helps in the development of perspective-taking abilities among children.
Chess is a game for those with extraordinary memory skills. So if that’s something you need to work on, chess is a good exercise. It will challenge your creative thinking skills, and you can learn to plan better with this game.
Words with Friends
Any word game is an instant brain game. You can play Words with Friends with a rival to train your brain in forming words with the letters you have. You rack up more points by using bonus squares, similar to Scrabble, but they are arranged differently on the board.
These added challenges activate your brain to be inventive and original with your word choices. It’s a great test to tap your problem-solving skills. Also, it’s a fun battle to outwit a worthy opponent while keeping a healthy, competitive spirit.
Computer games
We commonly use video and computer games to kill time. Playing them improves sustained and selective attention, which is beneficial when we have demanding tasks at hand.
Visual and spatial skills also improve depending on the theme of the games. There are computer games that require critical and strategic thinking, too.
However, gaming can be addictive when done for long periods. Just don’t overdo this. Learn when to stop and when it becomes a craving that you can’t control. Although you can engage in this game solo, playing with others (and scheduling them) may help reduce playing time. That way, you can ease back to your routine and not just be stuck on the couch all day.
Monopoly
Another classic board game, Monopoly, is a popular choice during family reunions and hangouts with friends. With this game, you stumble upon “real-life” problems and challenges such as buying and selling properties. Yet, you can enjoy zero “real-life” stress.
You can stretch your brain while playing with others because you have to be creative and strategic in your trades. Sometimes, the fun is also in being cunning with your opponents as you flex the dollar bills you collect.
Online brain games
The next five (5) brain games to complete this list can be played online. Some of them have their traditional, tangible counterparts while others can only
Sudoku
Sudoku literally means “the digits can occur only once” (or numbers must remain single) in Japanese. That is precisely the heart of the game. The repetition of specific neural patterns trains your brain to recognize and reorganize them.
This behavior helps enhance your brain’s ability to create new synapses and recover weakened cognitive functions. It’s an ultimate test of cognitive performance of your brain. Some get easily intimidated with Sudoku. But, a word of advice, just give it a try and enjoy it!
Lumosity
A quick Google search shows Lumosity as the “original” brain training app. The app, with more than 50 fun and colorful mini-games, has more than 85 million downloads. Lumosity’s games can help boost your brain speed, memory, flexibility, attention, and problem-solving.
The game “works out” your brain by providing insights into your cognition areas that need more attention.
Logic/Abstract Games
You’ve probably played Tic-tac-toe or Backgammon when you’re younger. Or, you’ve seen it played by your cousins and friends. These brain games have simple rules, typically. They can be meditative and help you think better and clearly.
Logic and abstract games help switch off your brain from work but still keeps your mind active. They also usually involve geometric gameplay and can be played by two players.
Elevate
Here’s another app with more than 40 games designed to boost productivity and reading, math, and memory skills. Elevate Labs, the company behind the app, believes that innovative and personalized meditation experiences can help people improve their minds.
The app aids in reducing stress and improving sleep for billions of people who downloaded the brain games. It contains educational games that experts and research analysts back.
Braingle
You can use brain teasers, trivia games, and riddles for a brain workout. Braingle is an excellent site to find puzzles to keep you mentally fit. They have daily mentalrobics to boost your memory, for example.
There are also quizzes about art and celebrities, fact boxes, IQ tests, and simple games you can play with someone using only a pen and paper. Indeed, it’s a collection of stuff that will make your brain happy. You can also mingle with other people and be part of its growing community.
Brain games are both for kids and adults
You can intellectually train and challenge kids in the early stages of their life. Training is why it’s vital to have playtime for children from toddler age to early childhood years. Jigsaw puzzles, color alphabets, and adventure games help train their cognitive abilities.
While your child enjoys putting Lego blocks on top of one another, you will find how they let their imagination fly. Kids learn to solve problems and find strategic ways to look for what Lego pieces match, for instance.
Similarly, brain games help aging adults improve visual memory and attention. As people advance in years, our cognition abilities also fade. But, brain games can slow down the rate of losing memory and focus for elderlies.
For example, there are brain games for adults to enhance visual recognition, concentration, math skills, and short-term memory. Some of which are “matching pairs” card games, riddles, and mobile apps like Angry birds (a popular game for adults).
Brain games keep your mind sharp
We all need to take care of our bodies. One of the ways to achieve optimal health is to amp our mental abilities. Brain games can pump up that gray matter in our heads.
Reinforcing brain games as part of our lifestyle can stimulate our creative, tactical, and imaginative minds. Playing these games teaches us to do critical thinking and boost our brain skills.
We don’t just need food to boost brainpower. We also need mental exercises to keep our minds sharp. A healthy body is one with healthy brain activity. With all these said, enjoy those brain games to enjoy the benefits of a stimulated mind!
References:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-thinking-on-brain-games
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Know-Your-Brain
https://www.alzheimers.net/11-5-14-brain-training-games
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/13/mental-exercises-to-keep-your-brain-sharp
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318345