10 Brain Games & Sporting Activities That Boost Memory

These Brain Games May Boost Your Memory

Brain health is a vital part of overall well-being as we age. Research suggests the best way to boost memory and reduce dementia risk is through engaging in a variety of activities that nourish and challenge our brains. There’s evidence that engaging in diverse cognitive tasks — such as playing certain games, reading, or learning new skills — can stimulate neural connections, boost cognitive reserve, and foster neuroplasticity.

Boosting Cognitive Reserve and Neuroplasticity Using Your Brain

Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to be agile, solve problems, take on challenges, and resist injury due to trauma, stroke, or aging. Although researchers don’t totally understand how a person gets or improves on “brain resilience,” it seems to be a combination of the brain we were born with and how we do — or don’t — use it.

It appears that by cognitively challenging yourself, you can expand your cognitive reserve Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to form and modify neural connections. Improving or maintaining neuroplasticity can help in times of injury or disease and in learning and assimilating new information.

Continuing to learn and engage in activities can build on the advantages of neuroplasticity, which keeps the brain healthy and might limit the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Why Variety Is Best When It Comes to Exercising Your Brain

There’s probably no single brain exercise or game that on its own will prevent you from ever getting dementia. The way that I approach things, when I work with patients, is to look at the collective influence of all the different things that together can make a positive impact on keeping the brain healthy.

That means that engaging in a variety of different activities to challenge your brain is your best bet for maintaining cognitive function over the long run.

10 Brain Games, Activities, and Exercises to Try

Games and exercises that improve or maintain brain health must continually challenge you. In other words, playing the same apps and video games over and over again “on autopilot” is not going to do a whole lot to build cognitive reserve or improve neuroplasticity.

If you don’t have to think too hard, and you are just engaging at a light level, that’s not the level we really need to protect our brains, which is a challenge level. And finally, pick activities and hobbies that you like or that truly interest you.

Here are 10 games, exercises, and activities that may help to improve and maintain your brain health and memory.

1. Language Apps Like Duolingo or Babbel

Learning a new language “checks all the boxes” when it comes to stimulating your brain in all the right ways to keep it healthy. When you are learning a new language, you have to be able to pull up information from memory about different vocabulary words and you have to link things together with how you learned other types of language.

That gives you multiple ways to challenge the brain at the same time. Not to mention that if you take the next step and begin to meet other people (or even travel internationally) to try out your new language skills, you’re adding socialization to the list of beneficial effects.

That offers human connection and potentially new relationships, which is also good for the brain and overall well-being.

2. Chess

If the TV show The Queen’s Gambit made you chess-curious, great news: It’s a solid option for keeping your brain active, because the game is complex, and you can’t really just go through the motions while playing. And although you can play chess on an app or your computer, you can also join a chess group and play against different people, which provides a social element — always a bonus.

There’s also observational evidence that people who engage in games like chess may be less likely to develop dementia compared to people who don’t play those kinds of games.

3. Release Your Inner Musician

Learning to play an instrument is one of the top way to boost brain funtions. It’s typically challenging for most people, and it also involves a number of different cognitive functions all coming together, which might be why it’s so good for the brain. To learn an instrument, you have to look, perceive, remember, and use your hands all at the same time.

A systematic review of three studies found that playing an instrument was significantly associated with a decreased risk of developing dementia later.

4. Bridge and Other Card Games

Complex card games like bridge are definitely helpful for the brain; it’s quite challenging to learn and to play — and to play well. Whether it is computerized or live or in person, it can challenge the brain. The same study that found benefits for chess found a similar reduction in dementia risk for those who played card games like bridge.

5. Join the Pickleball Craze or Learn Any New Sport

If you are thinking about doing one thing to support your brain health for life, exercise is always a good choice, because it has both direct brain impact as well indirect effects that are great for your mood, your heart health, and many other areas of health as well.

Hundreds if not thousands of studies have shown a link between different types and levels of aerobic activity and a reduction in dementia risk. And if you happen to get really passionate about pickleball or another sport, that may even help your brain health more. Having a stronger sense of life purpose is associated with a healthy brain.

6. Never Stop Learning

Taking a class at your local university or senior center, or even online, can be a great way to boost your memory. Adult literacy activities, such as taking a class, was associated with the greatest reduction in dementia risk — an estimated 9 to 11 percent risk reduction — in an observational study on how different activities impact the brain.

7. Discover a New Hobby

Trying out a new activity in your leisure time isn’t just fun and games: It can also help reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Research has shown that taking up a hobby in mid-life and late life was associated with a lower risk of dementia in people without a history of stroke, compared to people with no new hobbies.

The authors theorize the benefits may come from a higher engagement in life or life purpose, as well as the heart health benefits of hobbies that have a physical component, like golf or social dancing. There’s also evidence that creative hobbies like woodworking, knitting, or painting may reduce dementia risk.

8. Do Some Mental Math

Ready to guess how much the groceries in your cart cost? Or maybe how much tip to leave your server without using the “cheat sheet” on the bottom of the check? Figuring out math problems without the aid of a pencil, paper, or calculator may feel like walking a tightrope without a net, but it’s good for challenging your brain.

You can always double-check your answers with one of these tools after you do your mental math. There’s even some research to suggest that solving math problems has a positive effect on participants’ cognition.

9. Tai Chi in the Park

“Tai chi is a good example of an activity that gets people moving. It's doing something other than sitting on the couch and watching TV, and so I would say that there's going to be benefits for the brain to some degree. If practiced a few times a week along with other brain-strengthening activities, tai chi might help reduce the risk of developing dementia later in life.

If you practice the ancient art outside, even better. There’s evidence that time spent in natural outdoor environments leads to increases in cognition similar to what you get from exercising. Doing both at once might have an even better affect.

10. Trivia, Anyone?

Do former Jeopardy! champions have better brain health? There hasn’t been a study on that (yet), but playing trivia with friends or heading to your local pub for trivia night could have some brain boosting benefits. Continuing to actively learn new information — especially if it’s through reading — is good for the brain.

And joining a social club or group (like a trivia team) can connect you to other people and help improve your emotional well-being — and that's equally as important as brain health.

Are Brain Training Apps and Websites Good for the Brain

While there are lots of computer games and apps that promise to enhance cognitive function, there isn’t any definitive research that shows these products have significant neurological benefits for older adults. A meta-analysis found that while computer cognition training was associated with small, short-term cognitive benefits, there’s not enough high-quality research to support the use of brain games for preventing dementia or improving long-term cognitive function.

These games are typically about one type of thing: You are either getting faster, or you are trying to remember more things, or learning more math. If you are finding ways to be continually challenged by these games or apps, they could have value.

But you can usually get the same types of challenges (or even better ones) from books, non-computer-based games with other people, or listening to a podcast on a new and challenging subject. The other issue is that these games are usually played while sitting down.