Games have a bad reputation. They’re blamed for causing violence in kids/teens, and for making the younger generation experience a lack of attention span. In reality, these claims are baseless – it’s normally other things that cause these problems!
On the contrary, playing games can improve your health in a multitude of ways. Most of these health benefits revolve around your brain. Some games are, naturally, much better at this than others. It’s all about finding the right games, and here’s how they’ll improve your brain health:
This is a collaborative post.
Improve Problem-Solving Skills
Strategy and puzzle games are wonderful for improving your problem-solving skills by putting you in positions to solve complex problems. A game like mahjong is the ideal proponent of this; it revolves around forcing you to solve a big puzzle and remove tiles from the playing board.
You could approach mahjong with little thought, but you’ll almost always end up stuck or will fail to complete the game. You need to think critically and observe the board to work out which tiles are the best ones to move. Other games do the same thing, and the problem-solving skills you develop will be transferable to your daily life.
Decrease Mental Stress & Tension
Your brain struggles when you’re under a lot of stress and tension. It forces your body to produce certain hormones that promote further mental health problems – like anxiety or depression. A stressed brain can’t focus on tasks and fails to get things done. It also doesn’t shut off, meaning you struggle to sleep and feel so much worse the next game.
Some games are amazing for decreasing mental stress and tension. Cosy and simple games like Minecraft or Stardew Valley are prime examples of this. They’re games you can play alone and focus on doing your own thing. It gives you something to think about and enjoy, instead of focusing on what’s making you stressed. You feel less tense after playing, which helps your brain remain healthy.
Increase Memory Retention
Many games will aid in improving memory retention – which is super critical as you get older. You don’t want to lose your memory as it means you lose your independence. The longer you can prolong memory loss, the better.
Simple games help with this – like a classic game of pairs with a deck of cards. You could also try games like battleships that force you to remember specific things to win the game. Even trivia games help in this regard; they encourage you to remember facts from many years ago.
The moral of this piece is that games can be healthy. Yes, you can have unhealthy relationships with games, but that’s more to do with how you play the game or what specific games you’re playing. If you maintain a healthy relationship with games, and don’t let them consume your life, then you’ll reap many impressive rewards. Games are great for your overall brain health and cognitive abilities, so take full advantage of some of the games mentioned in this post!