Independent of dementia, cognition does appear to decrease with age. This often includes a decline in fluid intelligence and an increase in crystallized intelligence, which leads to more difficulties with problem solving. Thankfully though, the changes aren’t all inevitable. Instead, there are ways to improve cognition, regardless of your age.
While there is certainly some natural cognition decreases, most aren’t inevitable.
It is entirely possible to protect and even improve your brain as you age. This is something that you can start at any point in time and is why we’re talking about ways to improve cognition at any age.
There are plenty of benefits to doing so.
Better cognition and brain power tends to make life easier. You may become more effective at solving problems or at remembering what you might have forgotten previously.
Ways to Improve Cognition
These approaches are provided in no particular order. There is also no single best approach. It’s better to focus on as many of these areas as you can and implement them into your daily life.
1. Start a New Hobby (or grow in your current one)
Hobbies have many benefits, but new hobbies are especially powerful. This is even more relevant when the hobby is somewhat complex, such as learning a language or dancing.
New hobbies are important because you’re learning. The learning process helps to promote connections between neurons. Such connections can protect the brain from cognitive loss.
You can also increase your learning within a current hobby. For example, if you play a musical instrument, you might start to focus on a new style of music or even work on your own songs.
Once again, the key is learning.
2. Learn a Musical Instrument
While many hobbies involve learning, musical training has been specifically linked to improvements in cognition. The process helps to improve how well connected different areas of the brain are, as well as their function. Practicing musical instruments may even improve brain volume.
Learning a new instrument isn’t necessary for many of the cognitive benefits, as long as you’re focused on learning and improving with the instrument that you currently play.
As with other approaches, the more you challenge yourself and push outside of your comfort zone, the more potential there is for cognitive benefit.
3. Be Active with Television and Reading
Watching TV and reading books both have the potential to improve cognition, but the effects depend on what you’re looking at.
Approaches like skimming through a gossip magazine or zoning out to a reality show don’t offer any cognition benefits. You’re basically just tuning out.
Helpful books and TV shows are the ones that require effort. Perhaps you have to pay close attention to understand or maybe the show promotes ideas or questions in you.
For those who enjoy watching things, documentaries can be a good approach, especially those that feel a little outside your depth. Prime Video is one way to do so.
The service provides streaming video, in a similar way to Netflix. A key difference is that Prime Video has more obscure entries, including a variety of fascinating documentaries. Some of the ones that I’ve seen have highlighted topics like dark matter, quantum mechanics and chaos theory.
To fully take advantage of such watching, you do need to remain focused. You won’t get much benefit from a documentary if you zone out and let the words wash over you.
The same is true for books. Look for ones that teach you new things or require attention and effort to understand. Take the time to try and understand what you’re reading.
4. Stretch Your Brain with Puzzles
Puzzles work well for building connections in your brain. I’m not talking about jigsaw puzzles either, unless they are exceptionally confusing or complicated.
The puzzles that you want are ones that challenge you. Brain teasers, cryptograms, crossword puzzles, nonograms and Soduku are all key examples. There are many more out there too.
Regularly changing the type of puzzle is relevant too. Each puzzle will test and challenge your brain in a different way, promoting growth. This makes books like the one below perfect.
Physical puzzle books are often best, as you can take them with you. Sitting outside and working on a puzzle is a wonderful way to learn and be in nature.
There are plenty of digital options too, including online games and tablet apps.
5. Focus on Board and Card Games
Board games and card games have similar advantages to puzzles. They get you thinking outside of the box and forming new connections in your brain.
Just like puzzles, there are physical and digital options for you to choose from. Digital board games and card games have a particular advantage – many of them are one player, even if the game itself normally involves multiple players.
The trick is to look for games that require some type of strategy or puzzle solving. Games that rely largely on luck (like Snakes and Ladders) will not offer many benefits.
Some games are especially powerful, like checkers and chess. This is because no two games are the same. You are constantly needing to learn and adjust your strategy based on the opponent. The same is true for many card games.
6. Try Brain Training Games (with caution)
There is some evidence that brain training games can help to improve cognition.
These are programs that have been specifically designed to stimulate the brain, often through a variety of individual small games. Most of the time they’re available as apps for the phone/tablet or as computer programs.
One of the most well-known is the service Lumosity. The company aims to use science to boost the effectiveness of their services and claims that their games are effective. While the Lumosity app itself is free, most of the advantages require you to pay money and their services aren’t cheap.
Just be aware that the effectiveness of such games isn’t proven. You’re also spending a lot of time staring at a screen, rather than engaging with the world.
Even if the approach is able to improve your cognition, it seems likely that other techniques are more beneficial. After all, many of the other options in this list get you out of the house or keep you socially engaged.
7. Be a Student
Learning is linked to improved cognition – and what better way to learn than to be a student?
There are many different ways to do this, including small courses at a community college (or something similar), all the way up to a full degree program. Certificates and other forms of learning can be relevant too, like learning first aid.
You don’t even need to be a student in the formal sense.
Self-teaching through books and/or the internet can be effective too. Once again, the main goal is to simply make sure you’re learning and challenging yourself.
8. Think About Workshops
Workshops, conferences and meetings are other places where you might learn. This includes events that focus on work or on academic fields, as well as those that are relevant to hobbies.
9. Take Advantage of Massage
Massage has been linked to a surprising number of advantages. It can help to improve cognition, immunity and emotions, along with mental and physical well-being.
At the same time, massages naturally help to lower stress. Pairing the massage with relaxing essential oils (particularly lavender) can be particularly powerful.
10. Listen to Music
Music is another area that has many advantages. Listening to music and making music both help to improve cognition.
Music can also decrease stress and improve mood. Both impacts are powerful reasons to listen to music regularly.
Lifestyle Changes As Ways to Improve Cognition
While having a healthy diet and lifestyle is important for overall health, there are some specific areas that are powerful for cognition and brain function.
11. Have a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset means that you’re focused on the idea that you can change and can learn. While the shift may sound like a subtle one, a growth mindset can make you more willing to try new things can mean that you feel more capable.
This pattern complements learning and may help you to develop in areas that you didn’t previously imagine.
A related idea is to focus on the idea that you’re a learner. This approach prioritizes learning. It also means that you are not obliged to know everything or to get a skill perfect. Instead, you’re always looking for learning opportunities.
Considering yourself as a learner also takes the sting out of any failure. After all, failure is a key way that we learn.
12. Engage in Regular Physical Exercise
Mental exercise isn’t the only way to improve brain function. Physical exercise helps too.
One reason is that exercise increases blood flow to the brain, particularly to the hippocampus. This part of the brain helps with memory. Theory also suggests that exercise can increase the levels of some hormones that help to improve memory.
Research has even found that people who are aerobically fit lose less brain tissue with age, compared to those who are not.
Exercise also supports many of the other areas highlighted in this list, such as decreasing stress and improving a person’s learning potential.
13. Lower Your Stress Levels
Stress, particularly long-term stress, is linked to many health issues. This includes the risk of cognitive problems. One reason for this is that chronic stress can promote high levels of cortisol, which may cause harm in a variety of ways.
The challenge with stress is that the effects are subtle. People often get so accustomed to being stress that they don’t notice that they’re in an almost constant state of urgency or survival.
Approaches that help to decrease stress can also improve health and your cognition. This includes things like taking time out for yourself, maintaining a reasonable workload, meditating regularly, getting enough sleep and spending time in nature.
14. Get Enough Sleep Each Night
Sleep is critical for stress reduction and has its own benefits too. Our brains use the time that we sleep as part of the learning and memory process. Getting insufficient sleep may hinder the tasks and negatively impact cognition.
Such effects are likely to be stronger in cases where people regularly get insufficient sleep. Doing so can lead to considerable stress and is not desirable for cognition.
That’s not all. One study found a link between poor quality sleep and a decreased amount of gray matter in the frontal lobe. This part of the brain plays a role in a variety of processes, including working memory.
15. Stay Engaged Socially
Social connections help people to remain sharp, especially as there is a mental component to engaging in conversation. This may be particularly strong between people who challenge each other to learn and to grow.
The reverse applies too.
Loneliness has been linked to many health problems and may decrease cognition as well.
16. Eat Well
The foods that you eat can play a role in cognitive health too. This means cutting down on the amount of processed and sugary foods – emphasizing nutrient-placed whole foods instead.
Nuts, fish, leafy greens and berries are particularly important, as they contain compounds that may play more direct roles in cognition. Some authors also suggest focusing more heavily on plants and plant-based sources of protein.
If you can, cutting down on dairy and gluten can be beneficial as well. This area is more debatable, but both types of food can potentially cause inflammation and other issues for some people.
Focus on Variety
Learning is, by far, the most important key for improving cognition. Your brain tends to less work once you’re good at something, so you want to keep pushing and stretching yourself.
Variety is a key way to do this. Try many different puzzles, board games and card games. Take a class (what about a cooking class?), join an outdoors yoga class, learn a musical instrument, take up dancing…
These activities aren’t just good for cognition either. Many will improve your health in other ways too, such as through increasing physical fitness or decreasing stress.
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