Did you know, that according to medical research, playing games is good for you, but playing some specific games is better for your brain? Puzzles are one of those and have an array of benefits in enhancing your brainpower, click here to read about this more. Some of the reasons are mentioned below.
Are Puzzles Good for Your Brain?
The answer is yes! And here’s why.
- They exercise both the right and left sides of the brain. Both the hemispheres of the brain are controlled differently because they work with different functions of our mind. The right side is usually associated with the creative side, while the left side has to do with the analytical and logical aspects. When you play games such as puzzles, trying to put pieces together you are forcing both sides to work in harmony, giving your brain a thorough mental workout, while having fun. Check out a study made about it here: https://www.goodnet.org/articles/10-simple-habits-that-will-raise-your-intelligence
- If you want to help solve problems better, play puzzle games. The majority of life situations involve us having to solve a problem or think critically about something and puzzles help us to develop these skills to be able to use them easier and quicker. Puzzles need us to find different approaches to fix the ‘problem’ and find the solution. It a basic trial and error learning method for us.
- You can improve both your spatial ad visual capabilities. When you start using a bird’s eye view or take a holistic approach to figure out what the bigger picture looks like in connection to the individual pieces, you figure out how the pieces fit, just by recognition. If you do this regularly, you improve both your spatial and visual skills or reasoning and makes you a better problem solver. These skills can come in handy when packing, a car, or a cupboard for instance.
- You can easily boost your IQ score when playing games, like puzzles, it improves your memory, your concentration skills, and even your vocabulary in some cases, with games that involve letters and numbers. Michigan University did the experiment and noticed that those who played puzzles games regularly over a set period ended up boosting their IQ levels by 4 points. So why wouldn’t you want to become more intelligent?
Aside from Christmas puzzles, other games that can be fun to play during the holidays are included below.
Awesome Games to Play During Christmas Holidays
Scrabble. Possibly one of the most popular crossword games on the planet is ‘Scrabble’ the word game, it is a letters game which is played by up to 4 people, each person gets a few tiles with letters from the alphabet on them, each person chooses 8 tiles at random from a bag and places them on a rack which only they can see.
Once everyone has 8 tiles and has begun creating words in their mind, the first person places his or her word across the board which has points on it, in an attempt to make the word that will get them the most points.
An extremely good game for those who English is not their native language and want to learn new words and also of course for those looking to improve their IQ levels by 4 points or more. Rules are simple and can be found with every game included in a booklet.
Sudoku and Crossword Puzzles. Sudoku or crossword-type puzzles are so good for your brain and so much fun too! Sudoku (also known as Number Place) is a logic-based game based on a combination of numbers. You must place the correct numbers in the right spaces inside of a 9×9 grid so that all of the columns and rows each contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.
Crossword puzzles can be played individually by yourself or with a partner, also an incredibly good way to keep your memory intact for when you get older.
Grab yourself a 1000-piece puzzle and have your family or friends over during the Christmas holidays to make the most out of it – and train your brain while you’re at it, it’s a win-win for everyone!
