Believe it or not there has been much researches that tied our brain responses, cognitive improvement and memory benefits with puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and other puzzle games and stories. Mental rotation, working memory, episodic memory, processing speeds, task switching are only some of the processes you are doing while tackling these, and you even don’t realize that.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise because the human brain is very complex and we still have a lot to learn about it. Even though many things have already been discovered stuff like this blows us away every time. To imagine that playing a thinking game, doing a jigsaw puzzle or something else can provide benefits like the ones we will list shortly, is remarkable.
Whether you are into puzzles or not you have to try this out and test the results over a longer and shorter period. Some of the best jigsaw puzzles can be found at artandfablepuzzlecompany.co.uk. Get one or two for yourself and let’s compare the results.
Now for the benefits. Some of these benefits are a bit blatant but as we already mentioned while doing these puzzles you probably don’t realize all the benefits you gain and just how big of an impact they are leaving on you. Let’s start!
1. Mental fitness and activity
Most doctors today are always going on about keeping your body and mind fit. The body is easy all you have to do is get some exercise daily that is suited for your age and you are pretty much on top of that. But what about your brain? With crosswords, puzzles, puzzle stories and similar activities your brain dive into a situation and a problem that requires you to do a great deal of thinking and have a lot of concertation and patience. A healthy and active mind is what keeps your body at the same level – there is a correlation between your mind and your body. When the mind is active body fatigue and stress are lower which allows your body to operate on a different level.
2. Education
Doing these kinds of puzzles and problem solving allows you to boost your research abilities, critical thinking, cognitive ability and concentration. When solving a puzzle of any kind you have to put your entire mind in it and you have to apply logical reasoning, even though you or anyone else believes that this is purely fun and games. Although they look simple, and time passing games it is well established that the brain learns more and activates more when it is through something unforceful and fun.
3. Meditation
You probably didn’t know this but there are huge correlations between meditation and puzzles. As we already stated puzzles invigorate the mind and allow the mind to stay active and healthy, but they also help relax those certain brain cells and parts allowing others to contemplate a solution to a potential problem we face. This could be viewed as a sort of trans that our mind is sent in and it is somewhat similar to meditation. It has almost the same results as meditation like relaxation, lower stress levels, increased productivity and improved self-confidence.
4. IQ boost
Now, this is probably the most valuable benefit you will get from puzzles and it is a boost in your overall IQ. Puzzles will make your brain sweat, thinking about solutions, next moves, it will improve your general knowledge, cognitive skills, boost your memory and concentrations as well as improve your overall problem-solving skills. This type of improvement is beneficial in many ways especially for a younger population that is at looking for a job or currently has one that needs someone with a higher IQ to deal with some problems.
5. Productivity boost
Taking time to figure out the answers to fun puzzles helps your productivity levels. Subconscious improvement of vital skill that comes from games like this is the best thing that can boost your productivity. When playing games, a certain part of your brains rest and recharges while mother parts work on problem-solving that is in front of you. Sometimes when stuck in a big problem a menial task can set your brain in motion to figure out the problem that made it stuck in the first place. These are just some of the brain mysteries that are revealing more and more as time passes.
6. Improved cognitive ability
When talking about the cognitive side of the brain everyone develops in a particular way. Believe it or not puzzles, puzzle games and stories help out with this a great deal. Children and young brains develop somewhat different than adults. This means that they start by doing simple tasks like shapes, colours and patterns recognition, while adults and their brains are a bit complicated. Adult brain abilities go far beyond these basic and they need something more complicated to incite their brain to work to achieve advanced reasoning.
7. Concertation
This I a really good skill that can be improved. With the day in age, we have now, with life being so fast-paced, and the well-being of us and everyone around us being so questionable, stress levels for some individuals are so high that their concentration on anything but that is nonexistent. Concentration is a skill you need for your everyday life, which why it is so important to have it more than you have now. These types of games require you to think on an analytical level and to achieve that you have to have a great deal of attention and patience if you want a certain problem or a task to be done. The concentration is what allows you to begin a certain problem and it is the thing that keeps you glued to that problem until you finish it.
We are aware that this topic may sound a bit silly at first but some real scientific data testify to this. There is a true medical and research ground that this stands upon which means that this is true. When you think about it a bit seriously why wouldn’t this be true. Even in the old ages philosopher and scholars devised puzzles, questionnaires and other similar stuff to train their minds but also to see just how the minds of others work. Some stories had puzzles in them and their sole purpose was to determine the thinking process of the ones being questioned. Why would these be any different?
So now you know that jigsaw puzzles provide great benefits to maintaining your memory and mental acuity. If you want to starting solving a jigsaw puzzle now, fortunately there are a few online jigsaw puzzles sites to try:
- Im-a-puzzle.com has over 1,000 jigsaw puzzles to choose from.
- Games.washingtonpost.com has daily jigsaw puzzles.
