Just hearing the word ‘puzzles’ hints at the dopamine rush your brain experiences when you piece one together. No?
In today’s fast-paced world, slowing down your brain, maintaining your focus on a creative activity, and then finally accomplishing it is immensely rewarding.
But beyond satisfaction, are puzzles good for your brain?
At the Paranoia Quest Escape Rooms, we believe, they are.
Let’s explore how puzzling benefits your brain and cognitive health.
Do Puzzles Actually Benefit Your Brain in Any Way?
Science has no definitive answer to this query.
As per Dr Vladmir Hachinski, a Global expert in Brain Health and Canadian neurologist, “It can certainly help you concentrate if you spend an hour or two doing puzzles. It’s good because you’re exercising your brain. But don’t expect too much from it.”
However, there is some evidence that puzzles CAN actually boost your brainpower.
Here’s what some reddit users shared in a thread about using the puzzles and its effects on their mental health:
‘I worked in the clinical research and pharmaceutical industry for 25 years. And we used to give neurology patients jigsaw puzzles to work on to keep their mind active,” says Blueboy.
Another contributor wrote, “My stepfather did use jigsaw puzzles as a practice to improve fine motor skills after a stroke. However, puzzling was an activity he chose for himself based on his interests, not based on any published research.”
Although Science stays silent when it comes to backing up the benefits of puzzles for brain health, they still show some positive outcomes when done consistently.
10 Top Cognitive Benefits of Puzzles that Will Blow Your Mind
Puzzles are more than just fun, and in terms of benefits, they are equally good for kids and adults. You must have heard that puzzles can improve brain function and must be curious to know the specific benefits of puzzles for adults and young ones.
Puzzles, whether they are jigsaw, crosswords, logic puzzles, or escape room puzzles have a range of cognitive benefits. Here is a list of ten advantages that you might receive by adopting a puzzling habit:
1. They help rewire your brain.
If you feel your brain is constantly in a fog and you have a hard time doing literally everything. Consider doing puzzles. It restores the connection between your brain cells and enhances your mental speed which eventually rewires your brain.
2. They diminish the stress and anxiety of completing the hectic to-do lists.
Lives are busier these days and everything seems to be going at lightning speed. Keeping calm and staying at mental peace with the long to-do lists in a world full of rush is a struggle. In such scenarios, puzzles slow you down, take your attention, and release the stress and anxiety you have been carrying.
3. They help you disconnect with devices and reconnect with yourselves
Watching television or scrolling through your phone are also some of the ways you can choose to relax or unwind. However, they are passive activities and even can cause more stress due to non-stop information overload.
Puzzles involve your brain actively, provide you a chance to critically think, evoke problem-solving, and improve your concentration. Hence, they are definitely the best unwinders and help your brain recharge.
4. They improve your mood with the dopamine rush.
Dopamine, a chemical that regulates your mood, is released every time you accomplish something. When you solve a puzzle successfully or even piece a few parts together, your dopamine production increases. Resultantly, you have a better mood, feel pleasure, and are filled with motivation to keep going.
5. They help you have better spatial visualization.
Spatial visualization is the ability to visualize and manipulate objects.
When you do puzzles, you have to make the best use of your imagination and visualization skills to figure out how these pieces fit together. You go through many rounds of trial and error and exercise your brain to develop multiple perceptions until you are finally done with the correct piecing.
6. They help you hone your analytical thinking skills.
Crosswords, riddles, word searches, 1000+ pieces puzzles, or escape room puzzles, all are made to exercise your brain. You make your analytical thinking skills much better just because you use all parts of your brain while opting for logical reasoning while solving puzzles.
7. They lower your blood pressure and your heart rate.
We all know that meditation helps you lower your blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels. But, what if we tell you that doing puzzles also has the same effects?
You read that right. When you indulge yourselves in puzzling, you lower your stress levels, and the everyday life stress is replaced by a sense of peace since you involve both sides of your brain.
8. They delay mental aging diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Aging affects our whole body immensely and brains are no exception.
The most feared outcomes of aging on the brain are falling prey to Alzheimer’s and Dementia. As you age, your brain cells start declining (which is, by the way, an early sign of Alzheimer’s).
If you don’t keep your mind indulged in brainy activities that stimulate your nerves, chances are you’ll impair your brain functioning.
According to an article published in Harvard Health Publishing, scientists discovered that mentally stimulating activities, like doing puzzles, generate new brain cells and prevent any kind of future neuron loss through research done on mice and humans.
9. They boost your IQ.
The boost in IQ while doing puzzles is a relatively new concept in the list of benefits of puzzles for adults, but is backed by research. The researcher found that adults who spend 25 minutes a day solving puzzles improve their IQ by 4 points.
10. They enhance your networking and social interaction skills.
Puzzles are also a great way to learn by collaborating with your team (puzzle partners), communicating clearly, and promoting social connections. It also improves your co-working skills and builds the team building abilities to cooperate so that you can finish any team task successfully.
Escape Room Puzzles: The Ultimate Way to Exercise Your Brain
The world around us is evolving day by day. So has evolved the puzzling methods.
Though you can choose traditional jigsaw puzzles, and crosswords, and search the word type activities for your mental workout, escape room puzzles are the most immersive form of puzzles today.
Unlike traditional puzzles, they are more related to real-life puzzles. In an escape room puzzle, participants solve a series of puzzles and riddles using hints and clues. They formulate strategies to complete the puzzle in a set time.
Here’s how you benefit your cognitive health in an escape room:
- Problem-Solving Skill: You must work in collaboration with your team and have healthy communication to ignite your problem-solving skills and complete the escape puzzle.
- Creative Thinking: You must think out of the box and bring out your creative side to solve multiple puzzles in an escape room.
- Recalling Capability: You must strengthen your memory muscles to recall all the clues from the different nooks of the escape room and utilize them in your favor.
FAQs
What are the benefits of doing puzzles?
There are various benefits of doing puzzles. A few of them include reducing stress, improving your memory, and developing problem-solving skills.
Do puzzles improve IQ?
Yes, puzzles do help raise your IQ.
Do puzzles improve mental health?
Yes, they do. The improvement in mental health is mostly related to relaxation and puzzles are a great way to relax and recharge. Hence, they definitely improve your mental health.
Which puzzle is best for the brain?
When it comes to brain-boosting activities, escape room puzzles stand out as the best puzzle experience.
Boost Your Brainpower with the Interactive Escape Room Puzzles in Atlanta at the Paranoia Quest
Puzzling is a kind of “unwinding therapy” for most since that’s the time when they worry less and are present more in the moment while exercising their brain.
Whether you are putting together a jigsaw or are racing against the clock to complete an escape room puzzle, both offer substantial benefits for your brain. By participating in such activities, you can keep your brain healthier while enjoying a good mood and improving your cognitive abilities.
If that excites you to help your brain generate some new neurons, why not try an escape room puzzle in Atlanta this weekend with your friends or family? Consider visiting Paranoia Quest Escape Rooms that are designed to challenge your mind and help you have unforgettable fun with multiple themed escape rooms.
Book your adventure today and explore the benefits yourself.
