Frederick Jace
With the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia getting ever stronger, it’s always the right time to start investing in your memory. Forming a strong memory at an early age could help you to stave off the effects of these degenerative diseases more effectively. However, even if you’re well into middle age, or past retirement, it’s not too late to feel some of the effects. Some of the exercises that are most often suggested for improving memory can be frankly pretty boring, which can lead to us not doing them for as long as we need to, or as often. Instead of focusing on getting these exercises done, there are more enjoyable ways which you’ll be more inclined to do. Games can be a great way to improve memory, as long as you’re playing the right ones. We’ve collated a selection of games that will give your grey matter a workout and hopefully keep your brain young for longer.
Card Games
Card games are a popular choice as there is so much variation in what you can play with a single deck of cards. You can play games as simple as Snap or Go Fish, up to games that involve more strategy like Poker or Bridge. The key to improving your memory is to play a game that you either don’t know at all, or that you’re a little less familiar with. For those living alone, or without a regular partner to play with, picking a card game that you can either play solo or play online is a good idea. Thanks to the simple nature of card games, it is quite easy to run a website that will support one, meaning that you can find many to play online. In fact, most computers have a version of solitaire pre-installed on them that you don’t even need the internet to use.
If you do want to play online, then poker can be a good choice as it is widely available and can be played both for free and for money if you find that you particularly enjoy it and have a flair for it. Asiabet has curated a selection of sites that enable you to play various casino games including poker. They all offer sign-up bonuses to players who haven’t played on the site before, so you can often find out if you like the style of the site without an initial outlay. Each site is independently reviewed for factors such as safety and security, as well as the number of games available, meaning that you could practice more than one card game in the same place.
Chess
There have been many studies conducted on how efficiently chess can train your memory and it turns out that there really is something to it. When you’re a complete beginner at the game, you’ll not realise the need to use your memory quite so strongly. However, as you progress further with the game, you’ll realise that your memory plays a huge part in your success. To begin with, you’ll need to memorise your opening gambits. These comprise of 8-12 moves and you’ll also need to take into account the fact that your opponent is moving during this time too, so your opener may need to change. This means that you’re going to be relying on a big memory bank to make sure that you’re flexible enough to win. Once your opener is finished, you’ll need to start remembering where your opponent has moved, so that you can try and work out their strategy, as well as keep tabs on your own. It’s easier to analyze every game with chess position analysis software, so you can keep track of the game’s moves, strategy, and overall flow without taxing your memory too much. This means you don’t have to worry about memorizing every move, as the software can do that for you. The only thing for you is to practise, enhance your skills and take advantage of modern technologies. Once you make it to a high level, studies have shown that your auditory memory is likely to improve, so keep practising.
Brain Trainers
There is a whole sector of the games market that is dedicated to memory and uses exercises that are proven to work to help you improve your memory. The great thing about this sector of the market is that it uses game formats to help you complete these exercises, making them more engaging than reading about what you need to do in a textbook.
The Lumosity brain training app is one of the most well-known and popular options. This app offers a free trial but is paid for if you decide that you’d like to continue after that. You’ll be able to select all of the different aspects of brain health that you’d like to work on and create yourself a customized training program. Not only that, but you can keep track of the leaderboard both amongst your friends and around the world. Being kept accountable for your daily practices makes you much more likely to succeed and though this app takes the most rigorous scientific route, the games are good fun too. The best part though is getting to see your progression mapped out for you in helpful graphs.
