A couple of days before Christmas, my 89-year-old mother-in-law fell and broke her wrist and hip. She just returned home this week (way too early, in my opinion, but it was made clear to me that my opinion doesn't matter). Anyway, while she was in rehab, we offered to bring her whatever she needed: clothes, favorite foods, books, magazines, etc. After several tries, I finally hit upon the one thing she obviously really appreciated: the puzzle section from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She once told me it's the main reason she subscribes to the paper.
So, each day, I saved the Living section of the paper to take to her so she could work on the puzzles. "I think they keep my brain sharp," she'd comment every few days. And she must be right. In the 27 years I've been married to her youngest son, she has amazed me frequently with her ability to remember and understand things. (Mind you, it doesn't make her any less stubborn.)
Turns out, she's right, though. Puzzles and games that give the noodle a workout are not only effective, they're gaining popularity with Boomers. I've written here before about brain fitness games by Nintendo and others and I'm starting to see these products get a lot more attention these days. (Or maybe I just didn't remember seeing anything about it because my own brain hadn't been trained.)
Well, recently I learned about an online brain fitness company called HAPPYneuron("Brain Fitness for Life"). Using a guest password provided by the company so I could give it a try, I decided to put my own brain skills to the test. Oh my! I've never had so much fun being so humiliated. I'm not exactly the President of MENSA, but I can usually hold my own in a room of peers. But HAPPYneuron whipped my boomer brain a few times! I can't wait to challenge my husband and brainiac kids on some of these games!
HAPPYneuron offers games and puzzles that test five specific skill areas; memory, attention, language, executive, and visual/spatial. Now, using a new visual index, once you test yourself in each area, you can see how you compare with others your age and gender. There's even an online coach that suggests exercises you should try and keeps you from defaulting to the things you're good at by offering a balance brain workout. It's a good thing, too, because I would keep doing the language puzzles and executive skill building games all the time. That's because I have been chagrined at my inability to master the memory and visual/spatial games. By the way, that's part of the beauty of these games: each can be played a different levels of difficulty, so it's darn near impossible to master them all. The system keeps track of your interactions, so you can see your own progression over time as well.
What I love about HAPPYneuron is that it's always available. Anybody with access to the Internet and 33 cents a day can use the site. (Monthly membership is $9.95 and annual membership is $99.95). It's also designed to let you do meaningful exercises in as little as 10 minutes (in case you need a brain break from a work task, for instance), or as long as several hours.
The games were developed and validated by a team of neurologists, cognitive psychologists, and educational scientists specifically to slow the natural effects of aging on the brain, according to Hillary Money at BlastMedia, the PR firm that reps the site.
Expect the trend toward boomer brain fitness to grow. I think we'll see brain fitness programs and brain coaches become commonplace, especially for the boomer set. I'd love to see insurance companies offer incentives for people who participate in brain fitness programs as part of a preventative health program. People get inventives to quit smoking. Why not reward those who work at keeping their minds sharp?
How about you? Are you taking specific measures to boost your boomer brain? Tell me what's working for you and what you'd recommend. Meanwhile, you'll find me challenging my boomer peers at HAPPYneuron. MENSA, bring it on!
