Puzzles are a lot of fun and they’re also an excellent way to pass the time and sharpen your mind at the same time. If it’s the right kind of puzzle, it can even give you a genuinely beneficial mental workout. Puzzles of various kinds have existed since ancient times, and riddles are even mentioned in the Bible. Archaeologists have found puzzle jugs that date back to 1700 BCE in Cyprus, and Chinese people introduced magic squares in about 700 BCE. The human mind loves puzzles. That’s why smartphone games are so popular. We’re just naturally drawn to puzzles and we love the challenge of solving them. Added bonus: when we do solve them, we feel smart, and that’s never a bad thing, either.
But how do puzzles help the brain? Well, in children, puzzles are incredibly beneficial in helping them develop both cognitive and physical skills. But it’s not just kids who benefit. Adults benefit from puzzles, too. One important aspect is that puzzles exercise both sides of the brain, giving both of your hemispheres a good workout. For example, the left side of the brain controls logical and analytical thinking, while the right side of the brain is in charge of creativity. When you’re doing puzzles, you engage both hemispheres. Working puzzles also serves to improve your memory because they reinforce the connections that exist between our brain cells.
There are plenty of studies that show that solving puzzles helps with short-term memory and they’ve even demonstrated renewed growth of brain connections in Alzheimer’s patients. In addition to memory tools, puzzles can help you improve your problem-solving skills and you can learn how to think more critically. The way this works is that puzzles require people to take different approaches in solving them, so you learn how to use trial and error, change tracks, and even how to formulate and test different theories. On the surface, it may not seem like you’re doing all of this awesome stuff when you sit down to work a puzzle, but behind the scenes, your brain is hard at work.
And about that feeling good when we solve them and feeling smart? That’s from the neurotransmitter dopamine that’s released with success. Dopamine also regulates memory, mood, and concentration. If you feel like you need a quick confidence boost, work a puzzle. Don’t give up if it’s hard. Just see it through and you’ll be rewarded with that delicious dopamine. In fact, you can start right now, with the fun puzzle below. Good luck!
