- Cognitive training promotes memory and thinking skills through regular, targeted practice.
- Progressive, challenging exercises help your brain to remember information and improve everyday life.
- Memory games, braineasers and new skills are great opportunities to train your brain.
You go into a room and forget why you are there. Names evaporate immediately after introductions. We have all been there before. It’s frustrating, yes, but it doesn’t mean an inevitable decline – especially if you strive to train your brain.
Two clinics who specialize in cognitive health indicate a single, evidence -based habit that promotes memory without expensive pills or complex routines: structured cognitive training, also called “brain training”.
“Brain health doesn’t buy anything you build,” she says ” D. Ivan Young, Ph.D., MCC, NBC-HWC. “It is often the smallest and most constant changes that provide the greatest results.” The cognitive training focuses on active strategies and regular practice to strengthen your memory over time. Read on to learn science behind cognitive training and to get started today.
Why cognitive training is the best activity for a better memory
“What gives me hope and what I see in both research and my coaching practice is how adaptable the brain really is,” says Young. “Cognitive training remains one of the most effective tool to strengthen memory. Fortunately, it does not require any striking technologies or long hours. It’s just about being intended.”
The cognitive training is not a passive process – such as reading or highlighting notes – but instead the deliberate, structured practice includes, explains Young. It includes actively calling information (such as questioning itself), the exit of learning (checking material over time) and moving (mixing topics). Together these methods strengthen the ways of the brain to save and access information. Here is the reason why it works.
It helps your brain to call up information more efficiently
Every day we rely on our brain to remind you – whether it is a name, a fact or the action of a favorite film. Cognitive training helps the brain to call up the stored memory more efficiently, but only works with consistent challenges over time.
Young compares it to the training in the gym: Watch how someone doesn’t build muscles – resistance. The call practice offers this “resistance” for your brain. This can be activities such as the survey of new facts or vocabulary, explaining a concept from memory, including the mental of events from your day or practicing mental mathematics or using mental math instead of a calculator.
The key is to train your brain regularly in the long term. Research in older adults shows that the distance between learning yields leads to a stronger recall a month later. To keep information, it is best to gradually learn and check over time.
It strengthens your brain through gradual, targeted practice
Gediminas Gliebus, MDAccording to the key, it is to regularly challenge your brain, to pursue your progress and notice how these activities make everyday memory tasks easier.
Properly made, cognitive training uses “Just-Hard geneagh” measurement progression. You should challenge yourself so that the task is not easy, but still with some efforts can still be reached. Increase the difficulty. Young recommends 15- to 30-minute meetings a few times a week as sustainable and effective routine. For example, you can play strategy or puzzle games, which gradually become more difficult when it is going through levels.
For an additional challenge, mental exercises with a slight physical movement – as with mental samples of a list – can be combined, which can further support memory in older adults. “Since I often remember my customers, the brain and body are in constant communication,” says Young. “If you take care of one, support the other.”
It delivers permanent results
“Training can have permanent advantages, not only quick solutions,” says Gliebus. If you invest the work, you can see permanent results that apply to different areas of your life.
A five -year study in older adults showed, for example, that those who have trained their memory regularly maintain stronger thinking skills compared to those who did not do. This indicates that cognitive training can provide long -term and sensible results for your memory.
How to involve it in daily life
- Choose a focus. At the beginning, identify an area that you want to improve, e.g. B. remembering names, the storage of new information or the quick start of information. Then choose a form of training that supports it. For example, facial names with flash cards are facial name, asked themselves after learning a new topic or “the difference”.
- Use this, no check. If you learn something new, take a moment to call up the information you have just learned. For example, close the book you read and read yourself, or try to teach someone else’s material. Young lices arrangements on the “resistance”, which strengthens the memory traces.
- Spread it out. Start with 15 to 30 minutes, three times a week. “Put on short sessions three times a week, ideally when you feel the most vigilant,” says Gliebus.
- Request yourself. If the recall simply feels – a high accuracy with little effort – it is time to increase the difficulty. This can include remembering longer lists, the selection of harder puzzles or learning more complicated topics.
- Use simple strategies. “Practicing memory tricks such as visualization or storytelling works because they are actively remembered and not just read again,” says Gliebus. “For example, if you try to remember a shopping list, imagine the objects in your kitchen or create a story that connects you together. Look at puzzles, learn a new ability such as a language or an instrument or playing strategy games like chess.”
- Include other healthy habits. The combination of brain exercises with other healthy lifestyle – such as movement, healthy nutrition and quality sleep – has been shown that it further supports memory, attention and cognitive function in older adults.
- Set appropriate expectations. Remember that the results take up time-cognitive training improves the skills that you practice most, and everyday advantages can take several weeks or months.
Trying meal plan
30-day-Mind-diet meal schedule for cognitive health, created by a nutritionist
When you seek a health service provider
Forget where you have your keys, have problems remembering a person’s name or losing briefly why you went into a room, all normal parts of aging are. “This kind of mistakes do not normally affect daily life, and most people experience them from time to time,” says Gliebus. “When it comes to more concerns, when memory problems often occur, it is always worse or affect everyday routines.”
According to Gliebus, red flags belong to the forgetting of meaningful conversations, lack of invoices or medication or the difficulties of managing daily tasks. “If memory problems affect independence or are paired with problems with regard to argument, judgment or language, it is a good idea to be checked by a health service provider.”
Our expert
Improving memory requires deliberate effort, and cognitive training is one of the most effective ways to do this. By challenging your brain in a structured, progressive way, strengthening the skills of everyday life. Start small, stay consistently and gradually increase the challenge. Mixing different exercises can maintain your training and target several aspects of the memory. Over time, you will notice improvements in real tasks how to remember names, appointments and details from conversations. It is not a quick solution, but with patience and practice, cognitive training provides permanent results – no pills, devices or expensive programs. Your brain is to grow and consistent effort you can exploit its full potential.
