5 Ways to Improve Your Cognitive Ability

Children learn everything quickly and easy. Their memory is strong and their brain is sharp and fast. But with the course of time, our cognitive function tones down and some things become much more complicated to do than they were before. For adults, learning a new language or memorizing the bulk of information can become a pretty hard task while for children it will be a piece of cake.

But this process is not inevitable — there are ways to improve cognitive ability and they are simpler than you can imagine. Introduce them to your everyday life now and you will have better memory and focused attention in the long run — confirmed by hundreds of people. So if you want to know how to increase cognitive function — scroll down to see what you can do.

Don’t let your brain idle

To keep your brain in a good shape, you need to train it, just like you do with your muscles. Challenging your brain is the best way to improve cognitive ability or, to be more precise, the best way to keep it as high as it was before. Moreover, it is the most active and interesting item on this list as you can increase cognitive function while playing games!

The first option is to play board games like Monopoly or Scrabble or special computer games intended to train your concentration and memory. This is a good choice for families with small children and those loving quiet cozy evenings at home. But if you are ready to go for adventure and are looking for more active ways of improving cognitive ability, check for the escape rooms in your area.

In escape quests, you can build cognitive skills while trying to get out of the room stuffed with various puzzles and complicated clues. You can also think about the escape room experience if you are looking for the unusual ideas of corporate events or team-building activities. This kind of teamwork helps to build unity within a group and the leveled up cognitive thinking will do good for the company. Luckily, escape rooms are getting very popular today and there are enough locations in Calgary.

Have some rest

If you want to keep your cognitive function strong, you need to...sleep. Yes, there is no mistake. In this point, you need to do nothing but having a good and tight sleep. Researchers say an average adult needs about 7-8 hours of sleep every night to keep the mind and body working with maximum performance.

Increasing cognitive ability is impossible if you are not having enough rest as sleep is significantly important for memory consolidation. So if you have an important exam tomorrow, the best way to pass it is to study in the evening and then go to bed instead of notching until the daybreak.

If you want to do more during the day, don’t steal those hours from your night rest as sleep deprivation is very harmful to our cognitive abilities. Experiments have shown that people deprived of sleep had problems with attention, focus, memory, and ability to learn new stuff. And conversely, those having enough sleep showed the better performance. So tonight, instead of googling how to improve cognitive skills, better go to bed earlier and see what happens with your brain tomorrow.

Eat healthy

What you eat is also very important for your cognitive function. The advice here is quite usual and you’ve probably heard it a lot of time but this is when simple things can make a big difference. To keep your brain fit, you need to drink more water, eat more greens and fresh fruits and vegetables and cut the consumption of processed foods, junk food, and sweets. You can help your brain work faster by eating food rich in Omega-3 which are:

• soybeans;
• fish;
• spinach;
• walnuts, etc.

You can also add the special food supplements to your daily routine. According to scientists, Omega-3 plays important role in our cognitive abilities and can reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease.

Think about your body too

A sound mind in a sound body is not just a proverb — exercising can really help in improving the cognitive ability. When you run, do aerobics or swim, the blood flow increases meaning the brain gets more oxygen and works faster. And it doesn’t really matter what kind of sports you do — you can go for a morning run, an evening walk or play the team sports — anything will do well unless you overwork.

Another good tool to pump your brain is yoga which is a proven method to fight various mental and physical problems. Doing yoga is not easy but it can be less exhausting than other sports and will suit those who are more into flowing motions than active movements. You can achieve impressive results if you combine your yoga routine with meditation — the best way to get focused within a few minutes. But if you don’t have time for learning how to meditate and make those weird asanas, several minutes in plank will also do a good job both for your mental and physical health.

Stop stressing out

The last but not least way of keeping the cognitive function all right is reducing the level of stress in your life. We know that in today’s world it’s not so easy to implement but it’s what you need to do to stay healthy. Stress and depression suppress the cognitive ability affecting your memory and focus. So next time you are feeling stressed out at work, don’t make it worse and stop for a while. Make several deep breaths, meditate, turn on your favorite music and relax. It will help you much more than a cup of coffee or a sweet bun from the office lunch counter.

Now, when you know how to increase cognitive ability, you can control your brain and learn new things faster even when you are not a kid anymore.