Pros and Cons of using four nootropics–caffeine, creatine, L‑theanine, Ashwaghanda–as cognitive enhancers

By The Conversation | June 18, 2024 |

Humans have long been search­ing for a “mag­ic elixir” to make us smarter, and improve our focus and mem­o­ry. This includes tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese med­i­cine used thou­sands of years ago to improve cog­ni­tive func­tion. Now we have nootrop­ics, also known as smart drugs, brain boost­ers or cog­ni­tive enhancers. You can buy these gum­mies, chew­ing gums, pills…

Read More

Moderate coffee consumption may promote brain health — and it’s not because of caffeine

By SharpBrains | December 5, 2018 |

How Cof­fee May Pro­tect Brain Health: A New Study Sug­gests The Ben­e­fits Aren’t Just From Caf­feine (Forbes): “Cof­fee has been get­ting con­sid­er­able atten­tion for a grow­ing list of health ben­e­fits, with brain health high among them. While not with­out a few down­sides, stud­ies have shown impres­sive upsides of mod­er­ate cof­fee con­sump­tion, often linked to its…

Read More

Cognitive enhancement at the edge: The US Navy tests neuro-priming and other non-pharmacological aids to boost cognition and performance

By SharpBrains | April 10, 2017

— Super SEALs: Elite Units Pur­sue Brain-Stim­u­lat­ing Tech­nolo­gies (Military.com): “At a con­fer­ence near Wash­ing­ton, D.C., in Feb­ru­ary, the com­man­der of all Navy spe­cial oper­a­tions units made an unusu­al request to indus­try: Devel­op and demon­strate tech­nolo­gies that offer “cog­ni­tive enhance­ment” capa­bil­i­ties to boost his elite forces’ men­tal and phys­i­cal performance

Read More

For a good night’s rest, combine general sleep hygiene with mindful and cognitive techniques

By Luc P. Beaudoin | May 2, 2016 |

——- Most Sharp­Brains read­ers under­stand the ben­e­fits of stress reg­u­la­tion, and also the ben­e­fits of sleep. Rec­om­men­da­tions for sleep hygiene are well pub­li­cized. They include avoid­ing alco­hol and stim­u­lants like caf­feine; stick­ing to reg­u­lar bed and wake times (even if you don’t get enough sleep); exposing

Read More