crosswords

Update: To improve sleep, combine general sleep hygiene with mindful and cognitive techniques

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sleep———-

Had a good night’s sleep? 

We hope you did, so you can ful­ly enjoy all the fas­ci­nat­ing arti­cles and brain teasers in the new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter…includ­ing excel­lent advice on how to com­bine gen­er­al sleep hygiene with mind­ful and cog­ni­tive tech­niques, and a book giveaway. 

Hap­py reading!

New thinking:

New research:

New tools:

Books and other educational resources:

Finally, some fun Brain teasers:

 

Have a great month of June!

The Sharp­Brains Team

How to properly “Use it or Lose it”: Kundalini Yoga vs. Crossword Puzzles

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yoga_wellnessYoga bet­ter than cross­words for pre­vent­ing pre-Alzheimer’s mem­o­ry loss (The Telegraph):

“His­tor­i­cal­ly and anec­do­tal­ly, yoga has been thought to be ben­e­fi­cial in age­ing well, but this is the sci­en­tif­ic demon­stra­tion of that benefit…We’re con­vert­ing his­tor­i­cal wis­dom into the high lev­el of evi­dence required for doc­tors to rec­om­mend ther­a­py to their patients. [Read more…] about How to prop­er­ly “Use it or Lose it”: Kun­dali­ni Yoga vs. Cross­word Puzzles

Why financial analysts should grab a paint brush and a canvas (and artists do more math)

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Which Brain Exer­cis­es Improve Mem­o­ry Best? (Read­er’s Digest):

“The exer­cis­es you do to keep your mind sharp may not be enough to improve mem­o­ry over time, but new research from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness reveals bet­ter ways to boost your brain health…If you can breeze through the Sun­day puz­zle, you are not doing your mind any favors. That’s because the key to a vibrant, healthy brain includes chal­lenge and novelty…keep your brain fit with new activ­i­ties that test var­i­ous skills; a finan­cial ana­lyst may want to grab a paint brush and a can­vas, for exam­ple. Even play­ing dif­fer­ent types of puzzles–a cross­word today, Sudoku tomorrow–is bet­ter than doing the same type over and over again.”

Learn more:

Do Crossword Puzzles Help to Counteract the Aging Process? If so, Which Ones and How?

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Recent­ly there has been an ongo­ing debate as to whether attempt­ing cross­words reg­u­lar­ly can stave off cog­ni­tive decline, which is the hall­mark of healthy aging and demen­tia. As with many areas of psy­chol­o­gy the answer to this ques­tion may not be as clear-cut as one would hope. Before con­sid­er­ing the evi­dence for whether cross­word par­tic­i­pa­tion can reduce cog­ni­tive decline in lat­er life, it is nec­es­sary to con­sid­er the dif­fer­ent types of cross­words avail­able and under­stand whether one or anoth­er type may be more cog­ni­tive­ly stim­u­lat­ing than the oth­er. Gen­er­al­ly, when we think of cross­words two kinds spring to mind, either gen­er­al knowl­edge or cryp­tic crosswords.

A gen­er­al knowl­edge cross­word typ­i­cal­ly has clues which are sim­i­lar to answer­ing gen­er­al knowl­edge quizzes, but the solver has the ben­e­fit of know­ing how many let­ters make up the solution.

For exam­ple: “the cap­i­tal of Peru (4)”… [Read more…] about Do Cross­word Puz­zles Help to Coun­ter­act the Aging Process? If so, Which Ones and How?

Brain Games for the Weekend: One for each Cognitive Ability

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When I give a pre­sen­ta­tion about brain health and fit­ness, there are always a few peo­ple who come tell me after­ward that they do cross­word puz­zles every­day. They heard that men­tal exer­cise is good for the brain so they are pleased and proud to report that they do the best they can to main­tain their brain func­tions. But are they real­ly? What if I was a gym instruc­tor? Would the same peo­ple tell me proud­ly that to keep their whole body in shape they do biceps move­ments every­day, and that’s all they do? I DO feel like I was this gym instruc­tor when I hear the cross­word puz­zles claim! Solv­ing cross­word puz­zles repet­i­tive­ly is not the best habit for two rea­sons. [Read more…] about Brain Games for the Week­end: One for each Cog­ni­tive Ability

Improve Memory with Sleep, Practice, and Testing

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There are whole mar­kets (think cross­words, herbal sup­ple­ments, drugs, brain fit­ness soft­ware) aimed at help­ing us improve our memory.

Now, what is “mem­o­ry”? how does the process of mem­o­ry sleep and memorywork?

Dr. Bill Klemm, Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science at Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty, explains a very impor­tant con­cept below.

- Alvaro

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Get­ting from Here to There:
Mak­ing Mem­o­ry Con­sol­i­da­tion Work

By Bill Klemm,  Ph. D.

Until con­sol­i­da­tion has occurred, a short-term mem­o­ry is very vul­ner­a­ble, as all of us have expe­ri­enced from look­ing up a phone num­ber only to have some dis­trac­tion cause us to lose the num­ber before we can get it dialed.

What is “con­sol­i­da­tion”?

Brain researchers use the term “con­sol­i­da­tion” for the process where­by short-term mem­o­ry gets made more permanent.

Here, I would like to dis­cuss some aspects of con­sol­i­da­tion that many peo­ple may not know about: why sleep is so impor­tant, why mem­o­ry must be prac­ticed, and how test­ing pro­motes con­sol­i­da­tion. [Read more…] about Improve Mem­o­ry with Sleep, Prac­tice, and Testing