Are jigsaw puzzles good for your brain?

A healthy distraction is needed for humans once in a while. You might be using your smartphone or watching TV all day to get that distraction. But they are not healthy when used for a prolonged period, and you won’t have any necessary brain activity while watching or using your smartphone. In other words, they are just utter waste of time.

The healthy alternative to a captivating time pass activity is a jigsaw puzzle, and they will keep your brain active throughout the process but will not bore you in any way. To solve a jigsaw puzzle efficiently, you will need good visual and congenital spatial recognition. If you are weak in that, continuous solving these puzzles might help you in a significant manner.

There are countless benefits for your brain while solving these puzzles, and we are going to discuss those benefits you get by solving these puzzles consistently.

Benefits Of Solving Puzzles

One of the benefits of solving a jigsaw puzzle is that it keeps your brain working. You will start losing your ability to perform complicated tasks if you don’t provide adequate work to your brain. A complex mathematical problem can be helpful to keep your brain in fit shape and will retain you the ability to perform multiple complex tasks.

But performing mathematical problems are boring and are not a lot of fun to do. So people tend to use their smartphones or watch tv instead to pass their time which is not a healthy habit. So the healthy and entertaining alternative is the jigsaw puzzle. They are a lot of fun to play with and will captivate your attention. You can either play them alone or play with a group of friends, which can both be equally interesting.

This will give you a chance to do analytical thinking in an entertaining way. If you are trying to solve jigsaw puzzle pieces with your friends or family, it not only helps you develop your analytical thinking but also improves the rapport between you and your family or friends. The jigsaw puzzle is the best healthy alternative in the era of distracting technologies.

Now, we will discuss more specific benefits of playing jigsaw puzzles.

Activation Of Brain

Most of the time, in this modern era, people keep their brains dormant without giving them an adequate amount of work. Even if they do, they only exercise one part of the brain. Like every other muscle, the brain needs to be exercised in a consistent manner. People don’t want to keep their minds active because it might be a boring activity.

But jigsaw puzzles help you to flex both sides of the brain. Few things like practicing abacus and writing with two hands activate both sides of the brain at once. But they are extremely difficult tasks. But playing a jigsaw puzzle will activate both sides of your brain at once.

The left side of the brain works more in a logical way and can be used to solve problems and think analytically. They can be enhanced by solving mathematical problems. The right side of the brain is more creative. They are the colorful side of the brain as they perform creative tasks and help people to think outside of the box. They can be activated by doing creative tasks such as painting.

But solving jigsaw puzzles will activate both sides of the brain at once and also provide long-lasting entertainment. The famous billionaire and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, admitted that he is a serious fan of jigsaw puzzles. No wonder he is a billionaire now.

Improves Memory

People without any disease related to memory loss can play jigsaw puzzles and can expect guaranteed improvement in their short-term memory. Short-term memory loss has become a huge problem in recent years. Especially teenage students can’t remember their yesterday’s lunch.

Playing jigsaw puzzles is a natural remedy for short-term memory loss. Solving these puzzles will activate your brain cells and reinforce the connection between each cell. This will not only improves the short-term memory of teenagers but also increases brain activity. Studies also show that solving these puzzles is associated with improvement of mental speed.

Improves Visual-spatial Reasoning

When you are solving a jigsaw puzzle, you make a visual analysis to understand the puzzle even before solving it. You will visually make an image of where each piece of the puzzle should go. This results in the improvement of visual-spatial reasoning.

If you try 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles, they will be much more challenging. It will be hard to guess where each piece should go. But if you try hard and solve it, it will result in a greater visual-spatial reasoning skill which can be helpful when you are driving. You won’t need a GPS if you visit a town for the second time after solving these puzzles once in a while.

Stress Buster

Solving a jigsaw puzzle is an instant stress reliever. You will be focusing on an image without any other thoughts, which are equivalent to meditation. This will instantly free up your brain and reduces your stress and anxiety levels. People who experience anxiety attacks can play jigsaw puzzles which will greatly aid them.

Connects Friends & Family

As discussed above, this is a great way to create or rebuild a broken rapport with your friends and families. There is no other healthy fun activity that can reunite you with your friends and families. This will reduce the stress of you and your friends and family members and are a great stress buster.

If you are playing with your family, try a jigsaw puzzle for adults. They will have more pieces in them, which can be challenging to finish. The more the puzzle pieces, the more fun.

Finally, they can be a healthy alternative timepass for your kids who like to spend all day on their phones. Solving a puzzle a day will keep your kid in a reality check.