Brain Hacks

Joining a book club provides a triple bonus for your brain. Most book clubs pick challenging books and set a specific deadline for reading them. Part of the fun is analyzing a book’s structure, theme, characterizations, plot, and other concepts. Much of this may not be familiar to you, but that will make the experience more interesting and mentally challenging. Also, groups typically gather for discussions, offering you opportunities to socialize, engage in meaningful conversation, and invigorate yourself—all things your brain craves. It’s also likely to help you stay contemporary and be more aware of what’s going on in the world. Join a book club; it’s a win-win-win situation.

Cliché is the French word for “stereotype.” In English, cliché is used to describe phrases and expressions that have been so overused they’ve lost their freshness and original meaning. For example:  

• Saved by the bell 

• As old as the hills 

• In the nick of time 

• Haste makes waste  

Clichés are boring and trite, and relying on clichés to communicate is lazy. Exercise your brain by challenging yourself to avoid clichés and come up with a fresh metaphor or an original expression. And maybe you’ll create a new cliché that lazy people can use when they talk. 

Writing your autobiography can be a very rewarding activity—you preserve your life experiences for the benefit of other family members and exercise your brain in the process. Recalling previous events requires a strong memory (which may be aided by going through photo albums, letters, etc.), and the act of writing improves visual spatial skills. Expressive writing—that is, writing that tries to capture emotion and explain why and how things happened, such as you would do in a memoir— has been shown to help people cope with negative events. They experience fewer unwanted thoughts about these past events. Researchers speculate that writing it down helps free up the brain for other cognitive tasks. One study of college students showed that writing about their life experiences helped them gain insight (they used more so-called “insight” words than the control group), and it also improved their grade point averages.

It’s true that we should get plenty of sleep at night—at least eight hours, say most doctors—but napping during the day can also benefit your brain. Taking forty winks improves memory according to several studies. When you form a memory, it’s first stored in the hippo campus, but while it’s there you can easily lose it. Nap- ping apparently pushes memories to the neocortex, where they become more permanent. 

Studies have also found that people who nap regularly have an easier time learning. Research suggests that the right hemisphere of the brain is more active during sleep, while the left side relaxes and takes some time off. After you wake up, the left side will be refreshed and ready to learn new stuff. So don’t be afraid to put your feet up, close your eyes, and doze off for a while. 

A nice warm cup of cocoa isn’t only for warming up on a winter day. It benefits your brain. In a study done by Salk Institute for Biological Studies researcher Henriette van Praag and colleagues, a compound found in cocoa, epicatechin, combined with exercise, was found to promote functional changes in a part of the brain involved in the formation of learning and memory. Epicatechin is a flavonol, a group of chemicals that have previously been shown to improve cardiovascular function and increase blood flow to the brain (helping bring nutrition to your gray matter and helping prevent strokes). A recent study by Italian researchers found that among a group of sixty-one-year-olds to eighty-five-year-olds, those who consistently consumed cocoa tested better for attention and memory.

You know that worrying doesn’t solve anything, but it’s still an easy habit to fall into. Excessive, habitual worrying keeps your brain running around in circles. Often this puts you in fight-or-flight mode, which stresses your entire body—particularly your brain. Nearly 20 percent of adults struggle with anxiety disorders—what might be called worrying run amok. Chronic worrying can contribute to the development of psychiatric problems. When you worry, your brain produces more cortisol, a stress hormone, which can destroy brain cells and create memory and learning problems. But you can train your brain to think positively. Cognitive therapy emphasizes using positive thoughts to help you change your emotions. This helps the rational part of your brain (the cortex) get control over the irrational part (the limbic system). If you can think before you feel (or at least learn to think faster after you feel), you can reduce the amount of worry you experience. Going worry-free benefits your brain! 

Cutting down on TV watching in general is a good way to take care of your brain. If you’re going to watch, though, PBS offers intelligent programming that will inform, educate, and stimulate your brain. Forgo the mindless and mind-numbing shows that commercial stations fill the airwaves with. In the same way we become what we think (or eat), we also become what we watch. Don’t clutter your brain with the equivalent of junk food. Pick and choose carefully, and select shows that involve or educate your brain. Doing so will not only make you mentally sharp, but it will also liven up your conversation when socializing. 

Modern healthcare encourages people to rely on others to make decisions for them. Experts tell us what to do. Relief from our medical problems is just a pre- scription away. While it’s natural to turn to experts and to accept help, be sure you’re not also giving up responsibility for your own health. It’s up to you to make good decisions about how to live your life, what to eat and how much, what to drink and how much, how you work and how you play. Although you might be able to banish the results of an unhealthy choice by taking a little colored pill, it’s better to step back and think about the choices you’re making. Develop an awareness of your life’s complexity—your body, mind, emotions, and spirit—and how these elements interact. Use others to get the information to make the right decisions—but in the end, it’s up to you to take responsibility to know what is and isn’t good for your brain. 

Noise isn’t just an irritation, it can hurt your brain. While aging does take its toll on your ability to hear, noise itself is the other big culprit. The greater your exposure to noise, the greater the likelihood that you’ll suffer hearing impairment. In the bad news category, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that people with hearing impairments were 30 to 40 percent more likely to experience cognitive decline. People with hearing loss appear to lose brain mass at a greater rate than those who have good hearing. Hearing loss also increases the demand on the brain because of the effort involved when a person with hearing loss tries to hear and process what is being said. This can add to stress too. It isn’t clear whether the use of hearing aids can help reverse the likelihood of dementia. What is clear, though, is you should protect those precious ears! Noise levels over 105 decibels can damage your ears if you’re exposed to them for more than fifteen minutes per week. Levels over 80 decibels can damage your hearing if you are frequently ex- posed to them (for several hours per day). A forklift runs at about 90 decibels, so just working in a warehouse could damage your hearing if you don’t use ear protection.

Some simple ways to save your hearing:

• Use earplugs or ear protection in noisy environments. 

• Turn it down—listen to music, the television, and so on, at lower volumes.

• Give your ears a break—silence can help your hearing recover. Without it you risk permanent damage.

Your brain relies on your vision to make sense of the world. But given the complicated way your brain perceives visual images, it’s basically just hallucinating what it thinks is there, based on incomplete information. It’s no small wonder it gets things wrong from time to time. One researcher found that blindfolding participants enhanced their other senses. Subjects quickly learned to navigate unfamiliar terrain even without the help of vision by listening, smelling, and touching. A different study showed that sitting quietly with a blindfold for just ninety minutes improved participants’ hearing. Other research suggests that doing tasks while blind- folded can improve memory, motor skills, and problem-solving. Should you break out a blindfold and try to make dinner? Probably not. But closing your eyes and let- ting other senses do some work may stimulate your brain.