Should You Play Brain Training Games?
There are games out there right now, such as Lumosity, that claim to train your brain. Are they safe for you to play? Do they even work? Watch today’s episode and find out:
Ultimately brain training games aren’t so bad, and they’re not going to ruin your detox but we should ask ourselves whether or not they actually work.
Research is coming out saying that brain games don’t work – you’re just getting better at the game itself – not that your brain is improving it’s cognitive function.
Regardless of whether brain training games actually “work” or not, what’s important is to understand that, if you’re playing games because you want to train your brain, let’s look at what research already proves to improve the function of our brain:
- Exercise
- Getting enough sleep
- Taking your vitamins (omega 3s)
- Reading
- Meditation
- Etc…
If you’re not doing these things, ask yourself if you’re playing “brain training” games because you actually want to improve your brain… or simply using it as justification to play some silly mobile game for 15-45 minutes per day to kill some time.
Remember there’s a difference between you like to play these games and your brain likes to play these games, so I think it’s really easy sometimes to get caught up in feeling good about playing games instead of actually thinking about the benefits of doing so, and if they actually are any.
My recommendation is this:
If you’re in your 90 day detox, do not play these games.
They can trigger you to want to play more and they’re not really providing you with any real benefits.
In fact, Lumosity just got sued for two million dollars because their marketing claims that their games provide all of this really good stuff to your brain and it has not been proven true.
Instead:
Focus on exercise, getting enough sleep, reading better books, and things like that that actually improve your brain, and let the brain training games go.
So I hope that helps you guys out and if it does, leave a comment below. Do you play brain training games? What has your experience been? Add your feedback to the discussion.
If you’re still gaming and you are ready to quit, commit to your 90 day detox today and grab a copy of Respawn to help you with it.