The Online Brain Games Blog

from twob

Like most people recently, I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics on T.V.  While watching Apolo Ohno warm up for one of his Short Track races the other night, I noticed him yawning.  At first I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that he was so tired just before a race that he couldn’t resist the urge to yawn. When I paid closer attention to what he was doing, it looked like he was actually TRYING to yawn. It looked like he was actually warming up to a big yawn by taking several small, fake yawns, just prior to launching into a big natural one. Then I remembered the post I wrote about how Yawning can Improve Memory, Brain Fitness and overall Brain Health. So I thought well, maybe it was a tactic he was using to improve his racing ability just before a race. It turns out I was right!  I recently read an article on Yahoo News that said Apolo Ohno yawns prior to a race in order to bring more oxygen into his lungs and to get the nerves out of his system. But just maybe, without his realizing, it helped his mental abilities too. Short track racing requires a lot of quick thinking and mental strategy. So while his “official” reason had nothing to do with memory, brain fitness and overall brain health, perhaps the brain boosting benefits of yawning helped him win and become the Winter Olympian with the most medals in U.S. history. Who knows?

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Hey guys, I came across this very cool mental exercise that you can use to improve your memory, your power of observation and even help you get to sleep faster! Sound interesting? OK, so here it is..

When you’re lying in bed at night ready to fall asleep, you review what you did that day from start to finish. You start with the time you got up out of bed until the time you went back to bed. Do this in as much detail as possible, visualizing in your mind each and every step from beginning to end. At first, you wont recall much detail, and you’ll probably jump very quickly from task to task or think of the day in large blocks of time. But try to slow down and remember as much as possible, in as much detail as possible. Over time, you’ll get better and better at this and you’ll be able to remember more and more detail.

This simple mental exercise has the following benefits:

1) It will improve your memory

2) Your power of observation will improve. In fact, you’ll find yourself during the day performing a mini recall of your day thus far because you know that later than night you will be trying to recall it again.

3) You will be more in the moment throughout the day. Again, because you know you will be recalling your day later, you pay more attention to details throughout the day.

4) Your ability to visualize will improve.

5) You will improve concentration.

6) You will  fall asleep faster because your mind will get tired much like counting sheep at night in order to fall asleep.

So give this simple mental exercise a try for a week and let me know what you think.

Source:

One Simple Mental Exercise to improve your Mind Power

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Yawning turns out to be an excellent brain exercise!

I’m reading a book called “How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist”.  In the book, the author(s) list 8 brain exercises to help improve memory, brain fitness and overall brain health. The 5th brain exercise listed in the book is the simple act of yawning.

Here are 12 good reasons to yawn according to the author(s);

1)   Stimulates alertness and concentration

2)   Optimizes brain activity and metabolism

3)   Improves cognitive function

4)   Improve memory recall

5)   Enhances consciousness and introspection

6)   Lowers stress

7)   Relaxes every part of your body

8)   Improves voluntary muscle control

9)   Enhances athletic skills

10) Fine-tunes your sense of time

11) Increases empathy and social awareness

12) Enhances pleasure and sensuality

According to the author(s), “Yawning will relax you and bring you into a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique I know of”.

Brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a part of the brain called the precuneus. According to researchers, the precuneus appears to play a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and improve memory retrieval, among other things.

The process of yawning also involves numerous neurochemicals including dopamine. This leads to yet other neurochemicals and areas of the brain which regulate and help improve memory, voluntary control, temperature regulation, pleasure, sensuality and relationship bonding.  It is hard to find another activity that so positively influences so many functions of the brain.

Conscious yawning takes a little practice and discipline. All you have to do to trigger a deep yawn is to fake it 6 or 7 times.

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So go ahead and try it now… yawn 6 or 7 times.

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See, don’t you feel better? I bet that last yawn was a good one too!

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For more information on how yawning helps improve our brain function, as well as to learn about the other 7 brain exercises shown to improve memory, brain fitness and overall brain health listed in the book I’m reading, click on the book link below:

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Below are a few of the best links I’ve come across over the last few months on how sleep affects our memory and brain health. I hope you find them as informative and useful as I did.

Below are the links with article summaries:

When Sleep Suffers, So Does Decisiveness – A recent study, which included 49 U.S. military cadets, looked at how sleep deprivation affected thinking abilities which rely heavily on instantaneous, gut-feeling decisions. They found that even moderate sleep deprivation can cause an immediate loss of these abilities.

Lack of sleep harms brain health – Another great link with respect to the importance of getting adequate sleep for maintaining optimum brain health and fitness.

Why ‘Sleeping on It’ Helps – A recent study concluded that for certain kinds of decisions – those that are complex and where you have some expertise – “sleeping on it” may be more helpful than spending minutes or hours of conscious thought on it. The brain makes good unconscious decisions, when we let it.

Rule #7 Sleep well, think well –  Online link to useful information on the importance of sleep with respect to brain health and fitness found in the book “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”.

Sleep & Nap – An excellent post detailing 14 great things we can do to help preserve, protect and enhance our gray matter. Number 5 deals specifically with sleep.

Healthy habits to improve memory – Getting enough sleep one of several healthy habits we can have in order to maintain and improve our memory.

Sleep Now, Remember Later – An excellent article which details how sleep affects our memory. Want a good memory, get enough sleep!

No sleep means no new brain cells – Wow..  A study suggests that missing out on sleep may cause the brain actually to stop producing new cells.

Have a Poor Memory? Then Try Sleeping On It – In humans, one particular study looked at memory recall with and without sleep. The study found that people who slept after learning the information performed best, successfully recalling more words than those who had not had sleep prior to being tested.

So there you have it.. A great excuse to go take a nap!

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