I receive Google alerts for jigsaw puzzle news and every day I receive obituaries. Not exactly what I expected. When we were kids, a challenging jigsaw puzzle could keep us occupied for hours and obviously, a lot of people enjoy jigsaw puzzles throughout their lifetime. For children, puzzles help develop important spatial and visual skills, yet the benefits of jigsaw puzzles are relevant for adults also, especially for seniors living with Alzheimer’s or another form of memory loss, jigsaw puzzles help the brain in more ways than one can imagine.
Puzzles not only get the brain working but allow for social opportunities between loved ones and caregivers and create positive emotional connections.
If you’re a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s read on to learn how jigsaw puzzles piece together a picture of cognitive wellness for seniors.
8 Benefits of Jigsaw Puzzles
It’s easy to understand why working on jigsaw puzzles is good for a healthy brain. From stimulating concentration to strengthening short-term memory, the benefits of puzzles combine to help us reduce our risk of dementia.
Including jigsaw puzzles as part of a care routine for someone who has already developed memory loss also has remarkable benefits for the mind and spirit. This enjoyable activity can improve brain function and stir pleasant memories from childhood. Research even shows that, among the benefits of assembling jigsaw puzzles, seniors with Alzheimer’s can decrease their rate of cognitive decline. Benefits include:
- Slower decline of cognitive functioning – Researchers found that seniors with memory loss who worked on puzzles for 45 minutes two times a week had improved scores on memory tests. These improvements accounted for approximately six to nine months delay in symptoms or decline.
- Powerful brain workout – Assembling jigsaw puzzles exercises both sides of the brain, creating a stimulating workout. While the right side of the brain focuses on creativity and intuitive thought, the left side is busy with logic and order. Puzzles combine these functions for full-brain involvement.
- Increased visual perception and memory – When you put together a puzzle, your eyes are constantly scanning for a piece that matches a specific shape or color. This not only improves visual recognition (which often declines with Alzheimer’s) but strengthens your short-term memory as well.
- Improved interactions with others – Puzzles can easily be a solo activity, but they’re also fun to do with others. Senior with memory loss often have trouble interacting with those around them, especially as their symptoms progress. Spending time together with a puzzle creates opportunities for easy conversation, collaboration, shared accomplishments, and bonding. For someone who is nonverbal, completing a puzzle gives them a unique chance for connection. This is true for those with autism as well.
- Therapeutic meditation – Activities that exercise both sides of the brain encourage a mental state that allows for meditation. This state lets us feel calm and content. Working on a puzzle can benefit those with Alzheimer’s by calming them down if they’re agitated or restless. Jigsaw puzzles require concentration, which can help loved ones relax and alter their mood.
- Better physical health – When our minds can relax and meditate, it’s good for our physical health, too. Calming activities like jigsaw puzzles can lower the breathing rate, slow the heart rate and reduce blood pressure.
- Feel-good chemicals – Completing a task, such as finding the missing piece to a puzzle, releases dopamine in the brain. This chemical makes us feel good. We feel the effects of dopamine when we accomplish a goal, complete a project or solve a problem.
- Purposeful activities – For people with Alzheimer’s, feeling a sense of accomplishment can be rare. Their disease may limit them from doing the kinds of tasks they used to do with ease. A simple project, such as finishing a puzzle, can give them a big boost in pride and sense of purpose. The jigsaw puzzles do not have to have a large number of pieces to accomplish this goal. Find puzzles that are challenging but not impossible. As your loved one’s memory loss progresses you may have to adjust the type of jigsaw puzzles you buy. You can try jigsaw puzzles with images that evoke pleasant memories, or you can have custom jigsaw puzzles made.
