I have always been a gamer. Since childhood it has been a much loved pastime. It’s even how I keep in touch with my cousin in Southampton through our occasional gaming nights. My wife is always surprised as we never have any “gossip” literally all we do is game. But we both enjoy it. Plus, it is a good way to decompress after a stressful day at work.

Gaming can be an expensive hobby to pursue but there are sites that let you try games for free. Fortunately, I have stumbled upon Solitaire.org which offers plenty of card and video games without you having to spend a penny. That’s good for me right now as my wife has got us on a tight budget whilst we save up for a holiday.

Below I list my top five health benefits of gaming:

Exercise Your Brain

One of favourite health benefits of gaming is it can exercise your brain. For that reason, I think I was instantly drawn to the logic games on the Solitaire website. It’s good to use the different parts of the brain, finetuning your analytical and critical thinking skills.

I quite like to start off each morning with the daily sudoku now. It has been proven that games like that can reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s. So, it’s wonderful you have access to all of that for free through their site.

My brain is a little rusty, so I started off on medium. I like that it puts the time on there too, you can see if you get quicker as the days pass by. Although, I took a screenshot prior to playing as I was a bit embarrassed with my time! Evidently my brain needs a lot more exercising. I love how the game lets you pick all the numbers that might go in a particular square. Doing that does make it easier to narrow the choices down. Then when your happy with your decision through some trial and error you can make it into a big number so you know your happy with your answer.

Can help You Focus

Games like chess are great to help with focus and concentration. Studies have shown that chess is very useful game for anyone who has ADHD. It can help them with self-regulation and extending the length of time they stay focused. Being able to focus is also very important for mental health. When your mind wonders, you can start to feel down or depressed by allowing intrusive thoughts to affect your mood. Focus stops you going over anything bad that’s happened in your life you just stay in the moment on task.

Improve Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skills are how we think and work things out. It’s a good idea to develop them so its easier to acquire knowledge and solve problems.

The daily maze game is good fun and perfect for doing just that!

I am happy to show my score on there as I think I managed to get through it relatively quickly. I just stopped shy of the finishing dot because I wanted a picture without the lady.

Although it is nice having the person come up to celebrate when you finish the maze. Praise and encouragement is also good for giving mental health a bit of a boost. It can also help you feel more confident in your abilities. I started off on medium, but then moved on to hard.

Boost Your Mood

If you play on your console with friends that feeling of being connected can really boost your mood. It’s handy for my children because their friends are dotted around over quite a distance. Even during the school holidays, they can still catch up easily through console time! Although you can just chat about your Solitaire.org high scores, you don’t even have to be playing the same game, just use your own headsets to communicate.

Reduce Stress

Gaming can release dopamine (the happy hormone) because you are doing something you enjoy. This can help reduce stress and tension. If stress is left unchecked, it can lead to a lot of health problems such as headache, chest ache, fatigue and sleep problems. So, why not have a little gaming session to take the edge off. I am quite partial to playing the Cookie Monster game, a version of Pac-Man. I like how the ghosts turn into cookies instead of just being edible ghosts in a different colour.

Improves Manual Dexterity

Some games have been used as part of physiotherapy to support stroke victims. Doing so helps them regain wrist control. You want to pick games that are very repetitive as it gets them to keep practising what they need to improve. If one arm is now weaker pick a pick that helps build back their strength in that particular arm.

In Conclusion

With so many health benefits of gaming you don’t have to feel quite so guilty when you get lost in a good game! It’s time very well spent after all. Just think of how your brain is having a good workout and your focus is improving. Also, you will feel happier and less stressed!