It’s hump-day, y’all! Feeling that draaaaging feeling mid-week? Is your wild side only making it until around 9:00pm? Good news. A top trending and very popular nighttime activity includes game night to perk up your evenings in a chill way. And it’s not just an activity for families with kiddos. Game night with couples is making a serious comeback! Even Pinterest has bajillions of printable game ideas ready for you to pin and play. Starbucks has game night. Google “date night ideas” and game night will be on the list. Old school fun in a modern way.
Fun fact: Just as your body needs physical exercise, your brain needs mental workouts every now and then. No quizzes involved in this type of workout, so no pressure. The good news is that the most popular way to keep your memory fresh, your thoughts limber and your wit sharp is to play games! From puzzles to video games, studies have found just by playing games can improve your mental health and wellbeing.
Keeping it #classic with a few game suggestions that you know-and-love for improving brain function. Because beauty is nothing without brains.
Bingo
Stop laughing. Bingo is da bomb dot com. Yes, bingo had a reputation for being a popular game with people over the age of 50. However, Bingo is making a comeback! Over the last few years Bingo games are everywhere! The game even has an impressive online presence. Playing bingo could help us keep our memory, attention, focus, problem solving and more! Other experts have found that playing Bingo increases mental agility BIG-TIME. How we take in information and how we keep memories alive in our mind is boosted from B-I-N-G-O!
Sudoku
Admit it – you were hooked on Sudoku at some time in your life, right? #Guilty. This popular Japanese numbers game is so well liked that you can find it everywhere! Starting at the back of a daily newspaper… but also in a million other places. Sudoku is all about problem solving but you also need to lay down that logic for this game. The most obvi mental health benefit of playing is that it stimulates the mind and increases our ability to concentrate. And if you think you need to be strong at math to play this game, think again. Although it involves numbers, it’s actually a spatial reasoning sort of puzzle. Plus, the more you play the quicker you’ll become, a skill that can be applied to TONS of other everyday activities.
Multiplayer
Saving the most popular for last! No surprise that over the years Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, otherwise known as MMORPGs, help people (age makes no difference, by the way) deal with problems, such as social anxiety. These social adventure games allow people to engage in social interactions and teamwork in a low-risk environment. Just know that gaming is incredibly beneficial to your mental health and overall happy vibe. Not only are games likely to increase your mind’s agility and flexibility, but they can even keep your brain younger for longer and can help you interact with other people. That’s more than enough reasons for us to enjoy a game night once in a while.
What’s your favorite game to play?
We love playing a good board game on the weekend. Especially cards! I love playing jokers – and sometimes chess but I’m terrible at it (and the cats always go after the little pawns haha!) x
I love playing games with my daughters. It makes any night fun.
I used to play a large mmorpg. I loved it. It was fun and I got to talk to other people. I haven’t played in a long time, but I remember it fondly.
We love Scrabble in our family and chess and cribbage. Your cards are adorable. And the bunny slippers.
We love board games, and games in general. We have been into Phase 10, some friends of ours taught us how to play. (very addicting) Then our daughters boyfriend bought us Catan, now that’s a fun game! Oh, and I can’t forget our game that we got for Christmas Brain Games. We are always looking for new games to play!
These are such great games! One of my favorite games is Sudoku! I’d play that anywhere! Bingo is a really fun and exciting game to play too!
Belle | One Awesome Momma
I admit, I love a good game for not only fun but to help let loose and relax. Board games, card games, I’m game!
I grew up in a game night every Saturday kind of home! I love games and the way they work my brain! It is hard to find two player games for me and my hubby to play but anytime we have friends over we pull the games out!
Game night get real at our house. My hubs and I are super competitive so it can get pretty intense!
A board game is so much fun! It is such a great way to bring the whole family together.
I love having game nights with my kids or my friends. With my friends, we love to play Bunco!
Totally on board with this! mental fitness! When my grandmother was diagnosed with alzheimers we got her cards, and board games to help keep her mentally alert. When we aren’t with her she does word searches etc.
I used to go to BINGO with my friend and her grandmother…in the basement of the Catholic church where I grew up. It is totally addictive and fun 🙂
I love a good card game. An ex lover and I loved to play SPADES! Spades is a favorite of mine!
I love Scrabble! My husband doesn’t love it as much because he doesn’t win. My kids can’t read yet but they love Hungry Hippos!
One of my favorite games to play is Nuts (although I think people call it different names). Spoons is really fun too! My family never played to many games but I do love them!
We are currently loving the Game of Life in our home. Our eight year old daughter gets so excited to play!
I love game night. Hard to do with young kids but we play go fish and memory a lot. Sudoku is great to do on my own.
Growing up we played a really fun card game and it’s called Hand and Foot. It’s a game where the score builds on each other each round, but each round can take 45 minutes. We would block out our whole weekend and have fun!
I have done Sudoku before. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time anymore to do Sudoku puzzles like I would like to. I hope to get back to it someday soon.
That sounds like fun! We played Monopoly with the kids last night! It was a lot of fun!
I’m such a huge fan of games and love the benefits it has both mentally and socially. My husband and I do cards once a week + 2 larger game nights with board games a month with friends and/or family. I also make sure I do mental puzzles of some sort daily.
Sounds like a blast! I need to play more sudoku regardless of game night! They say it is great for our brain and memory training as we get older.
I love nearly all board games – even more so as adults, Game Nights with my family get very competitive. I also love crosswords.
We love game nights! Monopoly and Game of Life are our favourites. Don’t mind a bit of Twister or Operation either.