Trivia games for the senior living residents provide mental stimulation, an important component to mental and cognitive health in older minds. Brain games, crossword puzzles, word finds, and trivia all require multiple areas of the brain to interact in order to process and retrieve data. The brain is a muscle; if it is not used it can become atrophied. At Safe Haven Senior Living in Atlanta, Georgia we believe brain exercise is just as important as physical exercise.

Regular mental stimulation can actually delay the onset of diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, which impair cognitive functioning. Games require memory and stimulate the pathways through the cerebral cortex required to link the question to the image or to the answer.

Board games are a popular past time for seniors, particularly if they have grandchildren. Kids love to play board games. As kids age, engaging them in trivia based games is one way to encourage mental activity. Board games are a great activity for the elderly to participate in with friends or at local senior centers.

In most cases of memory loss, the most distant memories remain intact, while more recent memories are the ones that disappear. Part of this is due to the what happens while the body is sleeping. Mental processes are reinforced during sleep periods. If the brain is under stimulated during the day, or if recently acquired memories aren’t emphasized, then those processes are not reinforced.