Brain Games for Seniors

Why these are on the page and not in a list

Search for brain games for seniors and you get the same article ten times: play chess, do the crossword, try sudoku, download an app. Useful as far as it goes, and it does not go far, because the person searching wanted to play something, now, without signing up for anything. So the games are here. Five of them, each with three levels, each written so that the text is big, the buttons are big, nothing is timed and nothing can be lost. They run in the browser you already have, on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and they keep working once the page has loaded.

Below the games is the part the other articles skip: what the research actually shows about brain training, which is less than the adverts say and more than nothing, and a short, honest list of the offline games that hold up.

The five games

Each game counts a session of ten, shown by the bar that fills at the top. A wrong answer is greyed out, not punished, and you simply try again. The level button changes the difficulty at any point. Read instructions aloud in the settings has the instruction spoken each time, and the speaker button reads it whenever you want.

What the evidence actually says

This is the part worth reading slowly, because the brain-training industry has not been honest about it.

• You get better at what you practise. The largest trial, called ACTIVE, followed more than 2,800 adults over 65 for ten years. People trained in memory, reasoning or speed of processing improved on the thing they trained, and some of that gain was still measurable a decade later. That is real.
• The gain mostly stays where it was made. Getting faster at a speed task did not make people better at remembering names. Independent reviews of computerised brain training keep finding the same pattern: solid improvement on the trained task, weak or no transfer to everyday memory. Anyone who tells you a game will "keep your mind young" in general is selling something.
• Regulators agree. In 2016 the company behind Lumosity settled with the US Federal Trade Commission over claims that its games delayed cognitive decline. The claims were not supported.
• The things that do protect the brain are duller. The best summary of the research, the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, puts the weight on physical activity, treating hearing loss, controlling blood pressure and diabetes, not smoking, staying socially connected, sleeping well and keeping up education and mentally demanding activity through life. Games belong in that last group, alongside learning a language, an instrument, or a new craft, all of which demand more than a game does.

So the honest claim for the games on this page is modest: they are a pleasant way to spend fifteen minutes doing something effortful, they will make you better at exactly these things, and that is worth having. They are not a treatment and not a shield.

How to get the most out of them

• Fifteen to twenty minutes, most days. More than that is usually diminishing returns, and daily beats a long session once a week.
• Rotate. Two or three different games in a session. Memory, then words, then numbers.
• Move up as soon as it is easy. The benefit comes from effort. A game you can do without thinking is a pastime, which is fine, but it is not exercise.
• Play with someone. Sequence and odd one out work well with two people taking turns, and the social part is doing more for you than the puzzle.
• Do it when you are sharpest. For most people that is the morning. Playing tired teaches you that you are bad at it.

Offline games that hold up

Ranked by how much they ask of you, which is the only ranking that matters here.

1. Bridge, and to a lesser degree rummy and canasta. Memory, probability, reading other people, and a table of four. Nothing on a screen comes close.
2. Learning something new. An instrument, a language, chess from scratch. Harder than any game, and the research on demanding new skills is the most encouraging there is.
3. Crosswords and word puzzles. Good for word retrieval, and the cryptic kind adds reasoning. Cheap, portable, and a lifelong habit for a reason.
4. Jigsaws. Visual and spatial, calm, and easy to share. Choose fewer, larger pieces if eyesight or hands are a problem, not a children's puzzle.
5. Sudoku and number puzzles. Logic and attention. Less transfer than the word games, but a good rotation partner.
6. Trivia and quiz nights. Long-term memory and, more importantly, other people.

Accessibility notes

• Large print by default, and an even bigger setting in the gear menu. High contrast: dark text on white for the games, white on dark for the controls.
• Every game works with a keyboard. Tab moves between cards, letters and answers; Space or Enter presses. The four pads answer to the keys 1 to 4.
• Sound is optional. The sequence game plays a note per pad, which helps memory, but it works in silence too.
• No timer, no countdown, no penalty, and the round can be restarted at any time.
• Nothing is recorded. Only the level and the settings are kept, on your own device. No account, no email, no tracking of results.