Seven simple habits you can start today to improve brain health

Improving our mental and cognitive health does not always require drastic change. Even small, intentional habits can add up over time, creating a ripple effect that improves not only our brain but our overall quality of life.

From managing our nighttime light exposure, to embracing mindful activities such as yoga and gardening, to finding JOMO, or the joy of missing out, here are seven science-based tips that can help bolster our brain health and strengthen our emotional resilience.

Research shows that even dim light while sleeping can have surprisingly profound physiological effects.Credit: Getty Images

Sleep with an eye mask

Your bedroom is probably not as dark as it should be. Even through closed eyelids, light streaming from the television or hallway can make its way into our retinas and harm our health and mental acuity the next day.

The deleterious health effects of nighttime light exposure are staggering.

Research has shown that even relatively dim light when we snooze – about the equivalent of a hallway light – can have surprisingly profound physiological effects, raising heart rates, reducing the duration of important sleep stages and increasing insulin resistance. In older adults, any light exposure at night was associated with higher rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. It also affects our sleep quality, memory and alertness.

Thankfully, there is a simple solution: wear an eye mask when you sleep.

Do sun salutations

Yoga has long been associated with better physical flexibility and health, and now it is being linked by research to improved cognition.

A recent study also suggests that yoga may benefit some older people at risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

The holistic mind-body practice of yoga provides physical and mental health benefits through four main components: breathing, physical relaxation, mindfulness meditation and postures.

Together, they make up a “smorgasbord” that allows people to reap benefits and gravitate to what speaks to them the most, says Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. “It’s about optimising your functioning and performance as a human being on all levels,” Khalsa says.

Yoga has long been associated with health, now it is being linked by research to improved cognition.Credit: Getty Images

Stay up-to-date with vaccines

Getting sick feels bad in the moment and may affect your brain in the longer term.

A new study published in Nature Aging adds to growing evidence that severe infections, including flu, herpes and respiratory tract infections, are linked to accelerated brain atrophy and increased risk of dementia years later. It also hints at the biological drivers that may contribute to neurodegenerative disease.

The current research is a “leap beyond previous studies that had already associated infection with susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease” and provides a “useful dataset”, says Rudy Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the director of the McCance Centre for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Other recent studies have found the flu shot and the shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of dementia. Severe infections have also been linked to subsequent strokes and heart attacks.

Manage blood pressure

For a healthy brain as we age, we need healthy blood pressure.

However, 23 per cent of Australians have hypertension, which is one of the most common – and preventable – risk factors for developing dementia decades later, research shows.

Hypertension, or chronically high blood pressure, is a double whammy for the brain – making it harder for oxygen and nutrients to get into the brain and more difficult for the brain to get rid of metabolic waste products. Abnormally high blood pressure can damage the small blood vessels in the brain, causing brain injury and atrophy, and driving neuroinflammation.

When people have hypertension, especially in midlife, “they start losing blood flow to the brain, they start having impacts on the vasculature in the brain”, says Silvia Fossati, an associate professor of neural sciences and the interim director of the Alzheimer’s Centre at Temple University School of Medicine. “And this is parallel and additive with the Alzheimer’s pathology.”

Try JOMO: the joy of missing out

Your friends are probably having fun without you.

For many, this knowledge would trigger a fear of missing out – popularly acronymised as FOMO. But emerging research suggests that missing out need not be something we fear, but something we can enjoy.

For better mental health this year, try reframing those feelings of FOMO and instead find JOMO – the joy of missing out.

“JOMO reminds us that we cannot only not fear that we are missing something important, but actually enjoy missing something,” says Tali Gazit, an associate professor of information science at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

The research into JOMO is nascent and focuses on the effects of social media. But we can find JOMO in the rest of our lives too, by choosing when we want to step away. JOMO can feel rejuvenating because it helps us stop being preoccupied with other people.

Garden to connect with nature and friends

Looking for a simple change that can improve your physical, mental and emotional health? Try gardening.

People garden indoors and out, in different weather and climes and with different intensities and goals. Research consistently shows that gardening has a positive effect on mental health and well-being. And emerging research suggests that gardening may also be a way into healthy behavioural changes writ large.

Why is gardening such a healthy pursuit? Research suggests there are two main pathways that lead gardeners to mental wellbeing. One is through the connection with nature and its aesthetic beauty. Another, perhaps surprisingly, is how gardening can also be a way for us to connect with other people.

“I feel like it’s just about bringing the pieces back together of what makes us human,” says Jonathan Kingsley, senior lecturer of health promotion at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.

Help someone

If you want to increase your happiness and wellbeing, spend your money, time or energy on someone else.

Research consistently finds that acts of altruism such as donating money, volunteering or giving blood benefit both the receiver and the giver – even when the giver does not expect anything in return.

And because doing good feels good, altruism can beget more altruism and better wellbeing.

Washington Post

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