Sudoku for Senior Citizens: Benefits of Playing Numbers Games

Sudoku is a popular traditional game that is strictly a logic-based combinatorial puzzle. It can become addictive in no time, but many players who are die-hard fans of the puzzle do not know how beneficial the number-placement game is to our brains, especially as we grow older.

Sudoku game - (Image used under license from iStockPhoto)

The word Sudoku means number allotted or the number that is single in Japanese and was first featured in a magazine called Nikoli in Japan in the late 80s.

How Sudoku Benefits Our Brain

Sudoku is fun to play and an awesome brain game. Its mental-stimulating qualities can help ward off a decline in brain function. And because it involves problem-solving and spotting patterns, playing the game helps stimulate the player's cerebral abilities, giving the brain immense satisfaction as if it just completed a complex task.

Beneficial for the Elderly

The University of Edinburgh in Scotland carried out research to study the benefits of the game. They discovered that the game triggers ordinarily dormant brain survival genes. According to the researchers, these survival genes make brain cells live longer and play a vital role in resisting diseases, disorders, and strokes. It is believed that the Sudoku game also helps prevent the advance of Alzheimer's disease. So, playing the game consistently as we age offers some comfort because of its therapeutic effects on the thought patterns that evolve while playing the game.

In a nutshell, the numbers game will:
  • Increase concentration power.
  • Allow a player to think strategically.
  • Stimulate the mind.
  • Give a sense of achievement.
  • Help you learn how to solve problems imaginatively.
  • Help delay/prevent the onset of dementia.
  • Protect the brain from a steady decline.
  • Help players increase their sense of time.
  • Improve memory.
  • Keep your mind sharp and alert.
  • Offer a form of exercise for the brain.
Best of all, when you play Sudoku constantly and persistently, it may help to generate new brain cells.


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