Surveys have shown that our New Year’s Resolution lists are mostly about getting more physically fit or losing weight, and thoughts about improving our brain health, including cognition, mental health and wellbeing are very low on these lists.
In addition, surveys have shown that most people give up these resolutions within 6 days.
So as you can imagine, it is important to develop good healthy habits that you enjoy and fit within your lifestyle so that you will stick with them – not only in 2025 but throughout your life.
Studies have shown that both environmental factors and our behaviour can improve our brains, cognition and mental health or detract from it. Our diet, our sleep and our social support systems are all key to improving brain health, cognition and wellbeing. Therefore, it is important to know what you can do right now to improve your brain health.
Luckily, we’ve got four easy changes you can make right now.
Healthy Diet
One way you can boost your brain is by eating the Mediterranean diet, which is not only healthy, but tastes great. One of the foods listed in the Mediterranean diet is grains and indeed our own study has shown that a diet with high cereal and low caffeine was associated with better cognitive performance, body mass index (BMI), and other metabolic measures.
Getting the right amount of sleep
We all know how being sleep-deprived negatively affects our mood, thinking and productivity at school, university or work. Sleep is one of our key daily functions and, in fact, we spend about a third of our lives asleep. Therefore, getting the right amount of sleep consistently is extremely important. Our large-scale study of nearly 500,000 people showed that in middle to older aged adults, getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night consistently was associated with better cognition, brain structure and mental health.
Keep connected with others
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that 1 in 4 older people are socially isolated and 5-15% of adolescents report feeling lonely. Indeed, in our own studies we have found that social isolation and loneliness can detract from our brain health and wellbeing. In fact, in older people, social isolation can actually increase the risk of dementia by 26%. On the other end of the age spectrum, having a friendship group of approximately 5 close friends, was associated with beneficial effects on cognition, brain health and mental health.
Keep your brain active
Another lifestyle factor is lifelong learning, including cognitive games, such as the PEAK advanced training programs (www.peak.net), which can improve cognition in healthy individuals. In addition, these games improved cognitive performance and functioning in people with neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. Lifelong learning can build cognitive reserve and foster resilience which can also improve functioning. Activities such as reading, learning a musical instrument or new language can also boost your brain health. For example, our study in adolescents, found that reading for pleasure early in childhood is associated with better brain structure, cognition, educational attainment and mental health in adolescence. These adolescents also had better sleep and less screen time, including TV, cellphone and tablets. This also demonstrates how adopting good strategies and habits early in life, can have great impact later in life.
Importantly, when combining a number of these factors together to adopt a healthy lifestyle, our study found a 57% reduced risk of depression when compared to having an unhealthy lifestyle and, in fact, this may even help reduce the effects of genetic risk factors.
In addition to these tips, Brain Boost: Healthy Habits for a Happier Life gives many other evidenced-based methods for improving our brain health.
Studies have shown that our mental health may affect our quality of life to a greater extent than physical health. Therefore, to enjoy life to the fullest and feel motivated and energized to reach our potential in our jobs and personal lives and to contribute to society in a meaningful way, we need to have good brain health throughout our lives.
So, let’s make a change and have 2025 be the year where we focus on our brain health!
Author Dr Barbara Sahakian is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, and one of the top female scientists in the world. She was one of the first scientists in the UK to promote the early detection and early treatment of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders and she is credited with introducing the term ‘wellbeing’ into UK government policymaking on health and education.
Her new book, Brain Boost, co-authored with Dr Christelle Langley, reveals seven lifestyle pillars that affect brain health and shows how simple (and often surprising) changes to our daily routines can improve brain fitness, cognition, and overall wellbeing.
