Welcome to the Brain Health Challenge! I\u2019m Dana Smith, a reporter at The New York Times, and I\u2019ll be your guide.<\/p>\n
To live a healthy life, it\u2019s crucial to have a healthy brain. In the short term, it keeps you sharp and firing on all cylinders. In the long term, it can reduce your risk of cognitive decline, dementia and stroke.<\/p>\n
Practicing basic healthy behaviors, like eating nutritious food and getting regular exercise, is the best way to enhance your brain power and protect the longevity of your neurons. These types of lifestyle habits<\/a> can benefit the brain at any age. And while they won\u2019t guarantee that you\u2019ll never develop dementia or another brain disease, several<\/a> clinical<\/a> trials<\/a> have shown that they can improve cognition or slow decline.<\/p>\n Every day this week, you\u2019ll do an activity that\u2019s good for your brain, and we\u2019ll dig into the science behind why it works. Some of these activities can provide a small immediate cognitive benefit, but the bigger reward comes from engaging in them consistently over time. So along with the neuroscience lessons, we\u2019ll include a few tips to help you turn these actions into lasting habits.<\/p>\n To keep you accountable, we\u2019re encouraging you to complete this challenge with a friend. If you don\u2019t have a challenge buddy, no problem: We\u2019re also turning the comments section into one big support group.<\/p>\n There are so many fascinating ways your daily behaviors affect your brain. Take sleep, for example.<\/p>\n Lots of<\/a> studies<\/a> have shown that getting a good night\u2019s rest (seven to eight hours) is associated with better memory<\/a> and other cognitive abilities<\/a>. That\u2019s because sleep, especially REM sleep<\/a>, is when your brain transfers short-term memories \u2014 things you learned or experienced during the day \u2014 into long-term storage.<\/p>\n Sleep is also when your brain does its daily housekeeping. While you rest, the brain\u2019s glymphatic system<\/a> kicks into high gear, clearing out abnormal proteins and other molecular garbage, including the protein amyloid, which is a major contributor to Alzheimer\u2019s disease. A buildup of amyloid is one reason experts think that people who routinely get less sleep have a higher risk of dementia<\/a>.<\/p>\n What other behaviors play a big role in brain health? For today\u2019s activity, we\u2019re going to test your knowledge with a quiz. Share your score with your accountability partner and in the comments below \u2014 I\u2019ll be in there too, cheering you on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Brain Health Challenge! I\u2019m Dana Smith, a reporter at The New York Times, and I\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[136508,915,7341,10587,854,53151,136558,102,2960,136507,3562,370,2751,56,54,55,29780],"class_list":["post-354665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-adbrainchallenge","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-brain","tag-content-type-service","tag-dementia","tag-dreams","tag-habits-and-routines-behavior","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-medicine-and-health","tag-memory","tag-sleep","tag-stroke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vis-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}