Brain Games That Really Work

Researchers know more than ever about how puzzles and twisters keep your mind sharp (Hint: Start with games that are tough!)

- Sari Harrar

TONYA BRIGHAM could never resist a good sudoku—or any sudoku. A 50-year-old smoothie-store owner and mother of two, from a suburb of Washington, DC, Brigham wrestled with the puzzles while waiting in lines, and raced to solve them in record time using strategies plucked from YouTube videos. “If it’s a 30-minute puzzle, I try to figure it out in 12,” she says. “Sudoku lets me challenge myself, take a breather, and then go back into the world’s chaos.”

After several years of sudokumania, Brigham noticed something unexpected: Her brain seemed sharper and more focused. “I didn’t have much, if any, brain fog during menopause,” she says. At her Smoothie King shop in Bowie, Maryland, she found she could easily put together employee work schedules in her head. “A lot of stores use an electronic scheduling tool, but I have all the data in my mind,” she says. “I can very quickly see the holes and how to fill them. It’s the same with inventory. I think I have that capacity because of the game.”