Welcome to the World’s #1 Source of Research-Based Content’s National Puzzle Day. So, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the benefits and joys that puzzles bring to our lives.
National holidays are a great way for countries to celebrate their unique culture, history, and traditions. Around the world, many unique national holidays are celebrated in different ways. For example, we recently celebrated Community Manager Appreciation Day and National Compliments Day; today, it’s the time to celebrate National Puzzle Day. It was created by Jill Jodi in 2002 to celebrate her love of puzzles. Actually, it’s an opportunity to reflect on those puzzles, games, and even challenges in life that we embrace every day but sometimes take for granted. This day can be lots of fun to celebrate since puzzles of all sorts have many positive impacts.
Whether it’s a crossword jigsaw, Sudoku, or puzzles, it engages our brains in more ways than one. In addition, it’s a relaxing and fun activity for all ages to sit down and figure out how differently shaped pieces form a frame-worthy piece of art. So, without further ado, let’s dive into our Top 10 Reasons Why We Celebrate National Puzzle Day.
What is the Major Reason for Celebrating National Puzzle Day?
National Puzzle Day serves as an important reminder of the many benefits and joys that puzzles bring to our lives. Puzzles are not just a fun and engaging activity but also promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and cognitive skills. By challenging the brain to think in new ways, puzzles can help improve memory, attention, and focus. They also provide a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when completed. Additionally, they can also be a great tool for relieving stress and promoting relaxation. So, don’t you feel like giving a puzzle as a gift for your loved one and updating our list of Top 10 Best Birthday Gift Ideas for People Born in January?
Now it is the time to step into the list of Reasons Why We Celebrate National Puzzle Day. But before reaching the best reason behind celebrating National Puzzle Day, let’s see the rest of the reasons in our list.
TOP 10: Enhances Your Mood
Sports are always a great way to enhance our moods and give us a relaxing mind for a busy day. So, browsing for the Top 10 Biggest Sports Events You Must Witness in December will provide you with a relaxing mind in addition to the puzzles. By the way, as we work on puzzles, we become successful when fitting pieces together. When concentrating on how to solve the puzzle, our minds are focused on a specific task, and that encourages our brains to go into a meditative state. So it may trigger our brains to release Dopamine which makes us feel great, according to Health Harvard Education.
It is true that doing something that occupies the mind, like puzzles, brings a sense of serenity. Because as the mind tunes into something meditative, stress and external worries start to vanish. So, in a way, puzzles also keep us engaged and continue to challenge ourselves to be better. In other words, puzzles can break the clutter from your life and refresh your mood by bringing contentment.
TOP 9: Help Visual and Spatial Reasoning
As mentioned in the research “A journal of the Association for Psychological Science ” Psychological Science, children who frequently play puzzles tend to have better spatial reasoning ability. Solving puzzles encourages us to visualize the position of objects, their shapes, spatial relation to one another. Also, with the visualization of their movement to form new spatial relations, the brain gets the opportunity to perform spatial visualization and spatial reasoning.
In this process, it is sure that puzzles can play a major role. Especially visual piece-based puzzles like jigsaw puzzles can help to improve spatial awareness. Jigsaw puzzles actually demonstrate how different pieces must be assembled to create a larger and more comprehensive image. So indirectly puzzling can be helpful for day-to-day spatial abilities also.
TOP 8: Improve Collaborative Skills
When considering collaborative skills and puzzles, Jigsaw puzzles can be introduced as a strategy emphasizing collaborative activities. As you work on solving Jigsaw puzzles as a team, you have to communicate and explain things constantly. This will make you a better collaborator and also a team player. According to International Science and Technology research volume 9 Ijstr, Jigsaw puzzles in theory and statistical count can improve students’ collaborative skills as a learning model.
This study indicates a significant difference in collaboration skills between knowledgeable students, moderate students, and low-level students who use Jigsaw and students who use conventional models. Hence it proves that collaborative learning through Jigsaw can individually develop expertise and encourage to explain that expertise to the group. This process encourages the development of collaborative skills that involves individuals working as a team to discuss concepts or find solutions to problems through puzzling.
TOP 7: Boosts Problem-Solving Skills
As stated in Good Net, puzzles require us to work by trial and error, as well as work different approaches to solve them. Applying these mental processes allows us to develop manageable ways to solve problems. Because looking for patterns and making logical choices is one of the ways would approach a puzzle game. A study published in the Harvard Business review on Forbes found that solving a challenging puzzle helps us improve our pattern recognition skills.
Moreover, brain exercise studies also show that applying the mechanics associated with puzzles to day-to-day life management proves how players learn and grow as a result of puzzles. Because what puzzles do is force you to look at the puzzle when solving it. And makes you develop different mechanisms to solve the problem. So eventually, it increases your reaction time and reflexes by making you more alert and aware.
TOP 6: Improve Short-Term Memory
When solving puzzles, you need to remember new information, delete it, and reload new information constantly. So, it proves that puzzles help to strengthen your short-term memory. Since you get a chance to reinforce the connection between brain cells and form new ones by doing this long enough. According to SIAMMANDALAY, we become faster and smarter by recalling short-term memory since puzzles help to improve Neuroplasticity.
At the same time, 98th Percentile, has found that many people who tend to solve puzzles appear immune to mental illnesses and have life spans. To solve a puzzle, we have to come up with new ways, and through that, the brain learns a new skill that paves the way to boost the brain’s Neuroplasticity. Since it creates fresh neutral pathways which help with short-term memory and overall brain health. Are you someone aiming to have a prosperous year ahead with fresh memories? In addition to puzzles, the Top 10 Best Feng Shui Tips and Guide to Prepare for New Year will also help you with that.
TOP 5: Improve Vocabulary and Numeracy
Puzzles encourage us to explore maths concepts like shapes and sizes and also help to practice expressive language skills and vocabulary. Crossword puzzles reinforce spelling in mind since it provides many words to encounter. So, people love puzzles as a great way to increase their exposure to old and new vocabulary.
As stated in the research paper Doi, puzzles contribute greatly to logical development and combinational abilities that help to develop mathematical memory. For example, Sudoku sequences a series of numbers on a grid to solve. This particular puzzle helps to sharpen skills related to numbers and testing memory. In other words, they all offer brilliant learning opportunities, and the value of puzzles can’t be ignored.
TOP 4: Increase Concentration
Concentration involves various cognitive abilities and is a complex brain function that is necessary to hold your attention. So, what’s better than ” puzzles ” to improve one’s concentration? Because puzzles involve completing a task that requires working memory, planning, motor skills, and perception. According toEducators Technology, when we work with puzzles, it helps to increase blood flow throughout the brain. As a result, it promotes better recall skills as well as faster learning capabilities.
For example, playing puzzles improves the power of choice and strategy as they begin to recognize and understand how pieces fit together to complete a puzzle. So, strengthening your brain with concentration is a significant benefit of puzzles.
TOP 3: Develop Critical Thinking
Each type of puzzle generally provides an opportunity to think logically differently. While picture puzzles allow you to manipulate puzzle pieces in three dimensions, crossword puzzles help to understand bizarre clues and find the right answer. While Sudoku tests the ability to see patterns in numbers, and word puzzles challenge to follow clues and hints to arrive at solutions.
Also, puzzles appear as excellent tools for the development of critical thinking. As stated in Bonds Escape Room, working out puzzles helps to activate some parts of the brain that are not often used. So, with the puzzles, you get a chance to use these particular areas of the brain consistently, and as a result, you can achieve enhanced skills like improved critical thinking.
TOP 2: Lowers Stress Level
As we stated in Reasons Why Homework Should be Banned, homework can cause stress and depression in children if it becomes overwhelming for children. As the best solution, puzzles allow us to relax by helping our minds focus and enter a meditative state. Therefore, immersing yourself in a puzzle can serve as an exercise to relieve stress, and according to Maziply, puzzles reduce our stress levels by changing the waves in our brains slowly.
If we try to understand this scientifically, our brain moves into an Alpha state when we work on puzzles.
This Alpha state actually comes with many benefits, like increasing self-confidence and contentment. It’s rather a subconscious level of brain activity similar to dreaming, which eventually paves the way to reduce blood pressure and heart rate. So, this constant demand for attention by engaging in one task helps to release the mind’s stress.
TOP 1: Improving IQ Score
According to research conducted by the University of Michigan, puzzles have the ability to improve your IQ level. This study proves that doing puzzles for at least 25 minutes a day can enhance your IQ level by 4 points. Jigsaw puzzles, especially, can have massive benefits. Solving Jigsaw puzzles requires a strong focus, which is a good cognitive exercise and may strengthen our brain functioning within a short time.
In addition, when you try to solve a puzzle, you should engage your whole brain and use many mental skills. This means your brain gets the chance to process things faster. Since it increases your cognitive load and speed, it may not be surprising to know that solving puzzles can help increase your IQ level. Hence, Improving IQ Score can be identified as the Major Reason for Celebrating National Puzzle Day.
What are the Top Reasons for Celebrating National Puzzle Day?
National Puzzle Day is a celebration of puzzles’ joy, challenge, and educational benefits. It is a time to appreciate the mental stimulation and satisfaction that comes from solving a puzzle, as well as the opportunity to bond with friends and family over a shared activity. Additionally, puzzles can improve cognitive skills such as memory, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning, making them valuable tools for both children and adults.
So, whether you prefer crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, or brain teasers, take some time on National Puzzle Day to enjoy the benefits of this beloved pastime. What if you add puzzling to your Top 10 Fun Things People Born in January Should do? We can be sure that it would be really fun!
Here is the list of the Top 10 Reasons Why We Celebrate National Puzzle Day:
- Improve IQ Score
- Lowers Stress Level
- Develop Critical Thinking
- Increase Concentration
- Improve Vocabulary and Numeracy
- Improve Short Term Memory
- Boosts Problem Solving Skills
- Improve Collaborative Skills
- Help Visual and Spatial Reasoning
- Enhances your Mood
So, whichever way you choose to celebrate National Puzzle Day, make sure to take some time to enjoy the fun and satisfaction of solving a great puzzle and The Daily Top 10 wishes you Happy puzzling! In addition to puzzles, almost every sports event may be subjected to your love and appreciation. So, you have more worth reading articles in our Fitness-Health-Sports category like Top 10 Biggest Sports Events You Must Witness in January 2023, Top 10 Best and Greatest Golfers in the USA of All Time, and Top 10 Best and Most Popular Football Players in the World which will be provided to you with all sports knowledge from around the world.
Author: Marc T.
Marc T. is the Founder and CMO of The Daily Top 10 | World's #1 Source of Research-Based Content. He is on a mission to overcome the stigma of inconsistent branding, incomprehensible message, and the epic failure in global marketing while integrating the future of AI and technology.
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