Want to achieve your goals? Improve your brain health

Our cognition and mental well-being are crucial factors for our quality of life and put us in a good position to contribute to society. Ultimately, it can be near impossible to achieve physical goals and demanding life challenges if our brain health is not optimal.

Yet most of us appear to be more concerned with physical health than brain health. According to the YouGov website, the most popular New Year’s resolutions in the U.K. in 2024 were doing more exercise, saving money, losing weight and dieting—with about 20% reporting they were failing some resolutions just six days into the year. A large study of approximately 1,000 participants showed that mental health featured in only about 5% of resolutions.

It’s easy to monitor your physical health using mobile devices and wearable technology. It may be more unclear, however, how to improve and monitor brain health and mental well-being. In our new book, Brain Boost: Healthy Habits for a Happier Life, we draw on research to offer practical tips.

A number of factors contribute to our happiness in life, including genetics, our social and physical environment, cognition, and our behavior, such as lifestyle choices. Studies have shown that good cognitive function is related to better well-being and happiness.

Interestingly, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report, all five Nordic countries—Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—are among the top 10 happiest countries. The U.K. and the U.S., however, do not feature in the top 10.

In the U.K., the YouGov website has been tracking mood states, and while it reports that happiness is the most commonly expressed emotion, only 45% of people feel it. Ideally this number should be much higher.

In addition, feeling stressed and frustrated are the next top emotions, with 40% and 35% of people having these feelings, respectively. Disappointingly, optimism is also low; for example, only 23% of 18-to-24-year-olds and those older than 75, and just 17% of 45-to-54-year-olds, report feeling optimistic on average.

Happiness and well-being in general reduces the effects of stress and promotes health and longevity.

Nurturing your brain

In our book, we draw on the latest scientific evidence, including our own, to highlight seven essential lifestyle factors that improve our brain health, cognition, and well-being. We demonstrate how simple—and often surprising—adjustments to our daily habits can enhance brain fitness, boost cognition, and promote overall well-being.

We suggest small incremental steps to improving lifestyle habits and ensuring these fit within our daily activities, as well as being enjoyable and pleasurable. In this way we can ensure that, unlike New Year’s resolutions that we give up within six days, we can maintain these throughout life. This puts us in a better position to achieve physical challenges in the future.

These lifestyle factors include exercise, diet, sleep, social interactions, kindness, mindfulness and learning, and knowing how to get the best out of work. For example, exercise is an “all-rounder,” as it can boost our physical health but also our brain health, cognition, and mood. In fact, studies have shown that exercise can increase the size of our hippocampus, which is critical for learning and memory.

Similarly, sleeping the optimal number of hours each night can improve our immune system, brain structure, and mental well-being. Our own study showed that sleeping seven to eight hours per night in middle to older adulthood was associated with better brain structure; cognition, such as processing speed and memory; and mental health.

Staying socially connected also plays an important role in our brain health. We have shown that being socially isolated in older adults is associated with a 26% increased risk of dementia. Whereas having the optimal number of friends in adolescence, about five, is linked with better brain structure, cognition, educational attainment, and well-being.

Learning new things is also essential to keep the neural circuits in our brain functioning at their best level for as long as possible. We need to challenge ourselves mentally to keep our brains active—just as we need to do physical exercise to keep our bodies fit.

This builds cognitive reserve and helps us in times of stress. We can also keep our brains active in a number of ways, for example by learning a new language or how to play a musical instrument. Or you can read an educational book about something that interests you.

Keeping our bodies healthy is incredibly important. But we need to also nurture our brains if we want to be happy, mentally sharp, and well protected against diseases such as dementia.

Embracing these simple strategies to prioritize our brain health and well-being is essential for a happier and more fulfilling life. Ultimately, lifestyle choices play a significant role in reducing stress and promoting resilience, creativity, and overall quality of life.

Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian is a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge.

Christelle Langley is a postdoctoral research associate of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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