Once again about the benefits of moderate drinking and healthy sleep

Moderate alcohol consumption improves results in puzzle games

ABC MagazineThe largest study of its kind involving fans of online puzzles and logic games has shown that moderate alcohol consumption improves the cognitive skills of players and their results, while lack or excess sleep worsens.

The results of the study are published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Sternberg et al., The largest human cognitive performance dataset reveals insights into the effects of lifestyle factors and aging).

The study involved Internet users visiting the Lumosity portal, which contains an extensive collection of online games by Lumos Labs from San Francisco. Among other games, the site also features a variety of logic games and puzzles. Lumos Labs employees and researchers from two American universities decided to analyze the results of visitors who have passed such games, and information about their lifestyle and habits that can affect the quality and speed of the game. In general, the researchers analyzed more than 600 million completed tasks and data on 22 thousand players. At the same time, the total number of users of the site is 35 million people.

The results showed that drinkers of 1-2 drinks (one "drink" corresponds to 15-18 ml of pure alcohol) per day, as a rule, cope faster and better with tasks requiring activation of cognitive abilities than teetotallers or excessive drinkers. At the same time, each additional drink reduces the number of points and the speed of completing tasks. The optimal sleep duration for successful completion of such tasks is 7 hours. Each missing or excessive hour of sleep also worsens the passing of the game.

The researchers also compared the results of the same user in the same game, completed at least 25 times in different years. The results showed that with age, the speed and quality of solving logical puzzles decreases, especially those where a good memory is needed. However, it is unlikely that the results obtained are applicable to the population as a whole. People of a certain age group and a certain mindset are interested in logical online games and puzzles, so the sample cannot be considered representative, despite its impressive size. Nevertheless, this study may set a precedent and start the work of other researchers who need to interview a much larger number of people than university students or users of small websites.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.06.2013