Longevity is a big buzzword at the moment. But while increasing your lifespan is a fair goal, the reality is that living well into your 90s in poor physical and mental health won’t be much fun. What we should really be focusing on is healthspan. And within that, the long-term wellbeing of our brains.
How do we do that? Well, just as when it comes to looking after our physical health, taking care of our minds relies on ditching (or at least reducing) the bad stuff and upping the good. The tricky thing is that we all have a general sense of what’s good and bad for our bodies – whole plants, enough protein, enough fibre, movement; we all agree that’s good – our brains, being less visible than our bodies, can be a touch more mysterious.
To help us get some insight into what’s going on within our noggins, we need to chat to experts. So that’s what we’ve done. We’ve spoken to neuroscientists, psychologists and more for the daily habits that are prematurely ageing your brain – meaning lowering cognitive function – and the healthier habits we should be picking up instead. Let’s get into it.
7 daily habits that are ageing your brain
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Skipping that catch-up with your friends
The next time you’re cosy in bed, the duvet feels impossible to tear away and you’re drafting a message to bail on that long-planned-for brunch with the friends you haven’t seen in months, remind yourself of this: the human brain needs social interaction.
Dr Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, a neuropsychiatrist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, tells GH: ‘A growing number of studies, including well-known Harvard longitudinal research on aging, have linked regular social activity to enhanced quality of life and measurable cognitive benefits. Conversely, social isolation is a recognised risk factor for dementia, as identified in the Lancet Commission’s Dementia Report. Socially isolated individuals are also more prone to depression, which is itself an independent risk factor for dementia in mid- to late life.’
Constantly multitasking
‘Constant multitasking can strain our attention span and make it harder to encode information into memory properly,’ explains Dr Patricia Boyle, McKnight Brain Research Foundation Trustee and professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Rush University. ‘One study found that chronic multitaskers had decreased working memory and more difficulty filtering out irrelevant information, leading to increased levels of fatigue and stress.’
In turn, the stress and fatigue prompted by multitasking – which, FYI, includes scrolling on your phone while you try to watch a film – has further brain-aging effects. Patricia explains: ‘Chronic stress floods the brain with hormones that alter and shrink key regions associated with attention, memory, and decision-making. It can also contribute to cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, which are known to influence cognitive impairment and decline.’
Ignoring hearing struggles
What’s the harm in turning up your headphones a little louder? Quite a lot, actually. If you respond to struggling to hear by turning up the volume rather than getting a hearing test, you could be in trouble.
‘The 2024 Lancet Commission estimates that eliminating hearing loss could theoretically prevent about 7% of dementia cases, which is level with high cholesterol as the single biggest modifiable factor,’ says Dr Shawn Watson, a neuroscientist and co-founder of Numin and Senescence Life Sciences. ‘When the auditory signal degrades, brain function is affected through several routes. The brain borrows resources from the prefrontal cortex to reconstruct what was said, which is why hearing loss leaves people mentally wrung out after a dinner party. Reduced input to the temporal regions that process sound means those regions can begin to lose volume over time.’
‘Don’t treat difficulty hearing as an inevitable inconvenience of getting older,’ agrees Dr Daniel Fenton, head of neuropsychological services at telehealth clinic NewDays. ‘Get hearing assessed and, when appropriate, treated.’
Constantly reaching for your phone
Rest isn’t just about sleep. ‘The brain needs periods of focused attention and intentional rest to support clarity, memory, creativity and cognitive function,’ says professor of medicine at Mount Sinai Dr Alan Rozanski. Mental rest is just as vital as physical rest, and it’s often in short supply.
‘True downtime has all but vanished from the modern day. Standing in a queue, waiting for a lift, sitting in traffic: the reflex is to reach for the phone,’ says Dr Watson. ‘It feels like a harmless distraction. It is closer to the opposite of a break. Every swipe, scroll and tap puts a stream of micro-decisions in front of the prefrontal cortex: skip this video, read that headline, reply or do not. This sustained demand carries a measurable neuro-metabolic cost.’
Build in periods of mental rest daily, even if it’s only for 5 minutes. This is time without external stimulus vying for your attention and decisions, where you can let your mind wander.
Being a pessimist
Research suggests that always looking for the downside can prematurely age your brain. ‘A more optimistic outlook may support healthy brain aging through better stress regulation, greater resilience, healthier behaviours and other factors tied to long-term cognitive health,’ notes Dr Rozanski.
The good news (see? The glass can be half full!) is that it’s possible to become more of an optimist. We asked neuroscientists for 12 practical ways to build the positivity muscle.
Hitting the booze hard
Yes, there’s science to suggest that an occasional glass of wine could be good for you, but drinking alcohol every day is certainly not.
Dr Fesharaki-Zadeh says: ‘There is growing consensus on the harmful effects of even moderate alcohol consumption on cognitive health, particularly as we age. Excessive alcohol use is a recognised risk factor for dementia and has also been linked to metabolic disorders and increased risk of various cancers. Minimising alcohol use, or avoiding it altogether, if possible, can provide measurable long-term benefits.’
Sitting for hours a day
‘In a study of 49,841 adults over 60 wearing accelerometers, dementia risk was 8% higher at 10 hours of daily sitting and 63% higher at 12,’ notes Dr Watson. ‘Even among people who hit their exercise targets, the hours spent sitting still mattered. Prolonged sitting reduces blood flow to the brain and blunts blood sugar regulation, both of which hit the brain harder than the rest of the body. It burns roughly 20% of the body’s resting energy on about 2% of its weight, so it shows the strain of a shaky fuel and blood supply first.’
Dr Boyle backs this: ‘Sitting for six or more hours a day actually qualifies as a sedentary lifestyle, despite how active an individual is outside of work hours. Being sedentary can reduce blood flow to the brain, increase the risk of cognitive decline, and is an independent risk factor for cognitive diseases.’
7 daily habits that will benefit your brain
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Okay, so the above habits are what we shouldn’t be doing… what should we be doing instead?
Maintaining micro-connections
As anyone experiencing loneliness can attest, the advice to ‘just make friends’ can rankle. Social interaction is vital for the brain, and where you can build and maintain deep friendships you absolutely should do so. But if that feels difficult, don’t panic. Even small daily social interactions, known as micro-connections – such as having a chat with the barista at your local coffee shop, or helping out that lost tourist, or saying hi to your neighbour – can have a measurable impact.
‘When speaking to someone – even if through virtual means as a last resort – the individual is practicing some of the most demanding functions of the brain’s vast networks,’ says psychiatrist Dr Mona Amini. ‘It is reading face and body movements, predicting what they might mean, recalling previous discussions, choosing your own words… all at once.’
‘Social interactions keep your brain healthy because you are actively engaging in conversation,’ agrees Dr Brian Balin, director of the Center for Chronic Disorders of Aging and professor of Neuroscience and Neuropathology at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM),’which includes listening and processing information in real-time while also reading social cues and recalling memories, all of which are great ways to train the brain.’
Meditation and mindfulness
Dr Fesharaki-Zadeh says: ‘The neurocognitive and emotional benefits of regular daily meditation — even as little as 10 minutes per day – cannot be overstated. Daily meditation has been shown to reduce stress and improve mood and anxiety symptoms. A number of studies have also reported measurable cognitive benefits among regular meditators, including improvements in focus, working memory, and executive functioning.’
Getting in some exercise
Dr Krishnankutty Sathian, chair of neurology at Penn State Health, urges us all to build movement into our day, for the sake of our brains, not just our bodies. ‘Physical activity is well documented to decrease the risk of dementia. This is mediated in multiple ways: a direct benefit, conferred by a host of the body’s own microchemicals (eg endorphins, endocannabinoids, brain-derived neurotrophic factor) for brain plasticity (ie formation of new connections in the brain) and mood; and indirect effects by improving cardiovascular health and helping mitigate risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes.
‘Studies show that moderate aerobic exercise, 150-300 min per week (ie 30-60 min, 5 days a week), is needed for the benefits. Brisk walking is fine for those with balance issues – an exercise bike or other device may be preferable. On a daily basis, think about walking to work, if feasible, or parking some distance away from your workplace or store; taking the stairs whenever possible rather than elevators; or a post-lunch walk.’
Looking after your gut health
‘Your gut and your brain talk to each other,’ explains Dr Hariom Yadav, a neurologist who researches how the microbiome influences cognition and brain health. ‘They never stop. Your microbiome sits in the middle and runs the conversation. What you eat and how you live changes your microbes. Your microbes change your brain.’ When gut health is poor, this can prompt inflammation, which in turn can cause ‘inflammaging’, which drives cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.
So, every day we need to consider gut health. To do that, Dr Yadav advises eating plenty of fibre, fermented foods and whole plants.
Learning a language (or something else new)
Developing any new skill is incredibly beneficial for your brain health (and gives you something to talk about with your mates). Learning a language, in particular, has been shown to be especially great. ‘A growing number of studies link bilingualism to increased cognitive reserve and a likely reduced risk of developing dementia in late life,’ says Dr Fesharaki-Zadeh. ‘Learning a second language can have measurable benefits for healthy cognitive aging.’
You don’t need to start entirely from scratch. Dust off what you remember from your French lessons in school and experiment. Or, plan a holiday abroad for next year with learning basic conversational skills as an aim by that deadline. Don’t fancy the language route? Learning to knit, getting into woodworking, finding out all you can about astrology – all very wise decisions.
‘The brain also thrives on novelty and challenge,’ explains Dr Emer MacSweeney, a neuroradiologist and the founder & CEO of Re: Cognition Health. ‘A surprisingly valuable brain-health habit is to simply try new things. Taking a different route, trying a new sport, travelling somewhere unfamiliar or mastering a new skill forces the brain to process information differently. Novel experiences stimulate new neural connections, engage the hippocampus and memory systems, and require the brain to adapt, problem-solve and learn.
‘This helps build what we call cognitive resilience: a richer, more adaptable network that may help the brain age healthfully. Novelty does not need to be dramatic. Even small changes that combine mental, physical and social engagement can challenge the brain in valuable ways.’
FYI, puzzles absolutely count as providing that mental challenge. Puzzle away.
Treating sleep as sacred
Dr MacSweeney, adds: ‘Sleep is an active period of maintenance and restoration, and inadequate sleep is one of the most underestimated threats to long-term brain health. It’s not just about quantity, but quality, too. During deep sleep, the brain’s glymphatic system (think of this as a nightly housekeeping process) helps to clear metabolic waste, including proteins such as amyloid-beta and tau. These proteins are associated with Alzheimer’s disease when they accumulate abnormally within the brain. Chronic sleep disruption negatively impacts this process and is also associated with inflammation, impaired memory consolidation, and reduced cognitive performance.
‘It is also important to note that while a lack of sleep may contribute to cognitive decline, sleep disturbances themselves may be an early indicator of neurodegenerative disease. Adults should aim for a consistent sleep schedule of seven to nine hours per night. Persistent problems such as insomnia and sleep apnea should be addressed to achieve the best quality sleep possible.’
Getting out in nature
‘A wealth of studies point to the cognitive benefits of regular exposure to nature and outdoor settings,’ says Dr Arman. ‘Air pollution, by contrast, is a known risk factor for dementia — one of the 14 modifiable risk factors identified in the Lancet Commission’s Dementia Report. Regular exposure to nature also has measurable benefits for emotional and psychological wellbeing.’ Aim to get outside every day, even if it’s just sticking your head out of the window and admiring the trees.
